Bwanji!

In May and June of 2007, 13 undergraduate students from Northern Michigan University are taking a field course in Zambia. Most of the students are majors in the Biology department, and all of them will be doing short field studies of their own design while on the ground in Zambia. The group will be making a stop in London on the way, spending four days seeing Zambia/Africa-related British sites (Burton's tomb, Livingstone's artefacts at the Royal Geographic Society, the British Museum of Natural History, etc.) and adjusting to the time change. The course is being led by me, Dr. Alec Lindsay, a professor in the Department of Biology at NMU, and Dr. Jackie Bird - a parasitologist in our department. We have made this blog so students can hopefully post notes thoughts, pictures and discoveries to the world. This should allow classmates, teachers, family and friends to share in their insights and keep track of their travels. Not only that, but viewers of the blog can add comments to posts - please do! We would love to hear your thoughts. Zikomo!

22 April 2007

Land Snail Diversity


What I Plan to Study:
While in Zambia, I plan to conduct an exploratory survey of land snail (and slug) diversity between the different regions we will be visiting. With specific intent to observe not only the family of giant African snails (Achatina spp.), but also smaller lesser known species. In particular, I hope to observe some of the carnivorous species of the Streptaxid family.
My Concerns:
Identification may be tricky, seeing as information on the specific species of Zambia is hard to find. Also, since we will be arriving around the beginning of the dry season, I'm afraid land snail abundance will be down, or that they will be non active during light hours.
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