The centre of the middle of nowhere
Evenstad is a long way from anywhere. But it is also a paradox, as it is at the centre of many things! This includes being at the centre of research into wildlife ecology and wildlife management.
Researchers based at Evenstad have been central actors in many of the flagship research projects on wildlife that have made Scandinavia a world leader in this field. And access to these researchers and their field projects is what draws students from all around the world to Evenstad. Centrally located in the middle of nowhere.
The Scandinavian Brown Bear Project
The Scandinavian Brown Bear Project is a Swedish-Norwegian cooperation that has been running for 40 years. It represents a flagship research project where management authorities from both Norway and Sweden have pooled their resources to create a common project.
During its 40 years it has resulted in hundreds of publications and has provided training for hundreds of students at all levels. It is among the world’s longest running wildlife projects. The staff at Evenstad has been involved in various ways since the early days of the project.
This is one of the projects that we are most proud of showing to our students as it provides a unique insight into the inner workings of a research project, and an opportunity to learn about the ecology of brown bears.
Students getting a unique insight into the inner workings of a research project
Four days in bear country
It has become an annual pilgrimage to take a bus load of students from the various bachelors classes at Evenstad to the bear project’s study site in central Sweden – centered around Nopikowski / Kvarnberg on the borders between Gavleborg and Dalarna counties.
During 4 days the students get to experience living in the middle of bear country, using the days to explore bear dens and collect bear scats from locations where real live bears have been resting just a few hours or days before – listening to the signals from the radio-collars to make sure that the bear is not still there! The students also learn basic field skills, such as navigation, as well as sampling protocols and basic principles of organising data.
They also get lectures on bear ecology and bear management from researchers with decades of field experience. Finally, the trip represents a unique opportunity for students to interact off-campus, building the bonds and social networks that will be central for their own careers.
Overall the field trip represents a unique opportunity for students to learn where data and research results come from. Every figure in a textbook or a lecture slide is the result of weeks, months and years of effort. This is the way that Evenstad operationalise the idea of “research-based education”. We take the students into the field and show them where it comes from! In this case one bear poop at a time.
