Rainforest research from treetops allows for some higher education

By David Zizzo

Published: August 14, 2007

Travel 10,000 miles to an island off the coast of Africa, go deep into a remote rainforest, climb 70 feet up into the canopy and look inside a water-filled hole in a tree. You won't believe what you can find.

Dante Fenolio and his buddies did this and discovered all sorts of things, from crabs and giant tree spiders to new species of frogs. It's just part of the life of a biologist, especially one whose work gets him out of the office and into some of the most unusual places. For instance, Madidi National Park in Bolivia, or the upper Amazon River in Peru, or the dry Cerrado region of Brazil.

"A lot of times, we'll have people take us out on trucks or jeeps and drop us off and come back in two or three weeks,” said Fenolio, former University of Oklahoma graduate student.

Among Fenolio's most successful trips was to Madagascar, where he and other researchers evaluated life among the trees.

Researchers took advantage of innovative equipment developed by a French company. One called the canopy raft is a platform made of inflated tubing with netting stretched beneath it. The platform is dropped on top of the rainforest from a blimp so researchers can work from treetops.

For more on this trip, other gear the researchers used and things they found there, see Science & Health, Page 1E

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