Ugyen Wangchuck Institute for Conservation and Environment  

A 10 days intensive training on Wildlife Survey Design and Field Techniques was successfully completed on 6thMay, 2012 at the Ugyen Wangchuck Institute for Conservation and Environment.The training program was attended by 18 staff of Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary.

Dr. Ellen Cheng from the United States and Mr. Kuenzang Dorji of UWICE were the resource persons for the training. Several other faculties were also involved in classroom teaching and in field practical sessions.

The main objective of this training was to make the participants more receptive to and versatile with scientific methods of field survey design and handling field equipment including GPS units, compasses, small mammal live-traps, and camera traps. Dr. Ellen Cheng said “the training was so important that those in the field collecting data or wildlife studies should understand principles of survey design and how the data they collect will be used. Informed staff will collect better data and can make appropriate decisions when field surveys are done as planned. We really enjoyed working with the Sakteng crew in the training, and we hope their upcoming  biodiversity survey will generate valuable findings.”