As I write this, the waves of the Ecuadorian Pacific are crashing up on a golden, shell-studded beach that glows under a setting sun and a soft breeze—the most beautiful end to my first two weeks as a wildlife monitoring intern at Bosque Seco Lalo Loor! I’ve spent the past couple of weeks getting to know the reserve, the responsibilities of my position, and my fellow interns.
At 6:00 every morning the howler monkey alarm clock goes off, and we wake up for breakfast at the research station. Work starts at 8:30, and we all spread out across the reserve working on all of our different projects. On Mondays and Fridays I hike the trails of the reserve, GIS-mapping and getting to know the woods, and I spend some time inside doing data entry and literature reviews. Tuesdays and Thursdays I conduct howler monkey population surveys, the main responsibility of my internship. Alternating mornings and afternoons, I head out to walk 4-hour transects through the forest, searching for monkey troops in the upper canopies of the trees.The hotter it is, the quieter and lazier they are, making them a little difficult to spot at times; but for the most part, they’re pretty easy to find! They’re often communicating, climbing around noisily or munching on leaves. 
Once I find them, I record the number of individuals in the troop, their ages, sexes, and activities. All of this data is going towards keeping track of the reserve’s populations, and for my own study on how seasonality impacts the movement and distribution of the troops throughout the reserve. Wednesdays are the depressing but important days: roadkill surveys. It’s kind of a bummer job, but the data I’m collecting is contributing to a really cool project that maps “hotspots” for roadkill, so that wildlife crossings can be built in the most important places. And as soon as work ends at 5:00 on Friday afternoon, we’re off to spend the weekend in the neighboring beach town of Canoa.
The first step to my ending up here this summer was really, truly, a good Google search. I knew I wanted to stay in Ecuador, and I knew I wanted to get involved in conservation. That was my starting point, and my first tip: know your goals for yourself as an intern, as a student, and as a person. From there, I compared the internship opportunities I found with my personal and academic goals, and was able to narrow down my choices to just a few. Because I’d found opportunities that were really closely in line with my passions, writing my application felt easy and genuine, and I felt like I could really demonstrate myself well as a good candidate for my position.
After being accepted, I spent some time thinking about the summer ahead. Working with
my supervisor, I came up with three important expectations for myself during my eight weeks here: to develop myself as a biologist, improving field and literature-based research skills, conduct my own independent research, and get to know the community in and around the reserve.I’m also expecting to experience a lot of the unexpected, like tarantulas in my bed, monkeys hanging out above our showers, and waking up at 3:00 in the morning to hang out with bats. I’m not sure exactly what’s going to happen next, but I know it’s going to be incredible. Hasta luego.