Research Activity Report
Supported by “Leading Graduate Program in Primatology and Wildlife Science”(Please be sure to submit this report after the trip that supported by PWS.)
2015. 02, 05
Affiliation/Position

Wildlife Research Center/D1 (from April 2015)

Name

Cecile Sarabian

1.

Country/location of visit

Australia, Brisbane
2.

Research projectStudent Conference on Conservation Science
3.

Date (departing from/returning to Japan)

2014. 12. 22 – 2015. 01. 30 (39 days)
4.

Main host researcher and affiliation

Dr. Andrew MacIntosh, Associate Professor at Wildlife Research Center / Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University
5.

Progress and results of your research/activity (You can attach extra pages if needed)

Please insert one or more pictures (to be publicly released). Below each picture, please provide a brief description.
During this visit, I presented a talk at the 2nd Student Conference on Conservation Science Australia, held in Brisbanefrom January 19th to January 29th, 2015 (http://www.sccs-aus.org/).

	 Image credit: SCCS Australia

I also used this opportunity to visit Sydney aquarium, the Australia zoo, the Lone Pine koala sanctuary, the NaturalHistory museum of the University of Sydney and the Royal national park to learn more about how conservation andpublic education works in Australia.

Left: Crocodile show at the Australia Zoo, right: Koala petting and picture at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Queensland uses a quite
contestable way of educating the public by adopting the “don’t do what I do” politic in zoos and sanctuaries. Photo credits: Natasha Peters

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2014.05.27 version

Research Activity Report
Supported by “Leading Graduate Program in Primatology and Wildlife Science”(Please be sure to submit this report after the trip that supported by PWS.)	 
The Royal National Park is situated 29 km South of Sydney Business center and is accessible by public transport. Once youreach it, you are in the middle of a 15,091-hectare rainforest. Photo credit: Cecile Sarabian

Unfortunately, I could not meet anybody from JGI Australia as nobody replied to my emails but I could meet themanager of Roots and Shoots Nepal in Kathmandu, before arriving in Australia.
I came to Brisbane to present the Roots & Shoots Iran project, quite well received by the public. I could also discussedwith other students, professors involved in Educative projects about Conservation. I met a student from Brazil who did
not know about Roots & Shoots before my talk and who after her internship in Australia will join R&S in her country,and a MSc student at the University of Melbourne who also wants to start Education activities in Melbourne.

Presenting Roots & Shoots Iran at SCCS Australia 2015

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Meeting with Shristi Singh Shrestha, Roots & Shoots Nepal manager

2014.05.27 version

Research Activity Report
Supported by “Leading Graduate Program in Primatology and Wildlife Science”(Please be sure to submit this report after the trip that supported by PWS.)	 
At SCCS Australia, I could create a useful network of conservationists. Here are examples of persons with whom I
might collaborate in the (near or far) future: the very promising Yufang Gao (PhD student at Yale University, USA)investigating the Chinese ivory trade; Pr. Lei Cao (Chinese Academy of Sciences) researching on migratory birds along
the Yangtze river and willing to develop similar educative projects that we initiated in Iran; and Alice Risely (PhDstudent at Deakin University, Australia) with whom we planned a study on sustainability assessment amongconservationists (persons attending Conservation Science conferences) and other scientists (persons attending
Primatology, and other Wildlife Science conferences).

Regarding media involvement, I also recorded 10 interviews of plenary speakers and students for The PrimateCast(CICASP media) in order to release a podcast for students and persons interested in Conservation Science but who
could not attend the conference and would like to know what the future of Conservation is about. I had a booth onsite
where I could conduct interviews, advertise the podcast through business cards and a short talk between two sessions,and advertise the PWS program through flyers and discussions.

Voices of conservationists – SCCS Australia. The PrimateCast #32. Picture credit: The PrimateCast

We had 3 days of oral and poster presentations, 3 days of excursions (Australia Zoo, Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary andLamington National Park (the last one was cancelled due to weather conditions)), and finally the next week, 4 days ofworkshops. I learned new techniques used in Conservation Science to monitor populations via species distribution
modeling using the MaxEnt software. I also met very interesting persons at the “Creative Conversations aboutConservation” workshop. This workshop was about how to use any form of Art (including media) to raise publicawareness

about

Conservation

issues.

A

scientistandsoundartist

waspresent,Dr.

LeahBarclay(http://leahbarclay.com/), as well as Dr. Cathy Oke (councilor of Melbourne, environmental consultant) and Mrs. Ariel
Marcy (scientist from Stanford University, educative game designer; http://www.steamgalaxy.com/).
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2014.05.27 version

Research Activity Report
Supported by “Leading Graduate Program in Primatology and Wildlife Science”(Please be sure to submit this report after the trip that supported by PWS.)

Go Extinct! is a game designed by Ariel Marcy who teaches people about Evolution

Yufang Gao won the 1st prize atin a funny way. I brought one back for PRI, let’s play! Photo credit: Ariel Marcy

SCCS Australia 2015 for his talk on
the Chinese ivory trade. Photo credit:
Yufang Gao

Through this overall experience, I have developed a better vision on how(http://voices.nationalgeographic.com

research might be effective in Conservation. Pr. Hugh Possingham (Professor/2014/06/02/a-young-chinese-conservaof Ecology and Mathematics, Director of the Australian Research Council
tionist-discusses-his-countrys-role-in-Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, and the National Environthe-ivory-trade/)mental Research Hub for Environmental Decisions, University of Queensland)
asked: “Who beside your colleagues are reading your scientific publications? To make your research effective, you needto make it easily understandable to the public and to the decision makers.” As such, it is what I aim to do in my future
research, by podcasting, writing blogs, organizing public events, collaborating with newspapers, etc.

6.

Others	 

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2014.05.27 version