The Dwarves Delved Too Deep

After the fish harvest, Faye and I went back to Sambava to do some of our work there.  In the course of marking Antanetiambo's trails and botanical plots, we have accumulated many GPS points.  Coupling this data with satellite imagery, we were able to make a trail map that will be useful for ecotourism and monitoring, and also a map to show the botanist where to find the plots.  We also updated the reserve's boundaries to reflect the newest land acquisition.

The Antanetiambo trail map we made

Since then, we have also done several other GPS and map-making projects.  We have begun the process of mapping out the various types of habitat in Antanetiambo: bamboo forest, patches of invasive species, human disturbance areas, and more.  One of our guides, Jackson, also has his own small private reserve, so we marked out the boundaries of that as well.  Jackson's land also is home to a group of bamboo lemurs, so hopefully he will get some ecotourist visitors as well.  Another project was flagging and mapping some land near Sambava that is to be used as a tree nursery.  Various NGOs in the area have had great success at growing large numbers of trees for reforestation efforts, and many of these projects are supported by the Duke Lemur Center's SAVA Conservation Initiative.  We even helped to build the fence for a tree nursery at Antanetiambo, where we will grow Valiha diffusa (a native bamboo the bamboo lemurs enjoy).

While we were in Sambava, we checked up on two sites that Erik has known to have pet lemurs in the past in order to see the current conditions.  Unfortunately, the pet trade is a threat to lemurs; many are taken out of the wild and often kept in poor conditions.  While organizations like the Duke Lemur Center have the facilities and knowledge to care for captive lemurs, most individuals and businesses do not.  One hotel previously owned two lemurs, but we found our that these had been released into a forest nearby.  The other place we visited owned various lemurs.  We saw seven lemurs that appear to be Sanford's brown lemurs (Eulemur sanfordi), an endangered species.  They claimed to also have a bamboo lemur and a dwarf lemur, but we did not see them.  Most of the lemurs we saw were free ranging on the property, but one was kept in a small cage.  We were told that one of the adults had been attacking this one-year-old male, so he was caged for his own protection.  Without being bidden, some of the lemurs jumped on Faye's and my shoulders.  Needless to say, it was quite fun to have lemurs climbing on us, and we took lots of pictures.  However, I do have mixed feelings about the experience.  Even if our purpose there was to collect information for Erik, by responding positively and taking pictures of the lemurs, perhaps we are encouraging people to keep lemurs as pets.  I do not want people to take these amazing animals out of the wild and into potentially poor conditions just so tourists will come see.  On the other hand, I don't know that this particular situation could really be improved.  Pet lemurs do not usually fare well when simply released into the wild, and (with the exception of the one in the cage) the lemurs we saw seemed to have lots of space.  Perhaps the best thing to do is just to keep track of them and make sure their situation does not become worse.

I was thrilled when I found out that I had the chance to return to Marojejy National Park for another project.  One of Erik's associates, Dr. Marina Blanco, does research on the park's dwarf lemurs (Cheirogaleus sp.).  This type of lemur actually goes into hibernation for half the year.  Marina has put radio collars on three dwarf lemurs in Marojejy, which are hibernating right now.  Since she will be returning to the park and the lemurs will be waking up soon, we had the task of going into Marojejy to track down the hibernating lemurs.  This time, Faye and I worked with Dez Kely and Donatien, two guides who have worked with Marina in the past.  To operate the radio tracker, we had to point an antenna in various directions and listen to the beeps denoting a radio signal.  Then, it becomes sort of like a game of Marco Polo: going in the direction of the sound and checking the direction again.  It turns out that this is much harder than it sounds; oftentimes, the direction is hard to discern and the information can seem contradictory.  Nevertheless, we were able to narrow down the dwarf lemur's locations.  One radio collar gave off no signal, so we think the batteries are dead.  One of the lemurs seemed to be up the the treetops, and another seemed to be in the ground.  We found a few holes under one particular rock where the signal was especially strong.  Unfortunately, the dwarf lemur was too deep to actually see, but it is exciting to know that we narrowed its location down from a huge forest to one rock.

Using the radio tracker © 2014 Faye Goodwin

In general, Faye and I seem to be getting better at finding animals, even when they do not have convenient radio collars.  I noticed a group of silky sifakas (Propithecus candidus) and white-fronted brown lemurs (Eulemur albifrons).  Both of these species had to be pointed out to me the last time I was in the park.  Also, Faye found one of the tiny Brookesia minima chameleons all on her own; we had been astonished last time when our guide had spotted one.

That tiny brown twig I'm holding is actually a chameleon © 2014 Faye Goodwin

We made it back to civilization just in time for Madagascar's Independence Day: June 26.  Some of the English Clubs from the SAVA Region were having a meeting in Andapa on June 25-26, so we went down to meet with them.  The students seemed excited to have the chance to practice their English with visiting Americans, so we had lots of conversations.  Organizing the events were four Peace Corps Volunteers from the US.  Coincidentally, it turns out that one of them was even born in the same small Arizona town that I was.  With the English Association of the Region SAVA (EARS), we marched in an Independence Day parade, which, despite a several hour wait, only lasted about three minutes end to end.  It was interesting to experience another country's independence day.  Andapa was decked own in red, white, and green flags, and the population tripled as people came from the surrounding area for the festivities.  Since Madagascar got its independence from France just 54 years ago, the impact of colonialism can still be felt here.  I have noticed that independence day seems to be a much bigger deal here than in the United States, whose 238th birthday I will be missing tomorrow.

Andapa on Independence Day

After the holiday, we happily returned to Matsobe to do some bamboo lemur observations in Antanetiambo.  We have found that the group of three Hapalemur occidentalis consists of one female and two males.  At first, all the individuals looked the same, but now, we have become quite good at distinguishing the males from the female.  Telling the two males apart is much harder, but I have already started to pick up on subtle coloration differences on their backs.  Daily observations will continue even after we are gone, so hopefully there will eventually be enough data to tell the lemurs' range and dietary preferences.  This will have various applications, from informing us about which trees to plant to making it easier for ecotourists to find the lemurs.

Already, we have made some interesting observations.  On multiple occasions, we have seen one of the lemurs eat clay from a decaying stump.  Eating soil, or geophagy, is seen in many animals including lemurs.  This behavior is still being studied, but the benefits probably have to do with nutrition.  Also, we observed mating between two of the lemurs.  I will be interested to hear the updates from after we leave Madagascar; perhaps there will be a baby lemur in about 140 days.

Right now, we are in Sambava for a talk by a Duke professor, Dr. Charlie Nunn.  I have actually volunteered as a research assistant for one of Dr. Nunn's graduate students working at the Duke Lemur Center.  After Dr. Nunn's interesting and well-attended talk about the relationship between parasites and extinctions, he departed for Marojejy to collect preliminary information for his research.  Tomorrow, we will be back at Antanetiambo to continue with our bamboo lemur observations.