By Léa Mimeault, Master’s graduate from Concordia University

This summer 2025, I had the pleasure of presenting my findings at the 61^st meeting of the Association for Tropical Biodiversity and Conservation, held in the historically and culturally rich city of Oaxaca, Mexico. I was looking forward to attending my first tropical-focused international conference!

I presented the second chapter of my MSc thesis, which explores human-wildlife conflict in southern Cameroon by examining local attitudes toward elephant conservation. I highlighted that although most households in my study area reported crop damage by elephants, attitudes toward elephant conservation remained generally positive. However, people who relied exclusively on agriculture for their income were more likely to hold negative views of elephant conservation, and such vulnerability to crop damage better predicted attitudes than the actual extent of damage experienced.

On the left, arriving at the vibrantly decorated conference venue, the Oaxaca Cultural and Convention Center. On the right, presenting during the “Human–Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence Strategies” session.

Surprisingly, this conference felt fairly broad, with relatively few people studying animal behavior compared to those focused on forest monitoring and climate. However, this actually made it easier to find each other and form smaller discussion groups. We met a few times to discuss shared interests, such as methods to study human-wildlife interactions, and techniques to mitigate human-wildlife conflict. Not only did I connect with students who shared similar interests, I also met researchers I had cited in my own work (which I was not expecting, making it all the more exciting!). I also attended talks and seminars on methods for studying canopies using arboreal camera traps, as well as the ecology of insularity, which examines isolated ecosystems like oceanic islands which are natural laboratories for understanding biological and evolutionary processes.

Let’s be honest… part of the fun of attending a conference in another country is not only meeting new people, but also experiencing new cultures. The conference organizers did an excellent job of introducing participants to Mexican dances and traditional Oaxacan food. For example, we got to try mole negro, a dish of chicken with a rich sauce made from chocolate and warm spices, as well as chapulines, which are toasted and seasoned grasshoppers you can eat on their own or add to meals. I also had the chance to explore Oaxaca beyond the conference itself, whether on my own, with my colleague France Anougue and my supervisor Robert Weladji, or with new acquaintances from the conference. We wandered through the town, visited markets, the Ethnobotanical Garden, and religious and historical buildings such as the Templo of Santo Domingo.

Two traditional Oaxacan dishes served at the conference. On the left, mole negro; on the right, crumbled toasted chapulines with two types of salsa.

On the left, the façade of the Templo de Santo Domingo. On the right, yours truly on a guided tour at the Ethnobotanical Garden.

A very sincere thank you to QCBS for allowing me to close out my graduate experience with this conference!