08.02.07
Tremough students return from 'life changing' trip to Kenya

University of Exeter students from the Tremough Campus, Penryn, have returned from a field trip to Kenya, which they have described as 'life changing'.

Sixty-two students and eight staff members from the University of Exeter's School of Biosciences spent two weeks touring Kenya's national parks seeing wildlife conservation in action. The tour included visits to Meru National Park, Samburu National Park and a 14,000 foot hike up Mount Kenya, Africa's second highest mountain.

"The trip was a life-changing experience," said MSc Biodiversity and Conservation student Robert Fennelly. "Seeing such poor communities living in close proximity to the national parks brought to life the human-wildlife conflict issues that were the subject of so many lectures and discussions back in class in Cornwall. From our buses we saw people cutting into forest margins, and locals selling bags of recently burnt charcoal on the roadside. As a conservationist, it is easy to hold strong views about preserving wild areas in tropical regions, but seeing the direct opposition between the needs of impoverished populations and wildlife first-hand has certainly diluted the strength of my convictions."

The group saw elephants, buffalo, giraffes, rhinos, leopards, zebra and colobus monkeys. The highlight for most, though, was the sighting of a wild dog on the shore of Lake Nakuru. "Our tour guide hadn't seen one for seventeen years," said Robert Fennelly, "so this was an incredibly rare sighting of an endangered species."

The students had some close encounters with wildlife that were less enjoyable. Staying in tents meant that food, including the precious chocolate bars that some had taken with them, was stolen by monkeys. Students also had to contend with brown widow spiders in the showers and for one unlucky individual, a scorpion in his sleeping bag.

"Over two weeks the students saw almost everything they have learned about in their studies first hand," said Dr Brendan Godley, senior lecturer in conservation biology for the University of Exeter. "From animal behaviour to evolution and ecology, we were surrounded by biology in action for two weeks. There's really no substitute for seeing these things first-hand to open your eyes and challenge your preconceptions."

The £100 million Tremough campus is a Combined Universities in Cornwall initiative of which the University of Exeter and University College Falmouth are two of the founding partners. It is funded mainly by the European Union (Objective One), the South West Regional Development Agency, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, with support from Cornwall County Council. Set in 70 acres of countryside, but close to the waterside towns of Penryn and Falmouth, the campus offers a lively student community. The University of Exeter is expanding its courses available to include Politics, Law and History to existing degrees in Mining Engineering, Geology, Biology, Geography, English and Renewable Energy.

For further information contact Sarah Hoyle of the University of Exeter on 01392 262062 or email: S.Hoyle@exeter.ac.uk.

The Objective One Programme for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly has invested in the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC) project, both Phase 1 and Phase 2, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Social Fund (ESF). The University of Exeter is a partner of the CUC.

Editor's notes:

Clare Morgan
Media Relations Manager
Objective One Partnership Office
Castle House
Pydar Street
Truro TR1 2UD
Mobile: 07973 813647
Telephone: 01872 223439

cmorgan@cornwall.gov.uk

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