It is so wonderful to be back in Madagascar! I arrived in the capitol of Madagascar, Antananarivo (or ‘Tana’, for short) one week ago today and was immediately met with the sensations that I have come to associate with my second home. There is the sight of the deep red earth on the sides of the road onto which are scattered brightly colored bits of laundry to dry in the sun, the sound of children calling greetings to you as you pass by, and the smell of meat brochettes being grilled at roadside snack bars. These images warm my heart and temporarily take my mind off of the field work that lays ahead. You see, I always get a bit nervous before I return to the field site where I work, because I never know what I am going to find! Will my research team be healthy? Does our equipment still work? Have any new baby sifakas been born? I knew that I would have the answers to these questions (and many more) once I arrived at my research site. However, that is easier said than done, because between ‘Tana and Ranomafana lie about 250km of the most windy and bumpy roads that one could imagine! Thankfully, though they aren’t both windy and bumpy at the same time (the first 200km are windy, while the last 50km are bumpy). The drive takes about 10 hours to complete, during which time you are transported from the large, busy capitol of ‘Tana, to the dense, mountainous rainforest. Along the way, there is plenty to look at. There are farms and small villages, bright green rice paddies, beautiful rock outcrops and rolling hills all around you. Objectively, the view is breathtaking. However, as a biologist, I also know that there is more to the story. I know that less than 1,500 years ago the rolling hills were covered with forest and lemurs weighing more than female gorillas roamed freely! However, over the years, climate change (both natural and human induced) and human activities (e.g., slash and burn agriculture, hunting, and grazing) have taken their toll; drying the land and washing away the soil’s nutrients. Today, the giant lemurs are extinct and the native forest is gone. The only large trees that you see are species of pine and eucalyptus, very useful for making charcoal and building furniture, but as they are not native to Madagascar, they provide few resources for the island’s animal species.

However, just when I think that I can’t spend one more minute watching the naked hillside roll by, the car takes a sharp left turn off of the main road and our car is suddenly engulfed by the rainforest. Even though I have made this trip dozens of times and know what to expect, the transition always catches me by surprise! Suddenly, the air feels heavier, sounds seem muffled, and the air smells rich and alive. While on this road (the bumpy one), I keep my flashlight out and try to spot one of the region’s nocturnal lemurs as it wakes up and begins to forage in the dim light of dusk. Although I don’t have any luck on this trip, I know that my luck may be better next time…for we are now inside the boundaries of the Park and, with a little luck and a lot of hard work, this forest is here to stay.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 29th, 2006 at 2:55 pm and is filed under Summer Arrigo-Nelson. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.