Hi everyone! My name is Katy Perrault (GCSP Class of 2023 Cohort) and I spent the past semester abroad in Ushuaia, Argentina! Ushuaia is a small city on the southern tip of Argentina-the southernmost city in the world, in fact, giving it the nickname “Fin del Mundo” or “End of the World”.
I lived with an amazing host mom and was in a program with 10 other students from universities around the country (including one other from Tulane). In addition to Spanish, I was studying climate change, marine biology, socio-ecological dynamics, and environmental problems in the Patagonia and Antartica region. I learned about everything from Antarctic tourism to Centollas (a species similar to king crab) and saw glaciers, penguins, sea lions, elephant seals, whales, and dolphins, all of which were unlike anything I’ve ever studied or seen before.
After having classes in the first part of my program, in the last month I did a research project on the phenology and reproductive success of a population of Magellanic penguins over 6 years using camera trap photos. Magellanic penguins return to the same area to breed year after year and are bioindicators, making trends in reproductive success over time useful for understanding more about both the health of the population and the health of the ecosystem that population calls home.
Besides my studies, there were lots of amazing moments and stories with the people I met and the friends I made during my time in Ushuaia. One of my favorites was when I (coincidentally) went swimming with a penguin-a Magellanic penguin, in fact! For every highlight like that one there were also challenges, big and small, like the differences in language and size of the city. I learned so much in the process, however, and I’m really grateful to have had the opportunity to go to Argentina and live at the end of the world for 3 months.
