Expedition Peru - Mission Manu 2015

22/11/2015

Stuck for Christmas ideas for the family? Does your family have trouble remembering dates? Does your family love frogs?

Well, search no more. Introducing Mission Manu's exclusive frog calendars! And at £10 they are a bloody bargain.

Don't hesitate to message us if you're interested.

17/11/2015

We're selling things in the Christmas Craft Fair in the Exchange building - NOW.

Come buy cakes and calendars and more cakes and MORE CALENDARS.

See you there!

x

15/10/2015

If any of you are interested in doing what we did (and it was pretty amazing), APPLY APPLY APPLY.

https://fxuexpeditionsociety.wordpress.com/2015/10/12/fxpeditions-2016/

Plans are well under way for 2016 FXpeditions. Most teams are looking for additional team members. FXPEDITIONS DISCLAIMER FXpeditions are independent student-run expeditions. The University of Exet...

15/10/2015

We've been busy since being back; writing reports, sorting through photos and cataloging selfies (possibly the most important task of them all), but to keep you all interested in our work here's a very rough cut of our team film.

In 2015 the Mission Manu team ventured into the depths of the Peruvian rainforest to undertake an amphibian study, this documentary will reveal what they fou...

19/09/2015

Here's a photo from our very own Lewis Gillingham of the Manu Learning Centre at night.

Not bad eh?

We recently bid adieu to a University of Exeter student - but filmmaker, Lewis Gillingham, was kind enough to leave us with a few stills from his time with the Crees Foundation!

Here's a beautiful shot of the MLC at night.

09/09/2015

Whilst out searching for frogs, we were a little bit chuffed to stumble across this Manu Poison Dart frog. A bit of a flagship for the area (obviously, see the name), it's striking colours and patterns made it really quite fun to photograph.

This is a composite image of the same frog, who luckily stayed still as we rotated the glass plate.

06/09/2015

Now that we're back in Britain, Wordpress has decided to work for us again. How nice of it.

Due to technical difficulties (which are quite hard to resolve once stuck in a rainforest) we weren't able to post as many blogs on our progress as we hoped, which I'm sure ruined most of your summers. Here's an attempt to sum up the trip highlights.

We'll be posting images over the next few weeks to show a little bit more of what we saw as well, so do keep your eyes peeled.

In's the end, sort of. Well, we’re back on British soil, which is quite an odd sentence to type. Despite only being out at the Manu Learning Centre (MLC from here on in, I have lazy hands) for six ...

20/08/2015

Last night in Manu tonight. The last six weeks have been beyond mind blowing, if not also exhausting. As of tomorrow we have a small break before the writing and editing starts, along with a reliable internet connection, so we should hopefully be able to show you what we've done since arriving in the rainforest.

Anyway, as per the rest of this week a huge storm is about to hit and we're off to watch. Thanks for all your support, without your donations and sticking up with us as we banged on about frogs and such we genuinely wouldn't have made it out here.

Ta!

Mission Manu

12/08/2015

We got quite excited at this... 10 minutes from where we all sleep!

11/08/2015

Our camera trap has picked up an ocelot, puma and a jaguar all in a week!

01/08/2015

Several things have broken recently, including the immune systems of a few team members. Unfortunately that means we can't post photos at the moment, nightmare eh?

However, we're slowly on the mend and hopefully our equipment is too! Data is flowing freely and the film is slowly coming along too. Slowly but surely it's all coming together - we like to think at any rate.

Until next time!

27/07/2015

Surveying well under way. Salamanders and poison dart frogs amongst the finds so far, exciting start!

19/07/2015

Alive, merely internet-less. Surveying has started, and hopefully a blog will be up soon. Turns out pylons aren't too common in the rainforest...

09/07/2015

Spent the day in Cusco sightseeing/throwing up, depending on how well your body adjusted to the altitude. From what I can gather the sightseeing was more fun than the throwing up.

It's 10pm. We've just been told out coach to the lodge we stay at next leaves at 3:30am. This better be one swish jungle lodge.

07/07/2015

We're here, in Cusco. It's proper brilliant.

Here's Owen (we found him at the airport) with a poorly drawn snapchat alpaca.

07/07/2015

We were so happy, then we boarded a flight for 11 hours...

In Bogota, it's 4:30am. Can't see much but I'm sure it's lovely here. Take off for Lima in an hour!

06/07/2015

21:43. Terminal 2. Heathrow.

The team look ready for adventure.

06/07/2015

Less than 10 hours till take off.

Ooh err.

05/07/2015

We've hit £1200, and I'm struggling to be as delighted as the rest of the group, because it means I'm getting a lizard tattooed on my bum. Ta all, I'm ecstatic.

But in all seriousness, you have all been incredibly helpful. We're still fundraising now, with vital equipment and jabs all being propped up by student loans and overdrafts, so any money you can donate will help us eat for the 8 weeks we're there!

We leave tomorrow night of course, I don't think an emoji has been invented to sum up the nervous fear/excitement that we're all currently feeling.

A student led research expedition studying reptiles and amphibians in Peru | Crowdfunding is a democratic way to support the fundraising needs of your community. Make a contribution today!

02/07/2015

An introduction to each team member and what they do.

01/07/2015

A jaguar has been caught on camera nearby the place we are staying at. It's safe to say we're all a little bit excited.

15/06/2015

We leave in 3 weeks. That's 21 days.

Gulp.

04/06/2015

A poorly written thanks to all who've donated, and a general update on our progress so far.

First off, hello! It's been a while. It turns out this 'planning an expedition to a South American rainforest' business is quite time consuming - who knew? Because of that, this blog serves to upda...

03/06/2015

Wehey! Your donations came in, and Dan's chest hair came out.

Smooth.

Don't forget you can still donate to https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mission-manu/x/9890050 #/story.

27/05/2015

We've hit £1100, and Lewis will now be getting his ni**le pierced.

I'm not sure if the trip will pass this, we've hit our peak.

02/05/2015

God bless Maria, who today is travelling 400 miles to Falmouth, dressed as a frog.

All to raise money for our expedition! You have to be impressed really, don't you?

http://igg.me/at/missionmanu/x

30/04/2015

It's (t)Herptile Thursday, and in a desperate bid to distract you from our tenuous pun, our team leader Lucy wrote a blog on the importance of frogs.

Go have a read!

https://fxuexpeditionsociety.wordpress.com/2015/04/30/for-frogs-sake/

Almost daily, we are bombarded with images of cute and cuddly animals that need our help. But what about the not-so-cuddly and (for some people) slightly slimey frogs? 45% of all amphibians are end...

20/04/2015

Fancy using some of that student loan for a good cause? No? How about using it to torture a team member at Mission Manu?

Maria has nominated herself (foolishly) for the next challenge, and will be forced to listen to 'Baby' by Justin Bieber on repeat for 24 hours straight. Horrific.

She'll be doing this challenge/punishment/slice of hell once we reach £700 on our indiegogo page. We're only £101 from making this happen, so please donate and we can all enjoy Maria slowly descend into madness.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mission-manu/x/9890050

Aiding research for the future of reptiles and amphibians in the Amazon Rainforest | Crowdfunding is a democratic way to support the fundraising needs of your community. Make a contribution today!

12/04/2015

We have (twitter) lift off!

12/04/2015

People of twitter! Have you found your twitter feeds lacking Peruvian nature themed updates?

Well no more! Follow us at and your twitter feed will 1000 times more interesting (approximately).