We're going back to Madagascar with this "Research" post, specifically to Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve. As per the usual on my Malagasy posts, here's my timeline for your convenience:
I'm sure you inferred from my use of caps lock that I was really excited to get to Beza. Since I began working in PJ's lab I'd been itching to see some lemurs in their natural habitat, particularly the Verreaux's sifakas that live in SW Madagascar. But Beza has so much more to offer besides the sifakas. There are three other lemur species, a variety of reptiles and birds, and some of the strangest vegetation I'd ever seen in my life. I've previously mentioned that I'm grossly under-traveled, and I was particularly out of my element in the spiny forest that makes up Beza. It was like being in a Dr. Seuss book come to life, with plants that look like they have tentacles. The lemurs were really just the icing on the awesome Beza cake. |
Now before I jump right into the wildlife pictures, I should give you some background info about the Special Reserve itself. The Reserve's main focal points are research, local conservation, community-based management, and even a bit of tourism. Beza has been jointly run by the University of Antananarivo, the Madagascar National Parks system, and local stakeholders since 1985. Teams of scientific researchers have been traveling to Beza to study the lemurs since it's founding, and Beza has had a local ecological monitoring team that conducts daily surveys of the fauna and flora since 1995. It's essentially a super cool campground where people from all over the world can go to learn about all of the amazing species of plants and animals that only live in SW Madagascar. The slideshow below will give you an inside look of my everyday life while at Beza.
Time for the lemurs!!! There are four species that live within Beza grounds, two diurnal (active during the day) and two nocturnal (active at night). Click the Beza buttons above to learn about all four, plus some other neat fauna and flora. Let's start with the moonlight crowd. The endangered Lepilemur leucopus is a kind of sportive lemur, the second smallest lemur in the region. | |
The smallest lemur is a mouse lemur, Microcebus griseorufus. We spent a couple of dusks at Beza looking for the eye shine of these two cuties, pictured in the album to the right. All photo credit goes to PJ Perry because he had the best camera and the best headlamp :)
Now let's chat about the day-dwellers. Lemur catta, AKA ring-tailed lemurs, live in these large family groups that roam around during the day throughout their territories. One group came through the camp every day to hang out with us :) They'd just casually chill out on our vehicles, check out our tents, and try to steal some food while they watched us collect our data. King Julien from the movie Madagascar really depicted the personalities of these guys quite well haha.
Photo credit: PJ Perry (he had a much better camera than I did...)
I'll finish this post with my most favorite lemur species: the Verreaux's sifaka! This lemur species is so cool that one of the main Beza people, Rich Lawler, has a tattoo of one on his arm (link below). If you're wondering how to pronounce sifaka, I'm pretty sure there is no correct way. I've heard "she-fak", "see-fak-a", and all sorts of things in between. Regardless of pronunciation, this species is absolutely gorgeous. Such a pristine white covering, capped with a little chocolate hat! What could possibly be cuter?! And if you scroll all the way down, I've attached a YouTube video so you can see how they move around (hint: they do not walk like we do). It was such a privilege to see these guys at Beza, just jumping around and making their little pig snorts. And such fashionable collars too (part of how the survey team keeps track of who's who). I hope you enjoy looking through all these pictures - which lemur do you think is cutest? Till next week, cheers!
Photo credit: PJ Perry (again, my camera didn't even come close)