Collection Trip Story

[Bill Little]

Last week I was traveling to the New York for a speaking engagement when I met a young man on the airplane. He was dressed in Jeans and tee shirt and I noticed his very rough hands. After some exchange of pleasantries he indicated he was returning to the Ornithology Lab at Cornell University from a collection trip In the mountains of Peru. We talked about collecting procedures and what could be removed from the country and what could not. As we talked he noted he would be taking a group of students to Borneo in the coming weeks. That immediately perked my interests. I told him of my interests in the Parosphmenus species and asked where he would be collecting. I neglected to write down the specific area, but I do remember it was in the far northeastern part of the island. As we talked about our common interests I pointed out one of our issues was documenting where the various species were being collected. That was further complicated by the fact that when collection teams returned at future times often the landscape was vastly changed due to logging and road development. He noted he had experienced those circumstances in many parts of the world. However, he commented he did not experience any problems with location when cataloging specimens. It seems these teams carry handheld GPS devices which provide coordinates down to about 1 meter. These geodetic coordinates are actually written on the outside of the collection bags so there is no question where the species originated from. He also saves the weigh point in the device so that he has an actual map of his entire collection trip upon returning to the lab in the states. He carries a hikers Garmin eTrex (I think that’s what it is called) and it retails for about $125 US. Perhaps many of you, who go on these collection trips, carry such devices, but I have never heard this topic discussed. I have heard much discussion about importers not knowing where various species were collected. This could be a procedure for providing locations they could utilize I would think. Anyway, I thought I would share the discussion with you all. On subsequent trips to Cornell I plan to visit the Ornithology Lab and see if I might follow up with this young man.

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