Field ecology in Mongolia - student research opportunity
University of Wisconsin·Field Camp, Hovsgol·2026 cycle
Closed for cycleEcology/Conservation/Evolutionary BiologySocial Sciences✓ verified
A six-week field research experience in Mongolia during the summer. The field research is preceded by a required distributed seminar to prepare students to design and conduct field ecology research. The seminar meets one evening per week during the Spring semester before the summer field research. Participants also need to budget time in the Fall semester after the field research for data analysis and communicating research results. The field research experience is a wilderness adventure full of sunrises over river valleys with a steaming cup of tea in hand, wind and spray in your face as you jet boat up the river, and shivers when you hear your first wolf howl. There are cultural adventures too, like sitting on the floor of a herder's ger (felt-covered tent) accepting a cup of pungent milk tea and dried yogurt chips. However, there are also plenty of physical discomforts. For six weeks, we will be living in tents, eating Mongolian food (mostly boiled mutton), showering with a cold bag of river water hung from a tree, using an outhouse full of mosquitoes, and sometimes working outside in the rain for days at a time. There are social and emotional challenges as well, like often being the only one in a group who doesn't speak the same language, not knowing what's happening next or why we're still stuck on the side of the road with a flat tire. We will be mostly without internet or phone access except for a satellite phone used to make occasional short staticky calls home to check in. For many people, these discomforts would make the field experience unbearable. If you are concerned that this might be true for you, you're welcome to apply to participate in the distributed seminar or conduct research with our long-term data sets without having to come with us to Mongolia and endure the rain, mutton, and outhouses.
Aquatic ecology, limnology, field ecology, Mongolia, fish ecology
Applicants must be citizens, nationals, or permanent residents of the United States and must still be a degree-seeking undergraduate student (graduate student opportunities posted separately) at the time of the summer field research. That is, students who expect to graduate before the summer are ineligible. Strong candidates will have some previous research experience and experience with outdoor living (e.g., hiking and camping).
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