Parabiologist Initiative

Indigenous parabiologists are a foundation of our organization. Local community members - with little to no formal education - are trained to carry out basic scientific tasks such as collecting morphometric data, GPS logging, and telemetry work. These citizen scientists act as role models for their communities and serve as local conservation ambassadors for the region. Without these dedicated souls we would not have the manpower or requisite traditional ecological knowledge of the study areas to conduct our research.

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To date, our parabiologist team has rediscovered several charismatic species previously considered to be extirpated from Bangladesh including: Gaur, leopard, sun bear, Sylhet roofed turtle, Arakan forest turtle, Asian giant tortoise, and even documented the presence of tiger in our study area when traditional surveys from other organizations had failed to do so for years. By utilizing the traditional ecological knowledge of our parabiologists and allowing them to choose optimal survey areas and camera trap locations, we can achieve far more and on a far shorter timescale than we could through the strict use of traditional methodologies.