Halfway there!

C & I are heading toward Tulear to pick up her boyfriend (P) as well
as the new assistant (Ay). P will be here for three months or so and
will be helping out with data collection, and Ay will be around until
the bitter end (and then some-- he'll be killing time until World Cup
in June -- anyone need an assistant for a few months?). More people =
more data. Woohoo! I just hope that the computers hold up for the
entire time.

But, bigger news is that fieldwork is halfway done! It alternately
feels like time is flying by and that I don't have enough time to get
things done and that the next 5 months will be a long haul. In terms
of the ease of research, we're definitely coming into the more
difficult aspect of data collection. The infants are hopping all over
the place, putting things in their mouth, eating, spitting things off,
running running running and playing around. They're incredibly cute,
but as C would say, completely head wrecking. Watching mothers has now
turned into watching 2 animals at once so that you can keep track of
what the kid is doing too. We're also coming up on the beginning of
the rainy season, so it means hot and humid, as well as wasps. But,
the leaves on the trees are coming back, so it's getting easier to
identify the sticks that the lemurs have been chewing the buds off of.

Beza feels like home -- or as close to home camping/pit
latrines/sifaka hopping by your window actually can feel. When people
come through it feels like strangers are now in my kitchen, living
room, and bed room all at once. Not a few times have C and I looked at
each other with indignation when a new group of tourists rolls through
and deposits their bags and cigarette butts all over the place. In the
last group a very well meaning, and by far the nicest French tourist
thus far asked if we got exicted to see all of the vazaha come
through. I was forced to deflect the question into something less
controversial (like what time are you leaving in the morning?) rather
than answer her question with an honest 'no'. I'm still not totally
down with the amount of squatting life entails here, or that there are
more buckets in my life now than probably ever before, but, it's still
homey.

It is also incredibly surreal to be living here all of the time. This
happens most often when sitting at the table eating lunch. Orange
group will come through the house and all you can see are black and
white tails floating by the edge of the table. Occasionally when you
look over you see one of the females sprawled on the tile floor like a
dog trying to get cool, or maybe the face of 300 poking out from
around the corner in one of the bedrooms. Sometimes I have company
during lunch -- Bumps will come and sit on the edge of the table or
perched on a chair to watch me, see what I'm eating, see if it's
something she's interested in, and maybe just hang out for awhile.
Having lemurs on your table/in your kitchen/bedroom is a much
different experience then, say, some baboons or vervet monkeys. The
lemurs don't get too pushy, aggressive, or poop on everything when
they're in the house . This is a courtesy that can't really be said
for the monkeys.

Another surreal lemur moment came when I was sitting on the floor of
my tent and heard a low growl. When I looked up all I could see was a
disembodied sifaka face looking in and then hopping by. The animal
life definitely keeps us amused.

So 5.5 months down and 5 more to go. Future highlights include a
second visit by M & F's research team in December and J's dissertation
defense in January. With my research team doubling in size, I'm sure
there will be new adventures to be had, new animals to be caught, and
intrepid stories of wasp stings to be relayed. I'm looking forward to
it all.

The Omnivore's Dilemma

I just finished reading Pollan's book (parts again, parts for the
first time). I forgot that this, actually, is food porn. Blah blah
feedlots blah blah factory farming blah blah hunting delicious pig?
Excuse me? Delicious pork products? Chantarelles? Maybe some chicken
and deviled eggs? I want them. All of them. This is not a book that
should be read when you are forced to eat rice for breakfast,
especially rice with rocks in it. My own personal omnivore's dilemma
is that I haven't had sufficient opportunities to assert my
omnivorosity (yes, this is my new word for the day) here. I guess my
efforts will have to be redoubled.

More visitors!

My friends R & E are here! It's pretty amazing that they've come all
of the way out to the middle of nowhere. They're on a biking tour of
Madagascar and started at the northern trip of the island (at Nosy Be)
and have made their way to Beza (by car from Tulear). It's been great
having them here. I hope that they've had a good time and that this
has been a little sunny spot in their trip around the island (they
have had some adventures -- some not so great, some pretty
incredible).

So, who's coming next? Email to make your reservation. Time is flying
by, so you better get down here.

Baby Mania

September is the start of the birth season at Beza, and most of the
groups that I'm watching have at least one, if not more (up to 6)
babies in them so far. Baby ring-tailed lemurs are not all that cute.
They look more like little aliens with tiny black and white rat-tails.
A few of them are pretty cute though, and they're especially cute as
they turn somersaults on top of their moms.

On our day off 2 weeks ago we saw 171 (in orange) appear with a baby
after not having one 2 hours earlier when we previously had seen her.
Then, 10 minutes later we saw her eating the placenta. Really chowing
down on it (this is the norm for mammals -- most humans are the weird
ones in that we don't take advantage of this giant protein source.
Some people do eat it and others have placenta parties to share it
with their friends. That being said, I'm not lining up for placenta
bits at the salad bar). That means that the baby was probably less
than an hour old and we saw a brand spanking new kid.

The best, however, was just a couple of days later when we were out
looking for green group. C & I split up when searching out the groups
-- especially now since they're moving their ranges a bit to take
advantage of a new tree that's flowering. I ran into yellow on the
way, and saw 155 acting strangely. She just couldn't get comfortable
and wasn't foraging with the rest of the group. She would get up, turn
around, sit down. Move a meter, sit down. Groom her vulva, get up,
turn around, sit down. No matter what she did, she just couldn't find
a good spot.

Finally I looked up and saw her vulva pulsating a bit. It'd extend
outward and then 155 would get up and turn around again. This is when
I realized that she was going to have her baby. Now. 20 meters up in
the tree. I started calling for C (we have a system of hoots -- 1
hoot- I found lemurs, 2 hoots- where the crap are you, 3
hoots/constant screaming - help). So here I am, thinking that C was
going to kill me if I saw the birth and didn't get her (she was just
talking about how cool it would be to see a baby being born, which I
didn't think would happen since most primate babies are born at night.
Turns out, not so much here).

Anyhow, so I'm hooting constantly (C was wondering what was going on
-- but she stopped to watch a yellow-billed kite) and staring at this
lemur at the top of the tree. By this time 155 has found a seat and
has her tail tucked under her bum and out in front of herself. I can
see her vulva push out and then she grooms herself. Push, groom, Push,
groom. Push -- and head appears (and some goo drips down from the tree
-- I made sure not to stand directly below her). The kid comes out
face up and she gives another push and it slides right out into her
not-so-nimble hands and she scoops it into her belly where it
immediately begins to crawl up. 155 starts grooming her new baby and
herself a little and 10 minutes later is off foraging for flowers.
Done and done. Baby. Check. It's a girl, by the way.

Everyone wants to be near the babies, groom the babies, try to steal a
baby and carry it, etc. The baby stealing is a little difficult in
lemurs since they can't really grab onto the kid. The getting on and
off of mom is mostly dependant on the kid. Mom has a really limited
role and capability for keeping the baby on board. If you are a baby
crazed lemur then you sort of try to move it with you hand and wrist
and hopefully, oh joy of joys, it might crawl onto you.

The ladies in green are particularly baby-crazed now. 23 is the only
one with a baby (C calls it Gollum-- it's kind of freaky looking) and
the females are constantly trying to groom her, and be near her, and
the dominant female 9 will sit next to 23 with her arms around her
belly so she can't walk away. 336, who is 23's 2 year old daughter, is
particularly manic. She. Wants. A. BABY.
BabyBabyBabyBabyBabyBabyBabyBabyBabyBabyBaby Baby! She can't get
enough of the kid and is always bopping around 23 now (23 used to beat
on her a lot -- abusive mom) sniffing and grooming and cuddling and
sitting on top of and trying to get hold of the baby. Whenevever we
need to find 336, we just look for 23 and there she is. It's pretty
endearing.

The kids are only a week or two old and are already riding around on
everyone (even 3 year old males). It's going to be crazy to keep track
of these kids IDs until we get them marked. At least there are a lot
of them so hopefully I'll have a good sample size left after they
start disappearing.

Jurassic Park

Well, sort of. Yesterday Beza became a mini Jurassic park, at least
for about 20 minutes. I was sitting on the ground watching red sleep
(C was with yellow) and looked up to see one of the biggest hissing
cockroaches I had ever seen. This thing was a good 4 inches long, and
was not happy to be poked/captured/prodded. It hissed and hissed and
hissed at me. While getting up to go catch the cockroach, I looked
about 4 meters further back, and moving along in the leaves was what
looked like an iguana. I thought that was a bit odd, since Beza (and
Madagascar as a whole) doesn't have large iguanas. When I stood up I
realized that it was the biggest chameleon that I have ever seen! It
was giant. It's body was about 10-11 inches long and really wide. He
was a few shades of mottled brown, with a red underbelly and legs. It
also wasn't so happy to be picked up and he was able to get his claws
into me fairly well. I finally got hold of him by his neck and casque
so he couldn't bite or claw me. He flashed red for awhile and held
open his giant, bright yellow mouth while puffing himself up, but
eventually he calmed down enough so that I could get some pictures.

It was really cool to see two giant individuals of the animals I've
seen around, but apparently only junior versions of. It's been getting
warm lately, as in it's over 40 degrees C (105 Farenheit), so the
hidden creatures are starting to emerge little by little. This also
means that the giant centipedes and scorpions are also starting to
poke their heads out too, and I'm not looking forward to the rains
when they really make a showing. For the mean time we'll just have to
be content with lemur babies and giant chameleons.

Arboretum d'Anstokay

K & I had a few days in Tulear so we decide to visit the arboretum
that's just outside of Tulear called Antsoky. It's actually a really
nice place, with a small hotel (Auberge de la Table) that's in
construction, as well a a really nice swimming pool and restaurant.

The arboretum was pretty great. We had a tour guide that took us for
about an hour walk, guided in English, through the garden. The plants
were all labeled really nicely and the garden is starting to mature
well. It's filled with plants that are native to southern Madagascar,
and was really nice to see many of the plants that I see every day
(but don't know because the lemurs don't eat them), as well as learn
how local people put a lot of the different plants to use: from
building pirogues to various medicinal uses. A lot of these were
really nicely put together in well-illustrated signs (I must admit,
I'm now a sucker for informational signage).

At the end of the walk we came to their small 'museum', which as a
smattering of different minerals, some nice fossils, and more plants
in jars. And we got to see their radiated tortoise enclosure at had
over 40 tortoises in it! They were packed on top of each other and
hugging the walls for places to sleep. It was amazing to see so many
tortoises all together. We see them on a fairly regular basis around
the forest, but that many tortoises is a sight. I'm not sure how they
all got there -- if they are rescues or if they were collected. I'm
not sure. I didn't get to ask because our tour guide legged it out of
there as fast as she could.

We had a nice lunch after the walk on the veranda, near the pool. Goat
cheese is one of the house specialties, so we had plenty of that. The
Swiss guy (Pétignat) who started the place moved to Madagascar as an
expat and originally tried to raise goats and market goat cheese. In
true Malagasy style, his tomb is in the center of the garden. Anyhow,
while his chevre business didn't really quite take off, he was also an
amateur botanist and decided to open a botanical garden as well. So,
we had plants and goat cheese, and I don't think that either of us
minded at all. The cheese was great -- full of garlic and herbs. Now
if only I can get someone in a village here to make goat cheese, we'd
be set.

Sarodrano & the beach

K leaves in a just a couple of days to head back to Tana and then back
to reality of Arizona. To put that off as far as possible we took a
little vacation to Sarodrano -- a little fishing village on a sandy
peninsula south of Tulear.

We stayed at Chez Andrea. It's a little hotel with a few bungalows
that have no electricity or running water. It's actually pretty nice.
There really isn't anything at Sarodrano, just you, the beach, and the
village, so electricity isn't really necessary. There was still cold
beer, so we were good. We had candles and kerosene lanterns for light,
and outside of the first night there wasn't anyone else there.

Chez Andrea is an eponymous hotel run by a really nice Italian guy.
He's been in the area for about 20 years and can be a bit of a
character, especially when he was telling us about another guy on the
peninsula who is rumored to be a pedophile and abuser of the
handicapped-- but he's not one to gossip. Andrea made sure that we had
great food (all delicious seafood -- fish, octopus, squid in a variety
of sauces, but mostly tomato) and that we were generally happy. Since
we were the only ones around, that probably wasn't too much of a
burden for him.
It was pretty great. We did nothing. We walked around the beach and
mangroves and sat around and read. The only downside was that it was
crazy windy, so there really wasn't any swimming or beach time. It was
windy enough to keep us from going on any boating excursions, but we
were okay with that.

Sarodrano is an incredibly sandy place. While there are huge sand
dunes (with really nice sand), when the wind comes whipping up from
the south, it's not so comfortable. Most afternoons would find us
sitting in the one corner that was in the sun and out of the wind, and
just big enough for two chairs. When we walked around the peninsula we
were usually joined by the 5 dogs that lived around the hotel. It was
pretty funny to have this pack of dogs follow us around, barking at
the other dogs and leaning on us for affection. While they ran far
away from us when we were away from the village, as soon as we came
near anyone else they stuck to us like glue, probably to avoid being
kicked, hit, or harassed by the other people around.

One of the amazing things about Sarodrano is the concentration of
shells on the beach. There are shells everywhere -- some that are
gigantic. Most beaches that I've been to, even ones that are pretty
out of the way, seem to get picked over pretty well, but Sarodrano
beaches are still pretty rich in shells. One of the down sides to the
beach near the village is that it's used as a latrine. Best not to go
shell hunting there at low tide.

We took a pirogue back from Sarodrano to Tulear. It was a really
pleasant sailing trip. The wind wasn't so strong that we got soaked or
so weak that we didn't move. We had taken this guy's pirogue over to
the peninsula as well, but I didn't notice until we were walking the
beach at Tulear with him that he was missing his big toe on his right
foot. Looks like it was chopped right off. While he might not have
been so great at soccer, he could still sail a boat though.

First International Bank of Beza

This is what I will need to brand myself as if things keep up the way
they have been.

It's not unusual for the people who work at Beza to ask for loans--
they do it quite often from the bosses at the reserve, as well as from
the researchers. Loans are usually taken out against future salary,
and when I (and others in the past) make a loan, I always get approval
from the person's boss, or to be doubly sure, get an assurance that if
the person defaults on their loan, I can take it out of my monthly
camping fees.

The loan requests, though are getting bigger.

One of the guys who works for me recently asked to borrow 500,000
Ariary to buy a bull for his father-in-law's funeral. Since he's the
son in law, he needed to make a big showing at the funeral, and I was
able to loan him over half of what he needed (incidentally, the bull
was amazing. Black and white with beautifully recurved horns --
apparently the best for a funeral).

Someone else recently asked for 600,000 to work on his house. For
those of you keeping track at home, there are around 1970 ariary to 1
dollar. If we round out at a nice 2,000 conversion rate, this is
asking for $300. I was able to give him part of this, but man, the
loans are getting to be a serious burden on my own liquidity.

Most people's capitol is in the form of zebu. It's easier to count and
keep track of your cows than paper money, so when the time comes when
people see a need for quick cash, it's a bit more difficult to
mobilize your four legged hedge fund, and it becomes necessary to get
the money elsewhere. I'm happy to help out when I can, but I'm
starting to feel like I need to ask for loan applications and
introduce the concept of interest. This would, of course, never fly.

In the short few months that I've been here I've made many more (and
some substantial) loans. It's sort of shocking to me to think about
how much money has come and gone beween me and these other folks. I'm
used to dealing with plastic, and rarely have more then $20 or $30 on
me at any time (usually it's less than $5). Even though I know the
people fairly well that I'm loaning money to, sending these large sums
of money walking, only to come back little by little in the future
does make me a little bit uncomfortable. I'm going to continue to help
out as much as I can, but considering my own current issues with the
flow of money, it might not be as much as other people hope for.

Good times (or when the money floats away)

Well, not all times are good in Madagascar. On our way in to Tulear on
Friday, I found out that one of my granting organizations was going to
suspend my fellowship (which was substantial) because of security
concerns in Madagascar. I was kindly informed that I could move my
fellowship to another Sub-Saharan African country if I were so
inclined.

Excuse me? What was that?

Now, the serious political unrest in Madagascar started in January
and, for the most part, was over with by the end of February. Since
then there was a general feeling of unease, but currently talks are
under way (or concluded -- I'm not quite sure) to form a transitional
government. If serious security concerns were to be made, it seems
that it was during the initial time of the coup, not now. The
coordinator for my fellowship knew that I was leaving for Madagascar
in May, and I even checked to make sure that the fellowship would
continue to be available to me before I left. It was supposed to start
in July, but paperwork, etc etc. I should have started working off of
their support now, so, the email telling me, that no, in fact they
weren't going to support me here was a bit of a surprise.

We're trying to work through everything, but it's a bit disconcerting,
especially when I'm on the opposite side of the world and 10 hours
ahead of Phoenix and 7 hours ahead of the East Coast. Luckily K & I
were having a final goodbye dinner with AR & BD, and they were
incredibly helpful with support and suggestions for what to do next.
My advisor and director of our international scholarship office have
also been incredibly helpful, and hopefully the fellowship will be
reinstated, especially considering that I am already here. Seriously.
I'm here. Doing my thing. Keep the money coming guys. It's going to
good use, I swear.

Security concerns? Now? I think that someone just caught an old Google
update on Madagascar. Either they have some incredible intelligence on
what will happen in the future, or are a bit behind the curve. Could
be both, I guess.

Some musings on the security concerns. In January-February it was of
incredible concern, especially since my friend S was here working at
Beza. Then, I was unsure about what kind of reaction to the faffing
around Tana she would see here in the south, but the answer is
nothing. Not a thing. The south of Madagascar is really a long way
from Tana, and Beza is a long way from the major city, Tulear. The
people around Beza need to be more concerned with their day-to-day
lives than changes in a relatively non-existent government (in our
area). I don't feel in any way that my security is being threatened
(except by the Police who were trying to extort some bribes the other
day, but that's a different story). I have a great set of colleagues,
friends, and employees here who I really feel that I can count on and
who I feel have my best interest at heart. While we may not go about
things in the same way, I feel like they're always looking out for me
and my team, and I certainly know that they are always keeping tabs on
the vazaha -- whatever we may be doing.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for increased understanding and
movement in the bureaucracy. I hope the wheels keep on turning.

And we're back!

Back to Tulear. K & I were lucky enough to get a ride in with other
researchers. We've spent the last few days at the beach in Sarodrano
and are now in Tulear for the next 5 days or so until K gets on a
plane for Tana and I find a comfy taxi-brousse ride back to Betioky.
So, in the mean time, more blog summarizing and hopefully I can get
some photos up -- but that might have to wait until I get back to
Betioky with its lightening-fast internet connection.

Veloma!

S leaves in 10 days. It's pretty incredible that she's been here for nearly a year and it's been great to have here her. I wish that she could stay for another 8 months to hang out, but I guess she'd like to get back to her life in Arizona, and maybe even work on getting her data written up.

To say goodbye and thank you to everyone here, S organized a going away party for herself. There was a goat, rice, squash, some sugar cane, and lots and lots of rum and dancing. Even though S isn't leaving Beza until 12 Aug we had the party on the 27th so that the other research team that was here could be here for the party. The shenanigans were plentiful and if Flickr will cooperate with me, there will be some photos too.

My field assistant A is also on his way out today too. He's back off to USC to keep working on the samples that he collected while here and we wish him luck.

Whistling through the forest

The tried and true methods for finding primates in the forest are to
1) wander the forest looking around and 2) stop and listen. The most
effective method for me is probably #2 since it's much much easier for
me to hear jumping/grunting/screaming/destructive foraging primate
than to spot them when they're standing still or hiding. There is
another method -- smell them. This is especially useful if you have a
particularly stank species like howler monkeys, Eulemur species, and
gorillas -- all of them odoriferous.

One of the easiest ways to find ring-tailed lemurs is to call to them.
This is one of my favorite things about ring-taileds. They will
typically do their meow-like contact call when encountering other
groups, and it just so happens that we can mimic that call pretty well
with whistles. Our study groups aren't radio collared (the easiest way
to find your animals), so when we're looking for lemurs, a lot of our
time is spent wanderiing the forest, stopping to listen, and then
giving a series of whistles to see if we can get anyone to call back.
Some groups are more talkative than others (Purple doesn't talk much),
and some times of the year are also easier to get them to call,
especially when the kids are starting to roam around on their own. If
we could only get them to answer to their names/number then we'd be
all set for finding our study animals.

Beza Bling

K & I made it back to Beza safely, if not slowly. The guy who is
driving the car that's at Beza right now (courtesy of another research
team) took forever on the road back. But, I can't complain since it
was in a car and not in an ox cart. K was a little disappointed that
she didn't get to ride in a charette back to camp, but I assured her
that she would get the full experience soon enough.

When we got back to camp I had a suprise -- that one of my study
subjects was missing. A juvenile male. One of the last two left in our
study groups. Doh! So, now I only have one male left to fill out the
9-20 month old section of my data collection. The males were hit hard
this year, and I really, really hope that the last guy doesn't get
eaten.

It's been busy and pretty fun the last couple of weeks at camp. The
above-mentioned research team brought 4 people, so camp has been
pretty active. There is constantly something new going on, and it's
kind of nice to see some of my study animals up close when the other
team has darted them and are completing their measurements, dental
impressions, and other business. The uncollared animals are getting
their brand new bling-- bright and shiny collars and numbered tags.
It's a little strange to see them with collars -- and to have a number
to refer to them by and not just a nickname or age-sex category. But,
they do look nice with their new brightly colored accessories.

Back to the bush...

and to the land of suspicious chameleons. J & H are actually in Betioky tonight, so we can head back to Beza in the morning -- at 6. This works out just fine since I wake up around 5 these days.

We had dinner at Hotel Mahafaly -- some rice and chicken with sauce. This was after a little pre-dinner snack of incredibly delicious samosas from a guy on the street. Man they were good. It's too bad that I really hadn't eaten all day and was starving, otherwise we probably could have eaten only samosas and been happy. Man those things were good.

It's been a nice little break, coming to pick up K. I'm ready to get back to the lemurs to see what their up to and to see how camp has changed now that we have another enitre research team there. It should be interesting at the very least. This means no more posts for the next couple of months. Too bad -- it's been fun updating the last couple of days. But, there definitely will be more to come.

Some help with banana bread

IMG_2607_small
Originally uploaded by teague_o

S & I made banana bread awhile ago. This is 171 -- she's a female in orange group who is very, very bold, and wanted to help with baking very very much. She was hanging around on the table and a little banana goo spilled, so S pushed it toward 171 -- who ate it all up. 171 then decide that she was going to eat the rest of the banana goo right out of the bowl while S was stirring. The showdown between the two of them was pretty funny because man, 171 really wanted that banana stuff. There are a few more photos of her trying to get to the bowl and then of her trying to get to the bowl when it has another plastic bowl over it. If only they had brains enough to push the bowl over, it would have been a banana bonanza.

Back to Betioky and on to Beza

K & I made it back to Betioky this afternoon in way less time than I was expecting. On the way to Toliara we took a little microbus (like a matatu) -- it was pretty quick. The way back we were on a big taxi brusse, so I was expecting a much longer ride. Turns out it was only about an hour longer. And still pretty comfy. We're in the little hotel run by a guy named Hery that's over near the hosptial, for all you folks familiar with Betioky (and there are so, so many who are -- ha!). It's not a bad place. The room has a double bed, with mosquito net AND lights AND a plug for electricity. There's a mostly clean shower (with cold water), and a giant latrine that I could bring all my friends into, but I still can't stand up in. We're going to go find some sambosas and other fried things for dinner. And drink some cold beer. The last cold beer for months. That's a little depressing to think of, but I guess there's always rum!

Running around

So, it's much, much nicer to run errands and to shop for all of the million different things that you need when you have someone with you. When Kate came with me yesterday to run errands in Toliara, I realized that it was one of the few times when I've had good company for getting things done. It was pretty great. It also helped that everyone was super super nice yesterday. The woman at the spice store was incredible, very sweet, and gave us a little freebie (she should have, I bought half of the store), and the guy at the vazaha store Magic Center was incredibly helpful. He also spoke the most clearly enunciated French I have ever heard, particularly from native speakers. The women who sew the lambas gouged me, but it was okay because the laughed and laughed and fought amongst themselves. Overall, it was a pretty nice day.

In the afternoon we went to Munsa's house to visit and have a little something, and meet his family. He of course gave a little speech as he, Kate & I sat down for a little snack. This speech was on how now he's met my family, and I've met his family, so we're all one big happy family now. It was pretty sweet. His house was great -- far away from the rest of the little village with a lot of room to spread out in. He's in the process of building a new house that he hopes to finish in December. Good luck to him on that one.

Rookie mistakes

Well, I just made the rookie bush-league mistake of leaving my blackberry in my pocket while running errands this morning -- and of course lost it in a pousse-pousse (Malagasy version of a rickshaw). I'm sure some very poor Malagasy man is going to make a lot of money off of it. I tried calling it and it's already been turned off, so I'm guessing it's a lost cause now. I asked the woman at the reception desk here (Chez Alain) to help me talk to the guy and offer a reward, and when she found out what kind of phone it was her eyes said 'no chance in hell, bud' while her laugh said 'stupid vazaha'. This is what I get for liking that phone so much -- but man, I should know better. I do know better. It's amazing that all things are tranquilo at the forest, but once I come to town I become a complete moron.

To my red blackberry -- I hope you find a nice new home.

...cause I'm meetin fine in a minute...

That's right -- K gets here this afternoon! Today's plan is to run around Toliara taking care of errands, re-arranging flights for A, getting some supplies, and maybe squeezing in some ice cream. Mmmm. Ice cream. And then off to the airport to collect K!

Last night I ate at Le Jardin and had a giant, giant plate of grilled prawns. They were so tasty. It took me almost an hour to eat them all there were so many. The mustard sauce that came with them was also really delicious -- it's only been like 6 weeks, but man, it was nice not to eat rice for a meal.

New profession

New profession
Originally uploaded by teague_o

I've just discovered that I am super awesome at driving ox carts. It's a hidden talent, but one that I hope to work on some more and then open up my own franchise ox carting service, maybe somewhere nice. C & I took a charette (the ox cart) to Betioky so I can go pick K up from Tulear. I tried to walk for a long part of the ride (I don't fit in an ox cart so well), and one of the guys with us, Munsa, was getting very concerned that I would get too tired (what does he think I do in the forest all day? nap?). Anyhow, at one point he made me drive the cart so I would stop walking. It was pretty fun, and much, much nicer than riding in the back with the bags, 2 more people, the food for the cows, a giant sack of sweet potatoes, and 5 ducks. The ride to Betioky wasn't so comfy today.

Slowly

IMG_2672
Originally uploaded by teague_o

Working on getting back and catching up on emails. I posted a few more pictures on flickr -- the link to the newest set is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/teague_o/sets/72157620997000682/

Living in Lilliput

I am not made for developing countries. At least my size is not made for these places. Beds, cars, and even the forest-- all of these things are too small, short, tiny for me. I understand why forest people are so tiny -- they can't be tall or they're constantly be getting spider webs in their face or tangled in all manner of nasty vines. I had to fold myself up to fit into the ox cart that brought us into Betioky -- not such an easy task with 2 other people, baggage, and 5 ducks. Now that I'm in Betioky I"m too tall even for the latrine. Maybe the Swedes or Norwegians should have colonized this place instead of the French?

Betioky

And back to some cold beer! C & I made the ox cart trip in about 6 hours. Some times it was excruciating, other times not so bad (especially when I got to drive). It was a nice trip overall, and I'm heading to Toliara tomorrow morning by taxi-brusse and C heads back to Beza via ox cart. Let the internetting begin! I'll get some new posts up for your viewing pleasure...

Independence Day

Yesterday (June 26) was a big, big day -- Madagascar's Independance day. Munsa (who works for National Parks) decided to organize a small party to celebrate the day. S & I bought rum, toka gasy, and supplied what we needed to cook the goat that was walked over from one of the villages nearby. C & I came back for lunch (we left A in the forest to keep track of the lemurs we were watching) and Munsa made sure to show us the goat and asked if we wanted any pictures of it. I told him only if he was willing to pose with the goat, so none were taken. We did get some sugar cane to chew on though which was pretty funny -- C can never had it before. I saw one of the other guys (Ithala) staring at her behind me and I was wondering what was going on. He then said something to Munsa, who reminded me that you aren't supposed to eat the cane -- just chew. That's when I hear a giant gasp from C -- "What?! You aren't supposed to eat it?" and fessed up to swallowing it (which is what Ithala was staring at). Everyone thought that was hilarious -- silly vazaha doesn't know how to work the sugar cane.

Anyhow, goat meets its end and we come back from the forest early for the party. We had myself, S, A & C, Enata (random kid who hangs around getting in the way), Ithala (one of the guards) and his first wife and 3 kids, Lala (one of our cooks) and her husband Etuvani, Munsa and his wife (number 3) and their kid (I call him bucket-head. This kid has a serious noggin. It's like an orange on a toothpick. Or like my cousin when he was little), Elahavelo (who works for the Ecological Monitoring Team and for me collecting fecal samples), Fanamesa (other gaurd), and Asenay (Ithala's second wife).

The tables in the dining room were moved around into an L shape and everyone was seated all around the edge -- no backs to anyone. Munsa made a speech -- Malagasy people love, love the speeches-- and introduced everyone. It was pretty funny. He kept forgetting everyone's names so S & I would fill them in for him. We started out with some rum and goat 4 ways. Dried goat meat, ribs, intestines, and liver. The dried meat and the ribs were by far the best. The intestines-- too tough and liver was okay, but very liver-y (as it tends to be). After the goat was some papaya and sugar cane (more jokes about C). Then came the rice and some more goat in a watery sauce. It was fantastic and really reminded me of Thanksgiving or something similar with everyone sitting around the table (there was even a kids table -- mat on the floor).

Throughout dinner we had Malagasy music playing (sometimes way too loudly). So, we had bursts of dancing throughout the meal. These were always followed by applause -- often times started by the dancer themselves (Malagasy also really love the clapping. There's clapping for everything it seems). There was lots of rum and toka gasy all through dinner, which is probably why there was so much dancing.

Lots and lots of dancing. In particular, we had Asenay shaking it. We're talking badonka-donk. It was all about the butt shaking -- and S and C tried to learn a little of it. Malagasy women can definitely beat out the white girls when it comes to making the money maker earn, but I think everyone has fun trying (sorry S).

We had a great Independance Day. I think everyone was happy to celebrate another year of Madagascar, even though the last few months haven't been the brightest for the Grande Ile. One of our friends in Tana decided not to decorate his house this year for Independence Day -- there were too many problems and the government and the country were not something of which he was proud this year so why hang up flags for it? I understand his point, and see that even though things seem to be fine in Tana (at least as far as I'm concerned) there is still a very strong current of discontent running throughout secions of the capital. We really are out of contact with Malagasy news, so for all I know there could be another reversal of government, or new elections, or maybe they've decided on a king.

Lemur snacks

One of the down sides of studying juvenile ring-tailed lemurs is that not too many of them stick around for long. This populations has an average mortality rate of about 50% -- half of the kids from any given year will die, whether from infection, some congenital defect, or predation. This year has been especially good for the predators since now over 60% of this year's kids have disappeared. We're never really quite sure what happens to the kids. They could be picked off by the Madagascar Harrier Hawk, for example. The harrier hawk is a really impressive raptor. When I hear hawk, I think of something like a red-tailed hawk or maybe a Swainson's hawk. Both of these aren't so big. The Madagascar harrier though is about 70 centimeters, making it pretty huge by hawk standards. The lemurs are pretty scared of them, and just hearing the call of a distant soaring harrier is enough to drive them down low from the trees and contact call as if checking to make sure everyone is around. A close harrier will make the lemurs scream an alarm call and dive down out of the trees. This is especially fun if you're standing directly under them and you have a dozen or more screaming lemurs jumping down at your face.

Ring-tailed lemurs here are also eaten by dogs and feral cats. The lemurs hate, hate, hate dogs. Dogs barking freak them out. Cats on the other hand only inspire low grunting and maybe moving a little higher in the trees. Considering how many lemurs are probably eaten by cats, and what C & I saw in the forest, maybe they need to get on top of the cat alarm calling.

We were watching Green group in the eastern section of the forest (our study groups are all collared and named accordingly. I'm studying Green, Red, Blue Orange, Yellow, Teal, and Purple). Green was on the ground licking dead wood (probably to eat termite soil), when I saw another group about 20 meters away. I could see a collared male, but couldn't read his number and didn't see collars on anyone else. There are quite a few uncollared lemur groups around, and since males transfer between groups I asked C to go check it out and see who it was. While she was watching the new group I finished up my observation session and joined her up the trail. We saw a subadult sitting on the trail and then spotted a juvenile coming down a large tree about 10-15 meters away. C & I were looking around trying to see what lemurs were around when we heard shrieking and screaming. At first I thought it was just the kid getting beat on by another lemur, but when I looked down I saw that it was the kid all-right, but it was getting killed by a cat! The cat had pinned the kid down by the neck/back of the head and the lemur thrashed for a couple of seconds and then was still. The cat looked up at me with a 'back off-- this is my lemur' angry kitty face and then took off, with the dead lemur in its mouth like a kitten, down the trail and then disappeared off of the trail. C and I tried to follow her, but couldn't find the cat or her newly acquired prize.

Here's what I found a little disturbing. There were no alarm calls until about 30-40 seconds after the kid was dead and gone. No warning, no shrieks from the adults who jumped away as the kid was getting munched by the cat. Maybe its that the cats are too stealthy for the lemurs (lemurs are dumb. duh-umb), or that the adults were trying to stay hidden as long as possible until they were at an appropriately safe spot to alarm call or what, but the lemurs aren't so good with the cats.

I hope that the cats can continue to eat the other groups that I'm not studying so that I can keep the few lemurs I have left. We'll see about that one though.

National pride

This evening we came back to camp to find every building that would stand still was now holding a Madagascar flag. Independance day is coming up (26 June) and An. tells us that they always decorate on the 15th. We also found a new ensemble of about 20 masks in various facial poses and some little wooden containers that An. brought for independance day. I thought that they were going to try to sell them to toursists, but who knows. The masks are made out of a really light colored wood, with eyes and a mouth cut out (some smile, some frown). Facial featers are burnt into the surface of the wood. The masks aren't too big -- maybe 10 inches. I don't think that Malagasy traditionally use masks the way that continetal Africans do, but if it'll sell to a tourist, more power to them.

Sexy times in the forest

Yesterday we started watching a new group -- blue. It's one of the largest of the ring-tailed groups and tends to range throughout the degraded areas, at least during the dry season. We found them relatively early, and quickly found that one of our focal animals was super, super sexy. When I looked up and saw here, all I could thing of was how giant her vulva was -- it was so big that every time I saw her I thought she was trying to crap (which is also exciting for me, I'm not gonna lie). She had just come back into estrous. Ring-tailed lemurs are typically 'synchronous' in their estrous. Mating is usually confined to about a 7-10 day period once per year (here, early May). I used to pity them their once yearly sexual escapades, but after seeing yesterday I think that once per year might be too many times if you're a ring-tailed lemur.

Even though there's the whole once per year rule, occasionally if females don't get pregnant the first time around (or lose the fetus), then they'll come into a second estrous, which is what our girl had done. Whether or not the infants fare any better or worse isn't clear (probably worse, but who knows considering the 50-65% mortality rate). But it doesn't mean that there can't be excitement.

Exciting or annoying is what it was. The supreme sexitude of our girl was so much that the males had no idea what to do with themselves. It was like the worst-case scenario of last call at a bar and a frat party rolled into one. The males were all chasing each other around, scent marking everywhere, unti after an hour or so a new suitor would emerge. Our girl seemed to take a shine to one or two males into particular and she let them copulate -- but it's not so simple with 5 other guys around who want in on the action. A suitor would assume the position, just to get up 2 seconds later to chase of someone who had come too close (within 15 meters). He'd come back and give it another shot, just to run off 5 seconds later to chase another male off. Then all hell would break loose and they would all chase each other around, screaming, cuffing, and bouncing off of trees. These females have way more patience than I would generally give them credit for.

This was amusing. For about 10 minutes.

Luckily, yesterday's shenanigans were over today, and all was calm for the day's observations. I'm glad that I'm really not that interested in mating behavior because it's crazy in these guys. Too much testosterone cycling up and down.

On the up side, A and I found a complete dog skeleton today. Complete = including the baculum. It was the first baculum (penis bone that most mammals have) I've ever found. I'm really proud of it and just now it occured to me that maybe it might make a nice necklace?

Sing-a-lng

Tonight is sing-a-long hootanany night at Beza I guess. The guys have been having meetings with village and government representatives about an impending distribution of funds, and I think that this is a sort of celebration that it's almost over. At least it's an excuse to drink some toka gasy (the local rum). One of the conditions with the establishment of Beza as a reserve, as well as its recent expansion is that 15% of the entrance fees and camping fees are supposed to go back to the villages. In the next month or so, about 30 years worth of fees are going to be distributed out, and these meetings have been to decide which projects are going to be funded across 14 villages that surround the reserve. There was a meeting of about 40 men here yesterday, and there is supposed to be a smaller one tomorrow. We'll see what the future of this money is going to be and where the villagers feel that it is most important to spend their money now.

4 June

Well, we arrived at Beza without any serious problems. We had a little issue on the road from Betioky (the last small town) to Beza -- namely, we couldn't really find the road all that well. We ended up getting to Betioky just before dark. The driver needed to stop for some food, so by the time we left, it was dark. The first/last time I came to Beza it was in the dark, so I wasn't too worried. We made it through the giant puddle/pond that you have to drive through, but the endless maze of ox-cart tracks that weave in and out of each other was what ended up getting us. Eventually, after getting stuck and pushing out once we came to a dead end -- this obviously wasn't the way. So, we backed up and went looking for the way which took us about an hour. The driver kept asking me if 'this was the way' or 'should we go left or right'. Fuck if I knew. I eventually suggested that we go back down the dead end road since we were looking for a turn off that the driver remembered. Turns out we just missed it (twice), but eventually made our way to Beza, where everyone was already asleep, but we were able to get our stuff out of the truck and get my palatial tent set up.

This tent, it's kind of huge. I can stand up in it, and it's about 9 feet by 6 feet. S called it my man cave, but has since re-named it the teague-gloo. I'll do a Beza cribs edition at some point, I think.

It was great to have K & S here when we arrived. Seeing S again was a long time coming, so it was nice to finally have her around again. Over the last 2 weeks, S has been able to help me sort out the lemur groups and individuals, as well as get me settled back in to Beza life. I'm really happy that she'll be here for 2 more months. We work really well together in the field, and that's something that I'm learning more and more that I can't take for granted. Ever.

The first few days were spent getting everything set up and organized. A and C, my two field assistants, helped as much as the could, but most things I needed to do myself. They ended up wandering around the park a bit, which gave them a little introduction to Beza. The first task we had was to get all of the phenology transects in. One of my goals for the project is to monitor the amount and types of food that are available throughout the different study areas. We put in 21 transects throughout the protected and unprotected areas. I have been lucky enough to have an actual botany student here (he's working with Jk, the science director), so botany guy and I walked through the transects and Identified all of the trees. It was awesome. Transects have never been that easy and fun, and I decided that I need a pocket botanist for every other study.

After getting the food issues mostly set up, the next task we had was to work on behavioral data. We needed to practice using the program that I'm using to record behavior, JWatcher, and to make sure we all had the same ideas about which behaviors are what. This also gave us a chance to learn how to recognize all of the animals -- most of them have collars, and S and I have dye-marked some as well. We finally got all of that sorted out and started actual data collection yesterday. From now on its all data all of the time. Oh. Yeah.

Packing up to leave Tana

Is the goal for today. Hopefully we're able to exit Tana quickly and without too many stops out on the way. We still have to arrange visa extensions and I have some questions I still need to ask, so it might take awhile. Oh, and we have to pack a lot of stuff into a not so big truck bed. It could be very interesting. Between the 3 of us there are 9 pieces of checked luggage (mine are giant) and then all of our food and other supplies. Tetris will be fun.

Yesterday was mostly driving back and forth from the airport, so not much new to report on that front besides we got our bags. It was a close one since of course they hold all of the 'rush' marked bags until the very, very end. Then, as we were clearing customs I was dumb/tired enough to say I had a generator in one of the action packers whcih set off a cascade of the customs guys looking at each other, one coming back, asking how big it was, and me finally having to go off with one exasperated official looking one to his office. He started rummaging through papers, and obviously couldn't find what he wanted. He asks if I speak French and then proceeds to tell me that I need a customs declaration form. Probably is, he doesn't have any copies of one (and no photocopier). He tells me I need to pick one up at the airport (I was at the airport) and I was afraid he was going to make me leave everything that we had been waiting 2 days for at customs, come back the next day and find someone with a tiny form/photocopier. I then some explained that I haven't needed one before, but I sure will do it next time. He looks at me and starts to usher me out of the office saying that yes, I will definitely do it next time and to pick up a form when I leave the country. Beauracracy at its best.

Looks like its time to pack things up here and to move on. If I can get the internet card working then there should be more later.

Success!

Bags got here tonight. We're getting ready to head out tomorrow morning, but we'll see how it goes. Right now there is a chorus of <> men singing random songs outside our window. It's pretty awesome. I'll let you know if Hotel California comes on.

1,153,649

That is how much I spent (in Ariary) on food and supplies today. It's the first time that I'v ever spent over a million of anything. Maybe my next multimillion purchase will be something more fun. An island. Or a boat. Thankfully A was with me so that we could push two carts filled with our crap for at least the next 3 months. Hopefully at least three months. A made a complete list, but it included 25 kg of rice, 30 kg of beans, who knows how much pasta, tomato sauce, garlic, onions, carrots, buckets, brushes, soap, on and on and on. Supply runs are so exciting!

Today has gone pretty well. A and I had breakfast at the hotel (we're at St. Laurent to stay close to the MICET office) where the staff, for some reason, pretty much rolled themselves down the stairs cackling at something that was apparently hilARious. We went down to MICET, picked up a car, went shopping spent millions of ariary, and went to the airport -- to find that our bags, again, were not there. The guy told us that they will come in tomorrow on an Air Madagascar flight (we flew South African) because the plane was bigger, and therefore can hold more weight. I am still skeptical.

While shopping we picked up some shiny new cell phones. I have now decided that all phones in the US are a racket since I spent 7.50 on the one here. I have no idea why I didn't do this last time around.

We met briefly with Jn. who is the the biodiversite coordinator for the forestry department at the Univ. of Tana. It was nice to check in with him and see how things are and catch up quickly. We learned that despite the general calm in the city, all people are not happy, especially many of those who have worked with Beza for a long time.

Tonight's dinner was interrupted with power outages -- so A and I enjoyed a lovely candle-lit dinner. Lights were back on in our room for all of 10 minutes, and then out again. The power outages are new to me, but may be more common in this neighborhood than where I stayed before.

Tana has been nice so far, but I'm already itching to leave. I've had my dose of diesel fumes, so I think that once all of the people and possesions are here, then we are going to hit the road. The goal is still to leave Friday morning, and I really hope that the baggage cooperates with us.

Tana

We made it! The flights over went really smoothly. Sadly, I didn't have time to leave Heathrow to see a friend, but I got to nap instead. Terminal 5 at Heathrow is huge and ridiculous, but it was better than sitting in a tiny tiny terminal in a place like, say, Grand Forks (sorry to all the Grand Forks fans).

Upside --I was afraid that I was going to have to sell a kidney to pay for a second set of excess baggage fees when I got to South Africa and transferred from BA to South African air since K had to when she came out 2 weeks ago and the airline told me I would as well-- turns out, if you tell them you've already paid, show a receipt for an original payment, smile and say that you're living in a tent for a year, you don't have to.

Downside-- But, true to form our bags didn't make it. A and I waited, and nothing showed up. We're checking on that situation today and hopefully they make it here. Last time, it took 3 or 4 days though. That wasn't ideal.

We had a brief meeting at MICET when we got in yesterday. Permits seem to be ready to go and we are heading back today so that we can go shopping for all of our food and other random things. Hopefully I can get a cell phone too, which will make things more convenient.

One of the things that I had forgotten about was jet lag. I has it. Both A and I went to sleep last night around 7. I managed to sleep until about 3 and then stare at the dark for a while and finally get back to sleep for a few more hours until waking up to some guy below the hotel selling some random thing. I know this because he shouts the same phrase over and over and over. Good times at the St. Laurent.

Off to do some shopping.

Outta here

I'm sitting in the airport in Phoenix, trying to figure out what to do with myself. I've had a drink already (last time to be carded for a long time I suspect), so now I'm checking email and catching up on internet-type things.

The experience of packing up and moving out of the country and into a tent for a year has been a strange one. On the one hand, I've done this many times before. Leaving for 3 months here, a 6 month stint there, and month-long trips all seem to be standard to me. But this feels much different. It's longer, more involved, and I'm leaving behind people and things that I love very much. This is also supposed to be the big data collection push, so the quality of my final dissertation product hinges on what I'm able to accomplish in the months to come. The strangeness and enormity of being gone for the next 10-12 months didn't really hit me until this weekend and I'm still wandering around in it, I guess.

I am excited to get things going. I'm expecting it to be a fantastic experience. I have a great set of field assistants who will help me with collecting data, and I will be able to see two of my best friends at Beza.

Now if only I can get these damn flights out of the way...

Going away

Thanks to everyone who came by on Saturday for the going away do. I was completely surprised by all of you who showed up in your t-shirts with the amazing logo that Kate created and then sneakily silk screened. She's way sneakier than I had given her credit for, and now I know that I can open up that screen printing shop that I always wanted -- sit back, drink some beer, and let Kate go to town. Awesome.

The story is that I first saw the design on the t-shirt that my mom was wearing (hot pink). I said I liked the design, but couldn't read the words, so she moved closer with a giant grin on her face. Meanwhile Kate had run off and put on one of the shirts and when I got close enough to my mom, I saw what it was. Then Kate gave me one. Then 20 or so others showed up throughout the night. I loved it.

Seriously though, thanks for coming by. It was a great sendoff. I'm glad that my parents got to meet you all (briefly) and at least see that yes, their weirdo son does have some friends. Despite his poor career choice.

RingTales

Beza 0342
Originally uploaded by teague_o

So, I'm going to try to keep a blog while at Beza Mahafaly. Between cell phones and maybe email and possibly internet, it might actually happen. It's a goal, at least.