Hello all!

A lot has happened in the past two weeks, and I don’t really have enough time to talk about all of it, so I will do my best to update everyone fairly quickly!  On the 7th of June, Hanna, Joe, and I left Maroantsetra to go to Mangabe field sites in the Makira protected region, north of Maroantsetra.  We took a lachina to the village of Morovovonana, and stayed in the COBA house there for the night.  The next day, we hiked for about 4 hours through rice fields and then up into the mountains to our sites in this pristine section of rainforest.  The hike was tough because 3/4ths of it is uphill, and the entire trail is covered in mud.  There is no mud in the world like the mud here in Madagascar; it is deep, thick, and covers absolutely everything surrounding the city of Maroantsetra.  When we arrived at the camp site, the porters and guides had already been in camp for about an hour (vasa [white people, in Malagasy] are MUCH slower in the forest than any Malagasy person!), and they had begun setting up tarps and poles which were at that time the skeleton of what would become a very nice, permanent camp in the forest.  Camp was comprised of four tents covered by tarps mounted on tall wood poles from the surrounding forest, with a central cooking/eating/socializing area built on the framework of an old, abandoned house.  A stream ran right through camp, so we always had easy access to clean water for drinking, bathing, and cooking.  The view from our tent was spectacular; every morning I woke up to a panorama of the surrounding rainforest valley.  

We were in the forest for a little over two weeks.  During that time, we set up a camera grid consisting of 24 camera stations along five trails leading away from camp.  Cameras were placed 500 meters apart, and so checking a line of four cameras involved hiking about 2 km each day.  We also set up two small mammal trapping transact along one of the trails.  These transacts included 10 Sherman traps set up 15 meters apart; each transact included 10 traps, and the transacts were spaced about 1 km apart.  Daily tasks included a variety of things: the Sherman traps had to be checked for small mammals every morning, because the goal of trapping was to identify and take measurements on any small mammals we caught, as well as marking them with fur clips in case of recapture events.  If we didn't check every day for small mammals, they might have overheated or died from other causes in the traps, and that was definitely not the goal of this part of the study.  Also, camera maintenance was necessary every day for at least one portion of the camera grid.  Cameras had to be checked at least once a week to ensure that none were malfunctioning, and we occasionally had to change cameras out.  At the end of the two weeks, we had to visit each station and switch memory cards so that we could take the data we had collected with us out of the field.  We also had to complete lemur surveys every day.  We had 3 lemur transacts of 2 km each spread along three different trails.  Diurnal and nocturnal surveys were completed for each transact.  These involved walking the length of the transact slowly, looking and listening for signs of lemurs in the forest.  If we did see or hear lemurs, we recorded which species it was, where it was located in the forest, compass and GPS bearings, weather at the time, and the behavior of the observed lemur.

After the first few days of field work (which were crazy and difficult because camp wasn't fully up and running, and because we had to do initial camera setups and trail maintenance), we settled into a comfortable routine.  Every morning we woke up around 6:30 am and had a leisurely breakfast of rice and beans.  Around 9:00 every day we started work, which took an average of 3-4 hours every day.  Field work was hard just because the forest trails were difficult to hike (lots of uphill hiking on narrow or muddy trails), but all of the time I spent in the forest was well-worth the work to get out there.  If we were back in time for lunch, we ate beans and rice.  Afternoons were spent relaxing; we read a lot, ate snacks, wrote in our journals, or napped.  Sometimes we played cards or dice with the guides, or read out loud to each other. Dinner was usually pretty late, and of course it was rice and beans.  (We calculated that we ate 45 consecutive meals of rice and beans...).  So for the most part, our time in the forest was very relaxing.

It rained every day, and for most of the day.  We had maybe a total of 3 days of sun the entire time we were at Mangabe.  The only time it was unpleasant was when we were actually working in the field in the rain, as we would be totally soaked within a few minutes of hiking.  It is also essentially impossible to dry anything out in Madagascar, so most of the time we had to wear wet clothes into the field.  But again, just being in the forest made the unpleasant aspects worth it.  Joe and I saw many amazing things, including five species of lemurs, several species of endemic frogs, lizards, snakes, and chameleons, lots of beautiful birds, amazing plants, and some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen! 

On one nocturnal lemur survey, we had seven lemur sightings, which is amazing.  Some of the species we saw included Microcebus rufus (The Brown Mouse Lemur), Avahi laniger (the Eastern Avahi), and Lepilemur seali (the Seal’s Sportive Lemur).  At other times we saw Eulemur albifrons and almost every time we went into the forest we heard Indri indri, but we never saw one.  The last species of lemur that I heard but never saw was Varecia variagatta, the Black and White Ruffed Lemur.  I am so grateful to have gotten to see/hear these amazing, rare animals in their natural, undisturbed habitat.  It truly was the opportunity of a lifetime.  But, being a biology student, I can’t end my discussion of these animals without stressing the importance of conserving the forests in which these lemurs live and reducing the need for the Malagasy to hunt lemurs.  Zach worked in Mangabe one year ago, and he said that Indri actually lived in camp.  He saw many groups of them every day.  Their calls would wake him up in the morning.  He also said that Varecia were much more common a year ago than they were on this trip.  It is possible that the home ranges of these animals simply shifted over a year, but it is much more likely that these animals have been poached over the last year, and that the groups that lived in camp a year ago have been for the most part killed or driven out of their homes.  It is extremely sad that in one year intelligent, beautiful, and rare animals have disappeared so completely.     

I would love to go into great detail about all of the animals and plants that I saw in the Makira rainforest, and at a later date, when I have better internet access and more time, I will post a blog dedicated to a discussion of those species, which I have recorded sightings of in my journal.  Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to do that right now.  Our plans for our remaining time in Madagascar include a trip that Joe and I will take to Fahakirana, which is a patch of undisturbed rainforest bordering the ocean.  We will take a lachina to Fahakirana tomorrow and will return to Maroantsetra on the evening of the 28^th.  I will be conducting interviews with the local people in the nearby village of Navana for my thesis research, and we will spend the remainder of our time relaxing on the pristine and isolated beach, climbing rocks in the ocean, and exploring the forest.  I am very excited, as this will be a vacation for us!  I will update again on the 29^th, which will be our last day in Maroantsetra.  On the 30^th, Zach, Joe and I will fly to Tana, and spend some time in the capital before flying back to the U.S.  on July 3^rd. 

I can’t wait to talk to all of my friends and family again!  I love and miss you guys.  I’ll update again soon! 

~Chelsea