"Four-Wheel Drive Truck to Access Remote Areas of Kibale National Park, Uganda"

我的长期目标是在行为和生态学的界面上工作，以发展关于灵长类动物丰度和社会组织的生态决定因素的一般原则。为了达到我的研究小组的目标，移动性是一个至关重要的日常问题。我们全年在乌干达基巴莱国家公园及其周边地区工作，那里的绝大多数道路都是维护不善的土路，只有可靠的四轮驱动才能到达。我的几个研究项目需要长途跋涉，从远离我们家乡的不同地区取样。例如，我正在建立在我以前的研究营养需求和寄生虫病生态学探索空间流行病学相对较新的领域。该项目将确定生态因素如何导致传播概率升高的空间变化并影响疾病的传播（即，确定疾病热点的生态和人口相关性）。需要一辆车从基巴莱的不同生态区采集样本。事实上，如果没有可靠的车辆，这项研究是不可能的。 此外，我们正在扩展42年的森林变化数据集，并量化野生动物群落的相应变化。这项工作已经在同行评审的期刊上发表了几篇论文，并且收集的数据越多，我们对理论（非平衡）和守恒问题的贡献就越有价值。Kibale占地795平方公里，由于公园内存在大型捕食者和大象，如果车辆发生故障，走出公园将是不安全的。

My long-term goal is to work at the interface of behaviour and ecology to develop general principles concerning ecological determinants of the abundance and social organization of primates. To operate on the necessary scale to meet the goals of my research group, mobility is a critical everyday issue. We work year-round in and around Kibale National Park, Uganda, where the vast majority of roads are poorly maintained dirt roads and only accessible with a reliable 4-wheel drive. Several of my research projects require traveling large distances and sampling from different regions, far from our home base. For example, I am building on my prior research on nutritional requirements and parasite disease ecology to explore the relatively new field of spatial epidemiology. This project will determine how ecological factors lead to spatial variation in elevated transmission probability and influence the spread of diseases (i.e., identify ecological and demographic correlates of disease hotspots). A vehicle is required to collect samples from different ecological zones within Kibale. Indeed, this research would not be possible without a reliable vehicle. Also, we are extending a 42 year data set on forest change and quantifying corresponding changes in the wildlife community. This work has already produced several published papers in peer-reviewed journals and the more data that is collected to build on our long-term data, the more valuable becomes our contribution to theoretical (non-equilibrium) and conservation issues. Kibale encompasses 795 km2 and due to the presence of large predators and elephants in the park, it would be unsafe to walk out of the park if a vehicle was to breakdown.