Research Vacations No Walk in the Park, Experts Say

John Roach
for National Geographic News

May 29, 2007

More and more people are signing up to spend their vacations helping scientists with research in exotic locales like the Amazon and Madagascar—despite the risk of poisonous snakes, biting ants, and uncomfortable sleeping quarters.

Such vacations fall into the broad category of ecotourism—tourism that is more environmentally friendly or that benefits conservation efforts. In 2004 the International Ecotourism Society found the category is growing three times faster than the tourism industry as a whole.

But science expeditions are inherently dangerous and uncomfortable, some experts say.

David Mellow helps coordinate volunteers for research trips to the Amazon rain forest.

Some dangers—such as being hit by falling trees or getting lost in unfamiliar landscapes—can be life-threatening, he said.

But most, taken with a grain of salt, are humorous. (See Amazon photos from National Geographic magazine)

For example, on a recent trip, wary of encountering a poisonous snake on his way to a camp outhouse, Mellow was holding a broom in one hand and a machete in the other.

He whacked at the tall grass, watching out for the snake, and, once safely at the stairs up to the proverbial throne, put his guard down.

"And there's the snake all coiled and waiting for frogs and insects right at the base of the toilet," he said.

"I didn't notice this until I was face-to-face, and of course I screamed."

Tight Quarters

Mellow routinely participates on an expedition to the Amazon rainforest led by his wife, Kevina Vulinec, a conservation biologist at Delaware State University in Dover. (Related: "For Dung Beetles, Monkey Business is Serious Stuff" [May 26, 2004].)

The challenges on these trips, he said, begin with travel to the field site.

The journey includes passage on a boat packed with several hundred people as it winds its way up a river deep into the rainforest.

Just about everyone—including tourists in search of authentic experiences—sleeps in hammocks they string up on deck. So "you often wake up with someone's feet in your face," Mellow said.

Or worse.

Passengers who board late a night may find the only place to hang a hammock is over someone else's, he noted.

"You look up and what sags most in the hammock is the butt—and there it is swinging right above your head."

In the Field

Once in the field, Mellow said the newness and excitement of actually doing science can sometimes lead to trouble as well.

For example, Vulinec's research involves following monkeys around the rain forest as they swing from tree to tree. Mellow said volunteers often lose track of where they are—as has he.

When lost, he recommends tourists take a compass reading and walk in increasingly larger circles until they cross the trail back to camp.

In addition, even if the science subject resides up in the trees, people should remain aware of their feet—or they might step on a snake or into a hole.

Ants also pose unwelcome threats, Mellow noted.

"There are ants on everything and some of them can be up to an inch [2.5 centimeters] long, and they sting and bite and there's actually possibility of shock," he said.

In fact, Mellow noted, insects are the biggest nuisances in the rain forest. He advises that volunteers bring plenty of bug repellent, but also enough mental strength to ignore the pests.

"Go with the flow as far as the sweat, the heat, the mosquitoes," he said. "And a good book, a good read is always good when you're done and you're in your hammock."

Coordinated Travel

The African island nation of Madagascar may be a safer choice for less adventurous travelers (Madagascar map).

Summer Arrigo-Nelson is an anthropologist at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana who routinely co-leads a trip to Madagascar to study lemurs. (Related: "Threatened Lemurs' Diet Key to Conservation Efforts, Researchers Say" [February 8, 2007].)

Madagascar has no poisonous spiders or large carnivores that put volunteers at risk, Arrigo-Nelson said.

"Basically the only way people can get hurt is if they themselves have an accident," she said.

And most of those are minor, she noted, such as a volunteer slipping into a river and then pulling in a friend trying to help.

The international nonprofit Earthwatch Institute organizes the trip, and the organizations's volunteer coordinators work closely with ecotourists to match them with appropriate trips.

In Madagascar, for example, volunteers have to hike a lot, so people with bad knees may be better off elsewhere, Arrigo-Nelson said.

"We want everybody to have a good time and to go home healthy," she said, "and we want them to enjoy and remember their experience of Madagascar in a good way."

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