Small Mammals Conservation and Research Foundation, SMCRF for short, hosted the first ever “South Asian Conference on Small Mammals” in Nepal from August 27 to 29, 2017. Researchers, experts, and policy makers from ten countries were there. I was lucky to participate in the event. It was probably also the first conference in Nepal that focused on wildlife. At least, I have not heard of any in the past.
There were three main sessions, paper presentations, poster presentations, and a workshop on quantifying mammal distribution that went on parallel sessions. I had poster presentation and took the workshop as well.
We had our poster on “Westernmost Record of Spotted Linsang from Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal”. I was representing Friends of Nature (FON) where I work as Research Officer. We had camera-trapped a spotted linsang Prionodon pardicolor at Sikles-Bhujung landscape and it was the first hard evidence of the species from Nepal.
There were other interesting posters as well. I liked Aditya’s poster. It presented a cheap solution of identifying small mammals. A 19-year-old guy, he has an online website on bats of South Asia as well.
I made friends from India and Bangladesh. Dr. Chelmala Srinivasulu, father of Aditya, was like a rockstar. He has worked a lot on small mammals. His comment that the conference focused on charismatic small mammals, where everyone was complaining about large charismatic mammals getting all the attention, was very near to mark. You can see the featured image as the proof.
The workshop was run by Dr. Michael Cove from North Carolina State University. I loved it. I just wish he could have covered ‘unmarked‘ and ‘secr‘ packages, though, he showed me how to run ‘secr’ very briefly later. I now can at least get some ideas from papers on occupancy and not get lost.
All in all, it was a great experience. SMCRF did very well. I have no complaints but all praise for them. Kudos to the team.
