Salama! Sorry that I've been a little bit absent lately. Our last trip to Sambava about two weeks ago was busy with work. We entered and updated our scent marking data and spent the bulk of our time down here analyzing and editing the vocalization recordings. I was a bit too busy to devote the multiple hours it always takes me to write these updates on a French keyboard. Anyway though, our last two forest stints were full of drama and a few surprises.

In early October we returned to camp and had to bid farewell to Babazy and Guy for the final time. Erik sent them to Makira, a fragmented and highly disturbed patch of isolated forest father south. They will stay at the research station there, monitoring another group of silkies until late December. Emily and I were both distraught to see them go. Addresses were exchanged, hugs were given, and tears were shed. They will really be missed. I hope to come back to this area to visit them someday. A little fun fact though, Babazy has no last name. He's just like Cher! MR. BABAZY was the only thing written on his plane ticket. It was awesome.

MR. BABAZY

 Besides our teary goodbyes though, our return to camp was really exciting. To our surprise, BP, the second adult female in our habituated group, had given birth to a new baby sometime during the night of October 5th. This is extremely rare. Most sifaka births are in June or July because their mating season is strictly dictated by photoperiods. Females only go into estrus for one day a year, and for the baby to be born two and a half months late is really strange. We are consulted some experts on this phenomenon. The new baby is yet to be sexed or named, but Erik says if we come back to Madagascar in May to finish the project, then we get the honor of naming it. Very tempting, indeed.

The new baby on BP's stomach

Data collection in the forest is the same old stuff. We conduct our scent marking research and record vocalizations when the conditions permit (no rain, no background noise, the animals aren't too high in the tree, etc.). Vocalization duty is incredibly boring sometimes though. You have to stand with the mic as close to their mouth as possible and then just wait for them to make a sound. Everyone has to be completely silent as well, which is really hard when you have a whole research team trying to maneuver through the thick understory. Its almost impossible to not rustle leaves as you fight your way through the trail. The quiet also makes work days in the forest go much slower. In addition, we have to hike with all the vocalization equipment in a giant backpack. I had trouble getting my long limbs under fallen trees before, but add the "zazamena" backpack and I'm basically crawling though the dirt. "Zazamena" means baby by the way, or literally "red child." We call it that because who ever carries it must be extremely careful since the equipment is really expensive. It's like you're carrying a new born baby. Otherwise that though, data collection is continuing without any issues. The results look like they will be very interesting as well.

Carrying the "zazamena" backpack

We've also had a lot of tourists come through this past month. Almost everyday we meet somebody new. Emily and I have stereotyped them into four basic categories: 1) The older couple. These tourists are usually over fifty and spend only a couple days in the park. They are normally French, but sometimes we meet older English couples too. Most of the time they don't hike up past camp two, and only come out to see the silkies for about an hour. 2) The lone trekker. There are a fair share of people who never go out to see the lemurs, but spend about four days in the park trekking to the summit. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Marojejy Massif is one of the highest points in the country. They usually travel alone and are some of the nicest people with the most interesting stories. 3) The crazy photographer. These people are usually insane, and that's an understatement. They spend full days out in the forest with us trying to nail that one perfect shot. The number of stories I have about these kinds of tourists...Once I stood in a pandanus, a palm-like tree with sharp and painful spines, for about two hours while I made room for a swarm of Spanish photographers (this is the Spanish Invasion Part III). By the time I could move again my arms looked like I was attacked by a tiger. 4) The younger crowd. We definitely get a lot of people our age traveling together. Sometimes its couples, sometimes its small groups of friends. This is the tourist group that is probably the most diverse though. They almost always leave us books, food, or at least their email addresses. I have quite a stack of contact information in case I'm ever in London, Dublin, or any number of other cities around the world. So far our tourist tally includes people from the USA, France, Switzerland, Holland, Germany, Spain, Czech Republic, the UK, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, England, and Sweden. As annoying as tourists can be sometimes (they always use all the toilet paper!), its really neat to meet so many different people. Some of them lead really fascinating lives. One guy from London grew up in Italy, and had previously lived in Ireland, Germany, and Australia. He trekked to the summit in about two days. We discussed everything from philosophy (this is what he studied in school) to American politics to the cost and benefits of backpacking through Sweden. This is still just the beginning of peak tourist season too so I'm sure we will meet so many more people during our final stay in the park.

We go back up on November 7th, as soon as the presidential election is over in the states. We will spend our first three days back in Marojejy hiking to the summit. We plan on being at the top of the massif to see the sunrise on November 9th. Rumor has it you can see the Indian Ocean from the top on a clear day. We will then spend a full month in the park, and plan on coming back down sometime during the first week of December. It's bitter sweet to have have only about six weeks left in this country. I'm excited to see friends and family soon, but I'm really looking forward to the comforts of western civilization, especially a refrigerator, clean water, and carpets (yes, carpets).

Emily and I ready to take on the Summit

Will update again around December 10th, veloma!