Thomas Roberts-McEwen

PIPS Host Organisation: Cloudbridge Nature Reserve, Costa Rica

PIPS Project Title: Understanding prey capture and predator avoidance behaviour in Micrathena and Leucauge spiders in a tropical montane cloud forest ecosystem

At Cloudbridge Nature Reserve, Thomas was a research intern studying the behaviour of spiders in the cloud forest ecosystem of the Talamanca mountains. Spiders are incredible ecosystem engineers, however they are underrepresented in the literature, particularly in animal behaviour studies. Thomas’ work consisted of hiking the many beautiful trails through the mountains, observing two endemic species for three hours at a time, and recording all of their behaviours. Outside of his own research project, he had the opportunity to help other research interns with their work, and their passion and excitement for their studies was contagious. Through them, Thomas was able to learn so much more about the flora and fauna in the tropical forest. In addition to the research, they all worked together to maintain the reserve and care for the forest, as well as welcoming visitors to share the trails and take in the incredible feat of forest regeneration.

Thomas’ time in Costa Rica was a lifechanging experience, and he gained many new skills, both personal and professional. He was able to conceptualise and run his own three-month research project using techniques that were completely new to him, and an ecosystem that he had never visited. Thomas also had the opportunity to present my results to a large group of people, including visiting undergraduates from a partner university, allowing him to practice his presentation skills and facilitate knowledge transfer. In addition, Thomas was able to meet an incredible group of people, with whom he will remain friends for the rest of his life. The close-knit community shared the overarching goal of contributing to conservation of the forest, as well as the acquisition of knowledge regarding the flora and fauna there, to further our understanding of the understudied cloud forest ecosystem. Thomas would certainly recommend this experience to everyone!

Cloudbridge Nature Reserve provided some feedback on the “excellent” placement, noting that “hosting Tom in our organization was a pleasure. His deep knowledge helped us better understand the insect and arachnid species present in the reserve, and his personality and enthusiasm made it really easy to work with him.”