walking in a lemur wonderland

I am not on regular time here in Madagascar. The time passes before I have the ability to process what is happening around me; and before I know it, I am sitting back in the little cyber café near my house trying to remember every little detail of my past week. It is quite a difficult task, I must say.

This past week has been mind-blowing. I know you are all getting tired of my constant explinations of extreme excitement, but each week just seems to get better and better. So, you will just have to deal with it ;).

Saturday morning marked the beginning of our Lemur Ecology study--one of the coolest "courses" we have had here in Madagascar--not that I can really compare what I am doing here to any classes I have had in the states. In the states I would sit in class and hear about the people doing the studies. Here I actually get to do them.

We left Fort Dauphin around 7:30 am, and we spent most of the day traversing the extremely bumpy roads of Madagascar. About halfway through the trip, we stopped off in a little village called Ranomainty ("black water" in english) to see some rare aloe plants and to discuss the effects of a Japanese NGO project in the area. We arrived in Ifotaka (our destination) in the late afternoon--hot, tired, and dirty (which didn't change the entire span of our stay). Ifotaka is a town located in the Antandroy region of southern Madagascar...this is close to where I will be living for my village stay next week!

**Side note: The Antandroy region is well known for it's extremely hot weather, dusty terrain, and spiny forests. Temperatures got up to about 41°C during the middle of the day. I have never been so hot in my life. The terrian is mainly sandy, dusty dirt and rocks. I stayed covered in a layer of dust the entire trip. Yet even though I was extremely dusty, dirty, and hot for the majority of the stay, it was completely worth it to be able to study the lemurs in their natural habitat!

The next morning, we drove down to a smaller village (Zanavo) just outside of Ifotaka, where we actually performed our studies. Our tents were pitched under a canopy of Euphorbia trees, which provided a lovely source of shade for us during our stay. We spent two days in Zanavo, performing three studies of Propithecus verreauxi verreauxi, more commonly known as a Sifaka lemur. These guys life in the Didieraceae trees of the spiny forest.

**Side note #2: The weren't kidding when they decided to call the forests in Southwest Madagascar "spiny." Almost each and every species of plant growing in these forests are covered in spines. It was super hard to walk through the forest without getting pricked, poked, and stabbed by hundreds of sharp-pointed endemic flora. I was actually able to make it out with only one large cut on my leg!

Through three different experiments, we studied the population density, habitat, and behavior of these crazy little creatures. My favorite of the three was the lemur behavior study--for approximately two hours in the early morning, we sat around in the forest and observed the lemurs in their habitat, taking note of their actions every five minutes. While it seems like a simple task, studing lemurs in the wild is actually quite difficult. We spent most of our time actually walking through the spiny forest trying to locate the sneaky little guys. Overall, I think we walked around in the forest for about 7 hours total. It was amazing :).

Our last night in Zanavo, a couple of us went on a night walk to spot tiny little mouse lemurs. They are the smallest type of lemurs alive, and they are nocturnal. And adorable.

On our last day, we voyaged to Berenty to see even more lemurs!! For those of you who didn't already know, Berenty is a private reserve owned by a french family, the DeHaulmes, for the past two generations. Most behavioral research that has been done on lemurs has taken place in Berenty because the lemurs are habituated to humans and it is much easier to conduct a behavioral study on lemurs that do not run away from you! And the most exciting part: I am most likely going to do a behavioral study on the Ring-Tailed lemurs and Sifakas at Berenty for my ISP!! Oh man, my insides got all tingly walking through Berenty with the lemurs. In no way can I exibit my excitement through this blog.

By the time we returned home, I was in desperate need of a shower. Seriously. I had bathed a couple of times in the Mandrare river, but I still had layers of dust caked to my body. The shower I took when I got back to my house was the most amazing shower I have taken here in Madagascar. It was cold. And I loved it.

It was also great returning home to my homestay family. They were all really excited to see me when I got back home! The whole family rushed out to see me, and it was really nice to feel like I was back home (a little bit). It was really amazing that I felt like I was returning home, even though I have only been calling that house, this town, this coutry my home for a couple of weeks.

So, I do not have enough time to finish, but I will finish my post either tomorrow or Saturday. But, I will leave you with one last comment:

I have received a ton of mail in the past two days: two letters, a card, two picture postcards, and a package. I cannot express how happy it has made me to read the letters from friends and family back home. You guys rock. I just want you to know that. Keep it up ;)

erin elizabeth