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Volunteers needed to monitor swiftlets
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Posted on May 23 2006
The DFW Wildlife Section is soliciting mature reliable volunteers to work with it as part of a Wildlife Volunteer Corps that will count swiftlets at their caves here in the CNMI.
The Wildlife Section is looking for dedicated people who would like to become a part of the conservation wildlife work that is going on with endangered species in the CNMI.
Currently the division has two dedicated volunteers who have worked with the Division since 2001 on the Managaha Shearwater project.
“They have been invaluable in ensuring that this monitoring program continues,” said Fish & Wildlife’s Laura L. Williams.
Williams, a wildlife biologist/botanist, said the division would like to expand its volunteer corps by recruiting people to work on the Mariana Swiftlet Project.
Mariana Swiftlets are endemic to the Mariana islands, an endangered species and live in caves. They once occurred on Rota but were extirpated in the 1970s. There is a very small population of Mariana Swiftlets in Guam on the Naval Magazine. The Division conducts surveys twice a year of Mariana Swiftlets at their caves while they enter in the evening. This survey is part of a long-term (13 years) Mariana Swiftlet monitoring program.
“We are looking for a few people to donate 2-4 evenings (about four hours each) two times a year, in April and October to assist wildlife staff in counting swiftlets at their caves,” said Williams. “We would like to have volunteers by October 2005 so they could be trained by apprenticing with wildlife staff. We want volunteers who feel they could make a commitment for several years as training requires additional time and effort that would be wasted if there were not a few year commitment.”
Interested persons can contact Williams at 323-6003 or 483-9453 or by e-mail at lwilliams@itecnmi.com.
