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.
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 27th 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!
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