On October 1st 2024, MountBuzz has officially started. At the moment, we are preparing our first field trips to Brazil (January-April 2025) and Borneo (March-June 2025). Team Brazil consists of César Arvelos as PhD student, João Pedro Santos Pereira, Carlos Andres Matallana Puerto and Marcela Camila Oliveira Arata as field assistants. Team Borneo consists of Imran Sadovic as PhD student, Isadora Skudeny, Andrea Errante and Christabelle as field assistants.

So far, we are busy preparing data sheets for the field and for data entry, and ordering equipment. We will bring camcorders to the field to be able to monitor pollinators throughout the day, coupled with empirical pollinator observations. We are also preparing equipment for monitoring flower longevity and testing the breeding system of the different plant species, which means we need to bring a large array of mesh bags to bag flowers to prevent visitation from insects. Project collaborators Vinicius Brito (Brazil) and Florina Anthony (Borneo) are meanwhile busy helping with the planning of the logistics of these two first fieldtrips. In our first meeting about the fieldwork protocol, we have already noticed different coping strategies with stressful situations: our Brazilian team members seek company, play with their dogs and have a beer to calm down, our European team members isolate and retreat to alone time 😉