Recently it has been discovered that Black Larks, living on the Eurasian steppes in Kazakhstan, transport dung to their nests to build large 'pavements' . Weird and almost dirty behaviour, but what is the use of it? This spring a team of researchers from the Universities of Wageningen and Münster and the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity in Kazakhstan (ACBK) will try to answer this question, doing fieldwork in the Korgalzhyn area in Kazakhstan. On this blog we will post on our findings and adventures.

Tuesday 26 March 2013

Fieldwork is approaching

Spring has officialy started and our departure to Kazakhstan is coming ever closer! We had our final meeting last week in Wageningen and we will meet each other again in Korgalzhyn. Preparations are in full swing, accomodation is fixed, car is fixed (a traditional Lada Niva!), one Kazakh student will be joining us for the fieldwork, we heard from almost all grants we have applied for and almost all of the field equipment is inhouse. We are working on our visa, but that will work out fine. The field equipment (Ibuttons - small loggers for temperature measurements) need to be checked, installed and manipulated, exciting stuff!
On the 16th of April, Thijs will give a short presentation on the project in Wageningen and we even have planned our first 'real' talk about the project in October at the conference of DO-G in Regensburg.

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