1 November 2017

Ideas for our conservation project – ideal places?

Dear Mammal Watching Community

We are two young mammal watchers and therefore, big nature lovers. After a lot of thinking and discussing we figured that the best way to protect nature would be to leave it as it is.

Being two psychologists, we realized how mentally healing nature and mammal watching can be and saw a lot of potential in this. That’s how we developed our project.

We have one very tricky problem left to be solved before we would be able to concretize everything.

We would be very grateful for some ideas…

We are looking for a place where it is possible to work as a psychotherapist, where mammals are reasonably easy to spot and a quite accessible and attractive place. It would be perfect if it would be a place that really needs protection and would be close to an already protected area.

We are not sure if such a place exists, but you might have some ideas of places that are close to this description.

Thanks for your help!

Sophie and Manuel Baumgartner

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6 Comments

  • 1 November 2017
    Leslie Sokolow

    I’m confused. Are you looking to create a private conservation reserve through land purchase, or to move near a wild place with employment opportunities and excellent mammal watching?

    • 2 November 2017
      Manul

      Mmmh… Actually both. Create a private conservation reserve and using mammal watching / the nature surrounding for work (some kind of therapy). I hope this clarifies your confusion 🙂

  • 2 November 2017
    Vladimir Dinets

    … or perhaps open a mental hospital/retreat for overstressed city folks with a mammalwatching-based therapy course? But I always thought mammalwatching is better for weight loss, as it can quickly turn a perfectly happy and sane individual into a shivering ball of naked nerves, screaming “I missed the grey-brown mouse-vole, why oh why didn’t I die young?!” during brief and restless instances of nightmare-filled sleep.

    • 2 November 2017
      Manul

      Well that’s kind of the idea 🙂
      We hope that wouldn’t transform them into shivering balls of naked nerves though 🙂
      We think that the grey-brown mouse-vole can help a lot mentally and as a bonus raise nature awareness. There is a lot that can be learned through mammal-watching…

  • 2 November 2017
    Vladimir Dinets

    Well, your best options are California and Sri Lanka. California is the only place in the US with really high mammal diversity, it has millions of well-off people in urgent need of therapy, but land bordering national parks costs a lot. Sri Lanka has lots of watchable mammals, is reasonably cheap, and is close enough to India to attract New Age folks looking for ashram-style experience. Of course, for the same amount of money you can save either one large tree in California or a whole bunch of species in Sri Lanka. I have friends in Sri Lanka I can ask to make inquiries if you are interested. Personally, I’d rather undergo therapy in Sri Lanka because every time I see a gecko in my room it makes me feel better, but I’m probably not a representative example.

  • 27 December 2017
    Manul

    Dear Community

    So we have got Sri Lanka, Costa Rica and Canada as idea-places.
    Do anyone of you have another good idea of a suitable place (where it is possible to work as a psychotherapist, where mammals are reasonably easy to spot and a quite accessible and attractive place)?

    We will visit for the next two years as many places as we can in this regard: CR, later Asia tour, than Canada…

    Thank you for more ideas

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