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.