Greg Stanger

Why I went:

In September of 2018 myself and 17 other students travelled to India. This was my first time travelling to a third world country and experiencing a tropical climate. The aim of our trip was to formulate a hypothesis to test once in the field. My group investigated Frog diversity and abundance in two separate ponds to see if human presence had any impact. The process of creating our hypothesis, sampling our ponds and analysing the data was the most crucial part of my trip but also the part I enjoyed the most. I really enjoyed the fieldwork and didn’t mind getting in the thick of it! And a job that would take me round the world to do a job that I would consider my passion would be incredible. But I understand that in order to achieve my end goal I will have to take a series of steppingstones to get to where I want to be.

Whilst I was there:

 Most of my time was spent in the company of a passionate conservationist, Gerry Martin, well-known throughout India for his motivation and drive to educate people on the beauty of nature. Assisting us with our experiments and giving us an insight into a different culture and how people must live alongside nature as in many cases it is on their doorstep; where they live, work and socialise. This gave me a greater appreciation of Gerry’s work as I got to see first-hand how his work directly affects the surrounding towns and villages.

Gerry’s conservation efforts, aptly named “The Gerry Martin Project” focus mainly on snake bite mitigation and human-snake conflict. Additional work on rescue and rehabilitation of snakes is also done. One afternoon I will never forget is when a call came through from a local reporting a king cobra, chasing a rat snake had entered someone’s house. Gerry and his co-worker quickly gathered the necessary equipment for such a situation in order to safely detain the snakes. Witnessing the professional capture of this king cobra will forever be a treasured memory of mine and reassured me that I want my job to involve the rehabilitation and reintroduction of animals.

Above all I admire Gerry’s passion for animal welfare and his continuous efforts to change the bad light that most of the snakes of India are faced with. These interactions with the local populous were extremely valuable to me as it was my first taste of the disagreements that occur between conservationists and the residents. The exemplar manor in which Gerry dealt with these situations were fascinating to me, to calmly diffuse the situation and give an appropriate explanation for the actions of the snakes and inform the locals on safe behaviour around such creatures. In conclusion from this experience I have learnt that I would like to work out in the wilderness taking part on worldwide conservation projects and working alongside the residents to better the efficiency of the operation.

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