Canary Islands

In this zoological excursion and seminar, students will experience the fauna of a semi-isolated insular system, with a focus on its vertebrate component.

During ten days in the field, students will learn to identify vertebrate species based on visual and acustic observations, and will become familiar with the habitats of these animals. National parks will be visited on La Gomera and Tenerife.

The evolution of island biodiversity will be discussed in the light of in-itu speciation and migration, and a seminar on the biogeography of the Canary Islands will held. Students will be asked to study the literature for selected endemic species and to present seminars during the excursion to share their insights about the evolutionary origin of that species with other students.

Students will familiarize themselves with the use of various methods for species identifcations, including artificial intelligence, and the strengths and weaknesses of the different methods will be discussed. Observations will be recorded and systematically summarized at the end of each day. During a visit to the Natural History Museum of Santa Cruz, the past history of extinct endemics will be discussed.

Finally, all observations will be processed jointly, and statistics will be compiled to summarize the observations.