Specializing in Herpetology, I recently (2008) earned a Master in Science on Animal Biology, Ecology and Conservation Biology, from the Department of Animal Biology, University of Antananarivo, Madagascar. For this degree, I carried out a population study of the malagasy radiated tortoise Astrochelys radiata (Shaw, 1802) in southwestern Madagascar. Also known locally as sokake, the radiated tortoise is endemic to the southern part of the Big Island, and today this species’ long term survival within its natural habitat is uncertain due to overexploitation for consumption and the pet trade, both on a local and an international level, along with habitat loss.

I am currently an intern at Dr. Peter Pritchard’s Chelonian Research Institute (CRI) in Florida. As well as learning more about chelonians directly from Dr. Pritchard and the amazing CRI specimen collection, I am also taking advantage of the Institute’s extraordinary library to gather information for the Ph.D. I am starting January next year. I hope to study another endemic and also endangered malagasy tortoise: Pyxis arachnoides oblonga. But most of all, each book in the library here is a wonderful journey through the work of a person who shares the same interests as I: turtles and tortoises, no matter what language it is written in.

My past training includes a six-month session in the US in 2003 with the Wildlife Conservation Society of New York and the New York Turtle and Tortoise Society. Under the supervision of the late John Behler, I joined the WCS team at the Delaware Water Gap Recreation Area (Pennsylvania) for ongoing research on the eastern bog turtle Glyptemys muhlenbergii (Schoepff, 1801), as well as on the wood turtle Glyptemys insculpta (LeConte, 1830). My 10-week internship at the Wetlands Institute (New Jersey) focusing on the Diamondback Terrapin Project was part of that trip. From road patrols, egg recoveries and incubation, ghost crab traps, microchipping, and taking blood samples to my personal research project, my summer as an ASP intern was indeed an amazing experience, a whole new world, actually, since it was the first time I had studied a salt marsh species, and I got to learn several new topics and field techniques.

Before going to the US in 2003, I have also attended the "Earthwatch Fellowship Ghana Hippo Project" at the Wechau Hippo Sanctuary in northwest Ghana, West Africa. As a volunteer, I joined a community-based conservation project, and learnt more about West African birds, large mammals and plants.

In 2002, I had the great opportunity to attend a Tropical Biology Association (TBA) field course deep within the Usambara Mountains, Tanzania. During the intensive course, lectures and seminars, enhanced by fieldwork, were led by an international group of esteemed biologists. The latter half of the course focused on project research design and field technique skills. Each participant then gets to design and undertake their own research project and present their paper at the end of the course. It was also an excellent opportunity to work as a team with different backgrounds and cultures and beliefs since TBA always selects equal numbers of European and African participants, representing at least 10 countries.

Email: riana_mia@yahoo.co.uk