That was a fast 3 months!

Fruit sellers in Fianarantsoa market

Nicolas standing next to a
flowering succulent plant

Working in another country is not as exciting as it may sound...it really is just working with different scenery outside the office window. Sure it’s great scenery, but my eyes tend to be glued to computer screens doing fascinating things like monitoring project budgets, checking researchers’ comings and goings or writing procedures and reports. With the occasional break to interview for new staff members.

Backyard pet

Although, there were different interruptions to most days, and an astonishing variety of these. Perhaps a meeting with the national park officials to talk about park security issues. Or with the health NGO to bash out a collaboration agreement. A morning off to tour a visitor around the park and see a few more lemurs. Welcoming Finnish bat researchers at the start of their 3-week stay. Watching an American film crew get some shots of the local market with a drone. Yeah, I guess it can be a bit exciting at times. Certainly different due to the wide variety of activities and people that are based at Centre ValBio with it’s multiple functions of research, education at the graduate, undergraduate and local school level, health provision to remote villages, long-term biodiversity sampling, encouragement of local artisans and musicians etc. etc.

Meat kiosk in Fianarantsoa

But...I decided not to continue in the job and won’t be going back in January. I can certainly do admin and finance, but I’ve been drifting farther away from forestry with each contract and it’s time for a course correction. It’s a wrench, made more difficult by the kicking Christmas party the day before I left - dancing is life to a lot of our staff - and they have one hell of a lot of life in them!

Even in the very short time, it would have been impossible not to become close to the staff - Prisca and Pascal, so welcoming and knowledgable, Erik with his wicked grin and great driving music, sharing Friday afternoon beer with Nicolas and Alain looking out over the rainforest, and so many others. I’ve got to concentrate on finding longer contracts, it’s too tough to keep tearing myself away friends.  

Steps in 'Tana

Friday, it was back in the car for the 9-hour drive to Antananarivo on twisting roads shared by an eclectic variety of obstacles, homemade wooden carts used to haul bricks, rocks, rice, etc, herds of zebu, chickens, ducks, really slow trucks and people of course (I’ve never seen so many people walking such distances before). The roads are now made narrower by strips of rice spread out to dry on the edges. Through every town on the way you’ve also got to avoid bicycle taxis, carts, motorcycles, buses, roadside sellers of, well, basically everything, and on and on. After spending many hours of the last few months in cars being driven around, it’s conclusive - geese are the only form of life that will not move off the road when threatened with flattening by tires.

So, that’s my time in Madagascar, a fascinating, beautiful country - not without myriad problems - but with an inspiring vitality. Don’t know when/if I’ll get back there, anything’s possible. 

Antananarivo, capital city, from hotel room

Fingers crossed, I’ll make it back to the tropics or subtropics early in the new year - watch this space...

Another New Island

After spending 4 in-between contract months back in Canada, I’ve arrived in Madagascar for a few months to try out a new job. First impression - cold! I was expecting a return to the warm, preferably hot, tropics but although I’m now located only 23 degrees south of the equator, it’s very hilly and just coming into a chilly spring. I’m assured it will get warmer over the next couple of months which is good because I failed to pack any sweaters.

Dr. Wright, with a woman
from the local weaver's group

I’m at Centre ValBio, a research station adjacent to Ranomafana National Park, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site in southeastern Madagascar. The centre was established by Dr. Patricia Wright of Stony Brook University in Long Island, NY in 2003. Dr. Wright first came to this area 30 years ago looking for, and finding, lemurs. Over the years, Dr. Wright and CVB have greatly expanded their activities to include support and advice to local groups of artisans, providing basic health care to remote villages, environmental education in the schools, reforestation initiatives as well as continuing their long term data collection on wildlife, phenology, climate and biodiversity research.  My job will be advising and providing support to the National Director and the senior staff here.

Basket weaver's group at their roadside stand

Madagascar is so different from Indonesia - obviously much poorer for one thing, less fertile agricultural land, less forested land and a much larger proportion of the population has little or no access to basic amenities like electricity and clean water. However, people inhabiting the eastern coast of the island have strong ties to Southeast Asia with many of their antecedents coming from Borneo, so it has a somewhat familiar feel to me.

Typical village house

Weaver bird's nest

Brief Notes:

Two official languages, French and Malagasy, although many of the staff at the centre speak excellent English as well, so it will be a challenge to my motivation to learn Malagasy. Many villagers speak only Malagasy, since they don’t have access or ability to attend school. Many urban dwellers speak English as well as French & Malagasy, and in some cases, although an official language, French is being replaced by English as the second language of choice. Blame the internet, I guess.

Nicolas with a small,
but non-venomous, boa

Only one venomous animal, the tarantula. Madagascar has quite a unique assemblage of flora and fauna, many of which are found nowhere else in the world, like lemurs, due to it’s geographical isolation many thousands of years ago after splitting from the Indian subcontinent and African continent. I haven’t had the chance to go for a forest hike yet (aaghh office work!) so haven’t seen a lemur yet (3 weeks and counting).

Dan & Nicole, teacher trainers with CVB's new
environmental education program, My Rainforest My World

Scenery just south of the capital, Antananarivo

Only about 5% of the island’s original forested area remains, a result of traditional burning to grow crops, harvesting firewood for cooking and exploitation of timber resources by foreign companies. Pine and eucalyptus are planted or self-seeded in drier areas but these are both imports. Efforts to plant land to endemic species appears as one of the priorities in the Malagasy government climate change adaptation and mitigation strategy, and Centre ValBio will be taking part in reforestation initiatives along with a network of other interested NGOs.

View from the Centre

Just outside the National Park

A relatively stable national government, after democratic elections in 2013 replaced military control established in 2009. I had the privilege of attending the new mayor’s inauguration last week and he is very aware of the importance of Ranomafana and the national park to the area’s economy - there are many tourists to the site and coming through on tour buses. “Ranomafana” means “hot water” in Malagasy; there are hot springs in the town, and it became a tourist spot when French colonials inhabited the island.

It's a busy place and time is racing by already. I'll be back in Canada for Christmas, which gives me 3 months to see if I can wrap my head around the new environment and new job in a very complex workplace.

And I'll keep you posted - watch this space.

They're out there somewhere...

Moving the static sound recorder.

In between my exciting days of revising contracts, answering emails and writing procedures, I can sometimes sneak out to the forest and see what the scientists are up to. This week it was a (mostly) leisurely walk through the woods with Larissa, who is working on her Masters degree at the University of Jakarta. She has a fascinating subject - recording vocalizations of red langurs to figure out how they communicate. Unfortunately, the fun has to end sometime and after six months in Sabangau she’s scheduled to go back, write up her results and graduate. This is her last week here, so I promised myself I’d go out to see what she does before she stops doing it.

One of our forest friends - green pit viper.

She hauls a fair amount of gear around - big fuzzy microphone, a recorder in addition to the regular forest necessities. And today she wanted to move a static sound recorder from one area to another in the hope of catching the primates calling when she's not around.

But fun(gi)!

And more fun(gi)!

This was my second time out in the forest tagging along on a primate project and there are basically two shapes to a day when studying apes. First of all, you have to find them. You and at least one other team member go out and search using a grid pattern, walking slowly and stopping at intervals to listen for sounds and watching the treetops for rustling. Your schedule depends on the species group you want to find. Gibbons sing early in the morning, giving loud, long calls out that can be heard at great distances. They start the concerts before dawn but don’t carry on too long into the morning. So a gibbon researcher heads out to the forest before daylight in the general area that the groups tend to live, listens for the songs and then heads towards the sounds to find the apes. Orangutans are lazier, and tend to loll around in their nests until 7 or 8 in the morning, so orangutan scientists get a bit of a lie in before going out and listening to hear their rustling. Harder to find them ‘though because they don’t vocalize like gibbons. Red langurs - ahhh - Larissa chose the most difficult of the three primates to find. They give short calls (less than 5 seconds) and also tend to be more active earlier in the morning so she is often up and into the woods searching by 4:30 a.m. 

Challenging terrain

That’s just searching. Once you’ve found your primate of interest, you follow it (or them, if they’re hanging out in a group). And again, Larissa volunteered for the short stick - langurs won’t settle down to sleep until late in the day, sometimes as late as 5 or 5:30 p.m., so we often see her coming back to camp after dark, after a 12-hour day. But still cheerful. Orangutan researchers often have long days as well, but while these apes will construct nests, munch leaves and just generally not rush around, langurs are quite small, move fast through the very top of the tree canopy, and therefore are more difficult to see and to keep track of. Larissa has often returned to camp after long days having lost the group and knowing she’ll need to go out and search again the next day.

Not about her project; Larissa's just
being scale for some tree roots here

To round out the brief primate tutorial - while it seems that staff involved in the gibbon project may be the luckiest (easy to find, and they settle down earlier in the day) there’s a downside as well. Gibbons are fast and very active, so once you’ve found them, it’s a race through the forest to keep track of them. And remember, this forest is designed to trip you up with waist deep canals and big hook-shaped tree roots poking out of the soft, twist-an-ankle peat soil. 

I had a typical day out with Larissa - we didn’t find the red langur group for which she has been searching; one from which she has fewer recordings than the other two that live in the Sabangau research area. A leisurely walk in the woods, stopping, listening, looking - well, almost. As we were heading back to camp, another searcher texted - thought she’d heard the group on another transect! I continued my happy little walk back along the trail - Larissa headed off (fast) in another direction to try and track the primates down. No luck. Ah well, out at 4:30 tomorrow morning for her. Me - I’m working on revising contracts (9 to 5).

Larissa's biggest challenge?
Making sure Berni doesn't walk off in her sandals.

If you're wondering where the primate photos are: tcha! read the post - we didn't find them...

A Day in the Life

New mattresses for camp: via truck, klotok
(boats on right) & lori (flatbed on rails)

Woke up, made coffee. Started on computer at 7:30, checking emails. Revised student acceptance documents to let people know proper clothing to wear in town. Straightened out pay for 4 part-time staff members. Asked Riethma to call someone to repair leaky roof and to rent a truck. Forwarded Excel sheet created to organize photo library for communications, directors’ requests for presentations to Berni and Suzi. Helped load 8 new mattresses, 2 compost bins, a couple of plastic chairs, some washing tubs, 12 sets of sheets and a new transformer for the solar panel power system into a large truck. Asked (again) about support letters for research visas from Indonesian partner. No answer. Rode in truck to Kereng harbour. Used one of the chairs to wait for klotok boatman to finish noon prayer.  Laughed at his double take when he saw the pile of things to take across the river. Berni texted about flight arrival for Gunung Paleng staff exchange. Didn’t have an answer. Called him, told him to check tickets with Riethma. May be a booking problem. Helped load everything on two klotoks, texted men at camp of our imminent arrival so had lots of help to get all things onto our flatbed lori and carry them to camp buildings. Took a  picture of  loaded klotoks. Tried to resolve pay problem with Dudin, the boatman, but failed. Texted Sara about proper amount. Staff will not sign for incorrect pay but will wait until it agrees with their calculation of days worked and money owed. Texted Suzi to ask Sara to call me. Dropped backpack in my room. Checked the men’s house had been well cleaned and ready for new mattresses. Talked to Sara about Dudin’s pay. Could not resolve over the phone. Hungry. Had lunch. Talked to Lis about new mattresses for cooks. Will definitely need  more. Talked to Ari and Santi about repairs to butterfly traps. Asked Ari if he could pick material up for that today so he can repair tomorrow. Maybe. Trying to encourage Ari to be more proactive when managing his projects. Went over work schedule for tomorrow with Helene and Supian, decided on number of staff searching/following primate groups, people scheduled for kupu-kupu traps, camera traps and kerja lain. Couldn’t answer question about what three staff members need to have for week-long exchange to Gunung Palung starting day after tomorrow. Aman available for butterfly trapping with one intern to help as well. Talked to Supian about a new backpack. He wanted a small, Riethma couldn’t find one.  Gave Supian money to buy one himself when he goes to town later today. Staff pretty happy with new mattresses. Azis K. picked up the new field pants he asked for. Adul’s watch awaiting collection. Advanced Jono Rp. 1.000.000 for doctor for his mother. Wondered about whether we’re paying too much for medical expenses and what will happen next month when purchased health insurance kicks in because care for staff’s parents will not be covered. Discussed intern schedule with Helene. Mental note to talk to Berni when he arrives at camp later today. Tried to catch Udin to pay him for 3 extra days for last month, but seems he has left. Turned on water taps to mandi buckets for filling. Turned off taps when full. Discussed fun jumping on mattresses with Helene before they’re all installed in staff house. Possible, sure. Used empty plastic box to store new sheets. Azis carried it over to men’s house. Answered Suzi’s text about asking Adul if she could go along on camera trap tomorrow. Will ask Adul when I see him. Thanked the men for cleaning their house. Asked them to be aware they have to take care of new things for house and told them that chairs and tables will follow later. Agreed with Helene about adding ‘clean office’ to gotong royong day. Put Lizzie’s new mattress in her room. Laughed at sign Emily made: “Casa Larizzie” indicating room shared by Larissa and Lizzie. Consulted with Jono about getting rid of old mattresses. He offered to take them back to village for disposal. Planned small arts and crafts project with Helene; using enamel paint to put names on field lunchboxes to try to reduce equipment loss. Had a coffee. Started working on intern review document. Said hello to Lizzie. Watched cloud cover increase. Looks like rain soon. Answered text from Azis K who cannot work tomorrow. ‘cause his neighbour died. Texted Azis to ask if he can follow gibbons instead of Azis K. Talked to Twenti about money for camp expenses. Seems like we’re 5 million short this month. Texted Riethma to confirm amount we paid earlier this month ‘cause I’ve forgotten. Retrieved intern 6-week review document from Dropbox to add tracked changes. Riethma confirmed lesser amount. Talked to Connie about her day. She told me several new words learned while we made ourselves coffee. Asked Lis about biscuits and noodles for field snacks. Paid Twenti extra money, hope we get biscuits for field snacks. Berni arrived. Talked to Berni about Chris working all projects. Plan to work on contracts tomorrow, to have ready for signature by end of month. Rescheduled Connie to follow gibbons, texted Azis to forget gibbons, he’s still on phenology tomorrow. Azis texted back OK. Dropped into kitchen and smelled good food. Discussed hunger pangs with Connie and Lizzie. Makan malam is ready and special, variety of chicken curry, lettuce and coconut kue for dessert. Laughed at Emily’s stories about waist deep water and mosquito attacks. Finished dinner.  Brought lunch boxes to mansion and painted names on them. Lizzie and Connie much more creative than me, so left them to it. Berni excavated more rat traps, looks like overnight rat massacre on the schedule. Very light rain, may get heavy later on. Played cutthroat game of Bohnanza. Went to bed, read, slept.

Everyone's got a job & they're all planned out for the month on this board

Meet Ulysses

Ulysses, an unflanged male.

This past week I had the chance to go with two of the primate staff members, Uji & Unyil, on an orangutan follow, although it wasn’t the first time I’d seen them & in fact not the first time I met Ulysses. He’s been hanging around in the trees around camp for several days, making it pretty easy to find him in the morning.

Uji collecting urine samples.

Forest lunch

The pattern of primate research, after groups of apes have been habituated to human presence, is to first search for your subject. That involves teams of 2 or 3 people walking transects in the forest, stopping at frequent intervals and looking and listening for your target. There are three primate species studied here; orangs, gibbons and red langurs, the last being the most challenging to find in the forest. Orangutans tend not to move as far (except for young males), gibbons sing in the morning, so are a bit easier to locate, and red langurs - well, I’m not sure how people find them yet. They’re smaller and more secretive. Anyways, after you’ve found your apes, you follow them, which means that gibbon and langur staff may have to travel longer distances and move more often, while Ulysses lounged around within 50 meters of camp for over 5 hours, munching on leaves and occasionally moving over to a different tree. (Male orangutans will spend most of their time alone; another pair of staff members were following a mother and baby farther away from camp.)

Unyil watching Ulysses up in the trees.

On the previous day, staff could watch
Ulysses from a chair in camp, with a
hot coffee from the kitchen.

The routine is consistent; every 5 minutes record what your subject is doing and how far he’s moved, with his current GPS location. Collect urine and faeces samples (at this point I’d like to reiterate why I’m a forester - trees don’t poop).

So while it was a pretty easy day, I had an excuse to leave the follow at 11:00 am (office work in town). My co-workers had to stay and record everything Ulysses did until he made a nest for the night and settled down, which is typically close to dusk (5 or 5:30). Considering that the day started at 5 am to be in place under the sleeping tree Ulysses chose last night, it turns out to be a long haul. Staff members usually follow apes for 3 days in a row, after which they are assigned work in the nursery or on butterfly surveys, which is a more reasonable 7 hour day.

The best part of the day for me was getting to know Uji and Unyil better. Between the 5-minute data collection points there’s a lot of time to chat & joke. And that’s one of the critical parts of my job; to build strong relationships with the staff. So I’ll be going out on more follows and searches, collecting fruiting and flowering data for tree species, identifying butterflies, picking up litter fall from leaf traps and helping with the reforestation project. Which will all be very welcome breaks from the office work and administrative details that fill a lot of my typical day!

A different forest entirely

Hang around here long enough & you just might be tracked, measured or observed - it’s going around. Scientific studies are thick on the ground along with the more recent addition of active conservation programs like reforestation and peatland restoration. In short, an incredibly productive place with reams of data collected on a daily basis. 

The Indonesian umbrella organization here (acronym: CIMTROP) is centred at Palangka Raya university - they own the camp & land around it which includes the large study area. OuTrop operates the field camp under a collaborative agreement & brings in mostly international researchers, assistants, interns and volunteers. The project was established originally to track and observe orang-utans in the wild - behavioural, nutritional, social studies, etc. etc. It expanded to include gibbons and red langurs as more people pursued new research. To properly observe these wildlife groups they must first be habituated to human presence over several years so that they won’t react and behave atypically when a couple of people are crouching in the bush watching their every move. 

Numbers of researchers and assistants on site per year vary according to which study projects are accepted, but have been rising over the last several years due to the addition of tree phenology and biodiversity studies (butterfly and fish surveys are two of these currently in progress). 

Southern Bornean gibbon

In the last month I was able to get out in the forest three times, once with a couple of visitors and the Field Director, Berni, to see if we could find some orangs - we didn’t, but met the gibbon trackers who were observing a mom & baby pair. I imagine after a long day you might need a neck massage - look up, way up, to check the animals’ activities at regular intervals (I think about every 5 minutes). The work day for primatologists stretches from when their subjects leave their sleeping places early in the morning until they bed down at night - anywhere from 6 to 10 or even 12 hours later. 

Berni checking out the gibbons,
Twenti & Helene collecting data. 

All sorts of interesting plants & insects can be seen on a short walk, and many of the mobile variety just visit you in camp. A pit viper (left) was hanging out in a small tree by one of the cabins & the wild pig diner is just outside our dining room.

Other forms of life can be seen relaxing after days in the field collecting data or in the office collating it.

CIMTROP patrol team building
a dam using stems cut from the
surrounding woods.

Meter-high seedlings from the
 forest are planted on top of the dam
 to stabilize it further.

The third day in the woods I went along with the CIMTROP patrol team to take pictures while they built two dams in one of the old logging canals. They may look narrow with slow-moving water, but these waterways lace through extensive areas of the peat forest. Intentionally dug several decades previously in order to make access via small boats & wood extraction easier. As a consequence, the canals drain water from the peat soil making the forest highly susceptible to wildfires in an area which is not at all adapted to fire. The Sabangau forest is now a conservation area, and one of the most important preservation steps is to build and maintain dams on the canals, to keep water pooling in the lowland forest.

A second smaller dam is built
upstream to slow water flow
as much as possible.

Scene from camp 3 weeks ago

Camp last week, water is rising.

I’ll have the chance to tag along with each of the projects, but since the rainy season has now started it’ll be a bit damp - sloshing on forest paths that can be hip deep in water. Ah well, that’s one sign of a healthy peatland tropical forest.