Week 12

Part 1:

Coming from deep in the heart of the wild Jozani Forest, I bring you a special bulletin. A glimpse into the dark, toil-ridden experience of two hapless students. Plagued by swarms of mosquitos, little food & water, and near-constant exposure to the intensifying elements, their grip on sanity, much less existence itself is coming into question. Cruel fate has deemed that it is only a matter of time until they are claimed by the jungle in ways of which Conrad could only have dreamt in his wildest nightmares……

              Just kidding folks. I couldn’t resist dramatizing this whole adventure a bit. As it would happen, the lodgings are quite accommodating and the food & water are not a matter of question. And I’ve seen a cumulative half-dozen or so mosquitos in nearly a week. For the sake of both keeping all of you informed and actually reminding myself of a few moments here in the future, I’ve decided to keep a rolling blog of sorts. My companion here in Jozani for the ISP time, Ali (Alec), actually brought along a wireless internet stick from Stonetown which gives us full access to the web. This means that I’m not actually cut off from the outside world; quite to the contrary in fact. The internet stick actually works faster than half the other connections I’ve had in Zanzibar. Nonetheless, in keeping with the spirit of the whole deal, this post is not going to surface until halfway through the whole period. Surprise!

             Right now, it’s been five days since we arrived. I’ve been strolling around the groundwater forest for nearly all of that time. To premise my project, I am surveying herpetofaunal communities in four habitat types in the Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park. It’s basically just a survey of relative abundance and diversity, but I’m also throwing in the time card. Surveys in the morning, afternoon, and night may give me a bit more information to extrapolate on (so far things are looking good). I am also trying to implement a very DIY bottle trap system. 1.5-litre water bottles have been cut and re-assembled to make funnels, which are then placed along a plastic drift fence line to live-catch specimens. The idea is that the local fauna will encounter the fence and wander along the path of least resistance – straight into the funnels.

While none of this sounds terribly difficult, I would definitely describe the start as rocky. Between on the ground conflicts with methodology, personal indecisiveness, and general Murphy’s Law moments, I’ve had the perpetual feeling that karma is not with me for the last few days. The bottle traps in particular have been creating problems (largely in regards to setup time) and I’m seriously reconsidering how they will be implemented for the remainder of the study. Since the protocols I follow these first days affect the rest of the trip, the importance/stress has been the most intense it likely will be. However, it seems as though I’m over the hill and a routine has been established (finally). And there have already been some great moments. Take for example two days ago when I encountered the back half of a rock python crossing my trail. The snake had to have been at least three meters in length and had gorgeous coloration. See:

 Rock Python, Python sebae

I’ve also managed to catch a White-Lipped Snake in one of my dysfunctional bottle traps, spot a gorgeous golden tree frog (unidentified as of yet), and observe a flighty Zenj Squirrel at very close range. 

 Unidentified Tree Frog, Leptopelis sp.

I should also note that there are a ton of elephant shrews here. They’re black with red heads and about the size of a rabbit (they pretty much fill that local niche). They’re in every habitat and have no economic/dietary importance, but remain quite flighty, so my personal challenge is now to photograph one.

 

Part 2:

                Well, the whole rolling blog thing failed about as miserably as my attempts to keep a written journal at the beginning of the whole trip. However, I can certainly give you a second update within this single post (seeing as I’m halfway through the trip now). Things have still been tough. Misinformation, time crunches, and stress have continued to create problems since the last update. Due to a number of circumstances, the second half of my study is going to be much more compressed than the first half (I’ve already used up all but one of my buffer days). Also, the effective implementation of traps in each habitat type has also been forcibly abandoned due to time constraints (although I plan to set them back up in the groundwater forest to keep testing efficiency). The good news is that this leaves me more time to actually focus on the transects and crank out the 30-page epic that's due by the start of December.

                Along these lines, the visual surveys along transects are giving me the results I was hoping for! My current survey habitat is a mixed scrub/agricultural zone located just across the road from the main body of the park. This little sliver of Jozani is quite popular with the tourists owing its habitation by a large number of Red Colobus and Sykes monkeys. They’re interesting, but if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. I enjoy listening to the foreign languages floating around that area, particularly the French, but don’t appreciate the wazungu in my transects (although it’s inevitably unavoidable). I've actually started thinking in a mix of broken French and Kiswahili. Hooray for immersion?

                Right now, my count for herpetofauna throughout Jozani is up to four frog species, eight lizard species, and five snake species. There are certainly differences in sightings amongst habitats; which is great news for the project. However, much to my chagrin, not all of the sightings have occurred during survey times and are thereby not directly applicable. Nonetheless, my two new favorites are the Flap-Necked Chameleons and miniscule Worm Snakes which I’ve been spotting periodically.

 Flap-Necked Chameleon, Chamaeleo dilepis

                Outside of the regimented surveys, trap checks, and meals, I can’t say that I have much to report. The food remains dependable, albeit predictable, with alternating days of rice and beans or rice and vegetable curry for lunch and dinner. Breakfast is bread and bananas (the latter have been excellent lately). Ali and I have agreed to attempt No-Shave-November, although the results thus far are pretty patchy and grody. I’ve been burning through a biography of “Cape-to-Coast” Ewart Grogan, yet another pioneer of British Imperialism and East African colonial development around the turn of the Twentieth Century. The feats of adventure which men like Grogan accomplished during the Victorian Era are incredible, and I’m certainly hooked on imperial history for life. An unplanned free night two days ago also allowed me to indulge in a Miyazaki film (courtesy of Ali), which was an immensely satisfying use of free time. If the weather yesterday was of any indication, the short rains period may be commencing and I’m hoping that it doesn’t put a dampener on my study. I’d hate to have the data watered down…..

Sorry, couldn’t resist the puns. I’ll leave you with these tidbits for now and the expectation that I shall again return to the blogosphere following the 27^th of November. Best wishes to my Carleton comrades in the grips of finals, and to everyone celebrating a bounteous Thanksgiving back home (I know I’ll be drooling into my pillow with dreams of gravy missed). Cheers!

Belated Photos!

Here are a few shots from the last month or so of the program which I have neglected to upload to this blog or facebook. Some regular exclusivity for readers here. The latest written update follows these photos!

Mama Mtondoo

Red Colobus nap time.

 Leaf-litter Preying Mantis

 Jozani Scrub

 Mikumi sunset.

Safari romance.

Buffaloes at the Hippo Pond.

 Leonine love.

The stare-down.

Six little piggies went on safari.....

Weeks 9 & 10

Well faithful readers, this belated post may be my last (for the next three weeks at least). In a couple of hours I will be headed to Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park for twenty-one days of reptile surveys, carbohydrate-dominated meals, and perpetual sweat. The last week and a half has blown by as I've rushed about trying to get all of my affairs in order before the final push. The directly academic portion of my program concluded last Friday with a written exam and reef survey presentations, so all we have left now is the ISP. But before I get into all of this recent Stonetown business, I should probably say more about our ten days in Dar es Salaam.
I seem to have left off the last time with Maryam's birthday, which happened to be just the beginning of a series of entertaining escapades in the city. While most days were occupied by private lectures on various environmental and ecological subjects, we had plenty of evening time to get out and explore or get to know the resident foreigners. Living with the international guys was certainly entertaining. In lieu of being at the University for at least a semester with less work than they had expected, the guys would entertain themselves late into the night with games and pestering the international girls in the dorm across the courtyard. There were also a number of American students spread around, although we saw much less of them during our stay.
One night, a number of us attempted to visit an environmental photography exhibit and film screening at the French consulate-operated Alliance Francais. We were quickly disappointed to find that the Alliance was actually closed for the night due to the Eid al-Hajj holiday (despite advertisements for the exhibition that very night). So we went to the circus. After finding a seedy little back alley food shop and eating what was actually the best chipsi ya mayai (french fries cooked into an omelet) we've had so far on the trip, we met our program director Helen and a couple of her friends at the show. It was awesome. The circus was a small operation with a mixed variety of acrobatic and contortion acts, each more impressive than the last. The contortionists were literally able to bend their backs in three places at once! They'd make a table top out of their torsos by bending over backwards (picture an inverted u-shape with a flattened bottom) and then stand on each other. One particularly stretchy guy even squeezed himself through a tennis racket from several different directions. The acrobats were equally impressive, if nothing else because they were insanely ripped. On top of it all, since the tent was small and there weren't a lot of other visitors we ended up with practically rink-side seats.
The next night, Rashid, Hawa, Munira, and I decided to try and visit an event put on by a Dutch artist acquainted with our program director. She sent us the directions and time and promised she'd meet us there, so we set out without trepidation. It all sounded pretty easy to follow, but we soon found ourselves wandering down back streets lined with industrial buildings and rather excitable young workers whose shift had just ended. It was dark, we seemed to be lost, and we really didn't want to walk back the same way we'd just come from (we were conspicuous enough as it was). But just as we were planning our exit strategy, the painted walls of the art gallery came into view along the dark road. The event itself turned out to be great. While the crowd was fairly small and we didn't know anyone, the music and dancers were quite enjoyable. Helen arrived some time after we did and then proceeded to befriend the Irish ambassador to Tanzania! According to Rashid, it doesn't take much to get involved in the expat/foreign crowd of Dar es Salaam (they're few and the turnover is high).
Outside of these couple of evening events, I should definitely make note of our last two days spent conducting reef surveys  with Matt Richmond. The first day on Mbudya Island involved transect surveys across the breadth of an entire lagoon, from beach to reef crest. While the surveying itself yielded a lot of cool finds, our group managed to get a bit testy as usual (again, too many Type-A personalities in one place). Things were primarily complicated by the fact that the water was higher than expected and some individuals were forced to tread water while holding a tape measure for the better part of two hours. Following the surveys, we had a chance to eat our very fishy lunch (whole rabbitfish), swim, and identify various survey sightings before our later presentations. The setting was gorgeous, albeit touristy, and we were all quite content by the end of the day.
The next morning we were up against the crack of dawn for a second reef survey, this time on Sinda Island, located to the south-east of Dar. To get there we had to take a bus to a ferry, the ferry to another bus, the second bus to a dhow (Arab sailing boat), and finally the dhow out to Sinda. It was entirely worth the transportation gauntlet. The island is picturesque and un-inhabitated, with a tidal flat separating it from a second island just to the east. We arrived intentionally at low tide so that we could quadrat-survey sea urchins on the reef flat before the water came back in. The surveys went well and produced results that will actually build towards anthropogenic urchin controls on the island in future studies. Probably the coolest moment was actually when the tide came back in; a solid line of water a couple inches deep visibly rolled across the tidal flat from one end to the other in a matter of minutes. After eating a spectacular lunch, we took our final reef ecology quiz right on Sinda's beach and then spent the rest of the afternoon frolicking and snorkeling in the shallows nearby. That was without a doubt the best beach we have visited the entire program. Even better, Matt took us out one by one to try manta-boarding over the reef. Manta-boarding is an aquatic survey method where a boat slow-tows a length of rope attached to a flat board, onto which the researcher clings. By tilting the front of the board down, it's possible to actually dive below the surface for an extended period of time. By taking a huge gulp of air and diving, I could fly through the water just inches above the reef and sea grass, some fifteen feet below the surface. The feeling was unbelievable. I managed to strafe a couple of flounders and even get close to the outcrop where I'd seen an octopus while snorkeling earlier (he changed colors and shape at least four times!). On top of it all, we sailed the dhow back at the end of the day and I actually got to steer it for half the trip. And while I did get sunburned those two days, it did nothing but transform into the deepest tan I've had in years.
After all of this fun, the rest of our stay in Dar flew by. Classes wrapped up with two field trips around town to an alternative energy site and several places where the local environment was being impacted by poor planning (the kilometer-long pipe which carries Dar's raw sewage out into the sea was particularly shocking). Rashid and I better acquainted ourselves with the cafeteria food and cheap meat samosas (practically eaten four times a day), while the others sampled various Lebanese and "Mexican" restaurants. A fair portion of two days was spent trinket shopping in a nearby market, and I can say with confidence that I am all shopped out. While there was another partial group attempt at clubbing, it ended similarly to the first night. I did also have the opportunity to meet with my project advisor, Dr. Kim Howell, one afternoon in the local mall. Kim's a Cornell alum with an incredibly diverse array of zoological interests, including reptiles and amphibians (he was actually one of the contributing authors to the Reptiles of East Africa guide book which I have been using). The day after our meeting, he was actually headed towards Arusha to re-introduce a species of endemic toad that had been wiped out of its natural habitat by the installation of a dam. Super cool. Finally, on our last night at the University, the international guys mustered an even larger crowd than usual for a final celebration of sorts. All in all, Dar was pretty great.
Since we returned last Wednesday, it's been a race to the finish (at least for this portion of the program). Our exam and reef presentations were on Friday and we had to have all of our ISP contact information sorted out by roughly the same time. Despite an unexpected bit of trouble in all of the planning, everything has come together nicely. The written exam was thorough but not overly taxing and I delivered a well-reviewed ad-lib narration of a puppet show demonstrating our reef survey results. I've been "trick-or-treating" for plastic water bottles to use as funnel traps during the project and re-packing everything I own so the next month is comfortably efficient. While there's been very little R&R, I have managed to go out a couple of nights with several members of our group and the SIT Mombasa crowd who were in town for the weekend. It was pretty surreal hanging out with a fellow Carl here in Stonetown (shout-out to Carson!). My group also organized a sunset dhow cruise along the Stonetown coast as a last hurrah before the ISPs start (also in part to celebrate Sabrina's birthday today before everyone leaves).
It's at this point where I'd probably better wrap this up and get back to finalizing the last details of my project before I depart. I'll be without internet or reliable cell service for the next three weeks, so any further updates will have to come when I return to Stonetown to write up the project. I hope that all is well back States-side and that the end of term at Carleton and Thanksgiving finds you all healthy and happy. Wish me luck!