Some research projects take place in a lab. Others take place in the rain forest. One such project brought Towson students to the Peruvian Amazon to study the effect that pig-like mammals called peccaries have on the animal community there.

During the Tropical Field Ecology class, Towson professor Harald Beck and his students observed how peccaries create and maintain soil depressions in the earth called wallows. The wallows fill up with water and become breeding habitats or foraging ground for a variety of tropical species such as insects, frogs, fish, turtles and bats.

Research in other areas of the rain forest found that as the peccary populations dwindle due to over-hunting by commercial hunters who seek the animal's meat and hide, several wallow-dependant frog species vanished.

Getting hands-on experience anywhere outside of campus is exciting, but going 3,000 miles away is truly magnificent.