In 2019, after defending my Ph.D. at Oregon State University, I returned to Brazil. Having spent nearly seven years abroad, I was eager to return to my country to share some of the experiences and knowledge I had acquired abroad.
In Brazil, I established myself in Salvador, my hometown. Having maintained strong connections to my alma mater, Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA), I spent the next few months working on its campus, even though at that point I did not have a formal contract with the university.
Something I had noticed while abroad, having spent time with many conservation biologists from Europe and the U.S., was that European and American educations seemed to place greater emphasis on natural history, in comparison to the training I received in Brazil. I believe that difference is also cultural, and also present outside academia. If you look at Europe, for example, it seem that European citizens of all ages have more opportunities to engage with nature-oriented activities (e.g. citizen science projects) in comparison to Brazilians, even though Brazil has more species than any other country in the world.
So, drawing from my experiences with organizing BioBlitzes in Oregon, I organized the first UFBA BioBlitz, in collaboration with Dr. Ben Phalan, Dr. Judit Szabo and Dr. David Tng, all visiting professors in the Ecology Department of the Institute of Biology, and their graduate students. The event aimed to do a 24h inventory of all species we could find on campus.
The UFBA campus, where the BioBlitz occured, is located in a small fragment of Atlantic Forest within the city. Despite its small size, the remaining forest is home to quite a few species of vertebrate and many invertebrate species. Participants had a busy schedule, starting with bird banding at dawn and a communal breakfast at the opening ceremony at 9:30. Short expeditions around campus allowed students to set and retrieve different traps, as they learned about sampling methods. Mostly, active search was used to find and record species around campus.
The first UFBA BioBlitz was a big success. More than ten labs participated, bringing experts in different taxonomic groups. We had over 100 participants, mostly students from private and public schools. 290 species were recorded with different sampling techniques including camera trapping for sampling nocturnal mammals, mist-netting for birds, pit-falls for various insects and essential oil traps for stingless bees.
Flyers around the University invite students and families to participate in the event.
The day begins with bird-banding and acoustic monitoring of avifauna on campus.
Students go around campus actively searching for species with the help from graduate students.
Some species are brought back to the Institute central plaza, where labs help participants to identify species and to take a closer look at some specimens.