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Field Notes #14: Turning Points

12/19/2024

 
Text by Matthew McGee
I recently finished the first field season of my PhD research, five long and incredible months in the montane rainforest of Anjanaharibe-Sud Special Reserve. I’ve written at excruciating length about some of the major events that changed the course of my field season: our encounter with illegal miners at the high elevations, my knee injury on the first day of data collection, and the emotionally cathartic journey I went on when I followed two white-fronted brown lemurs out of camp. Those are the obvious narrative milestones when telling the story of my field season, but in a way they obscure the broader truth: every single day felt like a turning point. Maybe it’s because everything was so new to me, but every day seemed to bring a new piece of information that changed the way I thought about my project. What follows is the story of one of those normal days in the field, the last day we conducted fieldwork at the 1260m field site (aka site 2).
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Between two rocks with Matt McGee
The morning starts at 4:30AM when the soft beeping of my watch alarm gently wakes me from whatever malarone-fueled nightmare I was enjoying into the cold dark oblivion of my tent. The temperatures have gotten mercifully warmer since my first trip to site 2 in July, but I’ve grown weak and brittle in my old age, and so I spend the first 15 minutes of the day wriggling around my tent in my sleeping bag like a grub newly exposed to sunlight. Once I’ve finally unearthed myself, it’s time for my two favorite morning activities: trying to jam contacts in my eyes by the light of my headlamp followed by putting on the driest pair of damp pants I have left. It’s the little things that get your day started in the right headspace, you know?
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Camp 2
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The streambed portion of Transect Q
Around 5am, I stumble out of my tent with an armful of equipment, ready for breakfast. What could it be this morning?! Pettie, our cook, brings a covered bowl to the table. It’s…it’s...it’s rice! We also have leftover broth and masikita  from dinner and a large plate of crepes Pettie cooked at 3am. Half the team eats a few crepes with their tea while I shovel down two plates of rice like a true champion. By 5:20AM, the entire team is ready to go except for one annoyingly slow individual (it’s me). We’ll be working on Transect Q today, which starts on the trail near camp and pushes deep into the forest, seemingly getting wilder, denser, and more fantastical with every transect marker we pass. It’s the place in ASSR where I feel most connected to the natural world, like I’m on the verge of understanding something important if I just had a little more time. But what I have is today, and that will have to do.
We have three things left to do on our final day of surveys: bird counts and butterfly counts in the early-t0-mid morning, and veg surveys after that. Each transect is 1km long, with eight survey plots placed at each 125m interval, starting at 125m and ending at 1000m. We start our bird and butterfly counts at the 125m plot around 5:45AM. Nothing unusual jumps out bird-wise, just the typical assortment of Souimanga Sunbirds, Tylas Vangas, and Blue Couas, while most of the butterflies don’t seem to be awake yet. Everyone is in a good mood, and we take lots of photos as we continue the surveys, causing the quietest ruckus we can manage. We see a couple of Velvet Asities along the way, but the real highlight of the morning comes early: a striking Madagascar Pygmy Kingfisher at the 250m plot. I almost fall off the giant boulder I’m perched on trying to see it, which greatly amuses my team, who have somehow learned to call me HazMatt despite their otherwise limited grasp of the English language. What we don’t see are the rare and mysterious vanga species that we’ve continually been searching for, which is slightly disappointing given that it’s our last chance at this particular site. Where is my gosh-dang Helmet Vanga?! Shouldn’t climate change have driven it farther up the mountain by now?! We also see very few butterflies—I’ve started to suspect that I’m using a broken methodology, and now I think I need to seriously retool it for next field season.
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ABC (always be counting)

The sun breaks through the clouds around 7:30am, but it’s raining by the time we start our final survey an hour later. I stubbornly try to wait it out before giving in and putting on my rain gear. The rain stops five minutes later. I chose this life. This was my decision.
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Field science in action (making our veg stick for understory surveys)
We start veg surveys just after 9am. We’ve developed a system by now: Richelin and Lawi record all of the tree IDs and measurements, Niaina and Jao handle the understory and shrub layer densities, and I scribble down the canopy cover and ground cover, muttering to myself about moss and low strata plants. We’re back at camp by 1pm for a slightly delayed lunch of sardines and rice, and then Jao and I hoof it back to the beginning of Transect Q to get phone service. I also want to get a picture of a Red-Tailed Newtonia, a rare and understudied bird that I’ve seen a couple of times in that area. I fail. But I do confirm that the Red-Tailed Newtonia has taken a consort and she is acting quite nesty. A cursory google search on the 2G of signal I have tells me that this species may still lack basic nesting descriptions. I’m ready to spend the rest of the day nest searching, but it’s getting late and Jao seems ready to go back to camp, so I tell myself it can wait. We aren’t leaving until after lunch the next day, so we have the entire morning to nest search.
We eat a dinner of smoked shrimp and rice—the last dinner we’ll ever eat together, although no one realizes that yet. Heavy rain starts in the middle of the night, and it doesn’t stop until early the next afternoon. We never have a chance to find the nest. It’s a slightly defeated hike in the rain back to Camp Indri, but our mood improves as the sun emerges once again, and we’re looking forward to taking a car back to town the next day instead of desperately clinging to the sides of a motorcycle as the driver hurtles down the mountain. Jao and Lawi head back to their village that afternoon while the rest of us dry our wet clothes in the glorious sunshine. Another day and another session are done.

So what stuck with me after just another regular day? It was the second time I had tried butterfly counts in the early morning, after multiple attempts in the late morning and afternoon. My early findings suggested that it was the weather that mattered the most for butterfly sightings and not the time of day, which meant I would need to rethink how I conducted those surveys. I was also becoming more convinced that I needed to take longer survey trips during the next field season—just like my rudimentary attempts to speak Malagasy, I felt that something crucial was being lost in translation by moving so quickly, and that more time would bring deeper understanding.
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ASSR in all its glory
But the Red-Tailed Newtonia was the major turning point. It taught me an old lesson in a new way, a lesson that’s true for all of fieldwork, but one I had never experienced so intensely as I did in the rainforest: when you have a chance to do something, when you see that opening, you take it immediately and you don't look back. You do not save it for tomorrow. Because tomorrow it's raining. Tomorrow you have to make datasheets. Tomorrow you hear a strange bird singing and it takes you 3 hours to find it. Tomorrow you can’t focus, because you know you’re missing something back home and loneliness clings to you like a leech. Tomorrow you can't walk. Tomorrow you can't eat. Today is the only guarantee you have.

I took that lesson to heart, and it changed the rest of my field season.
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Field Notes #13: The other side of the world, Mexico and the monkeys

5/10/2024

 
Text by Anaid Cardenas Navarrete
I vividly recall that day in April of 2020, sitting underneath the roosting family of black howler monkeys in the tropical forest of Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico, when I received a message from my former advisor urging me to halt fieldwork until the public health situation returned to normal. With a heavy heart, I left the field immediately, hoping to return within a matter of weeks or perhaps a couple of months. I even made a promise to the monkeys that I would be back soon—little did I know!
During the unexpected break, I had time to write my master's thesis, defend it, apply to graduate programs, and get accepted into Dr. Onja Razafindratsima’s lab at UC Berkeley. This marked the beginning of a new chapter in my life, in a new country and a new research adventure. Two years passed before I finally had the chance to reunite with the monkeys in the summer of 2022, setting up a three-month pilot study for my dissertation research. Then, in 2023, I embarked on my longest field season yet—a year-long data collection journey that was as daunting as it was exciting. As we drove the nearly 1,000 kilometers along the roads that connect Mexico City to Palenque, it felt like returning home after an extended absence.

The monkeys

The Yucatan black howler monkey (Alouatta pigra), known locally as "mono saraguato," is a diurnal primate that lives in cohesive social groups comprising 2 to 12 individuals. These groups typically consist of one or two adult males, two to four adult females, and their young. Feeding primarily on leaves and ripe fruits found in the tropical forests of southeast Mexico, as well as parts of Guatemala and Belize, they are famous for their loud calls, often emitted collectively, making them among the loudest terrestrial mammals. ​
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Lumi, a female black howler monkey (Alouatta pigra). Photo: Anaid Cardenas Navarrete (ACN)
Unfortunately, like most primate species globally, they are endangered due to deforestation and habitat loss resulting from the conversion of tropical forests into cattle pastures and urban centers. ​

The site

PictureMayan ruins of Palenque surrounded by tropical forest. Photo: ACN
Palenque, a town perpetually full of tourists drawn to a rich Mayan heritage, has undergone rapid urban and agricultural expansion over the years. Since the 1960s, the implementation of policies by the Mexican government aimed at deforesting the southeastern part of the country for industrial cattle production, significantly diminished the potential habitats for primate populations in the region. Since my initial arrival in 2016, I've witnessed firsthand the detrimental impact of these development practices on the region's native habitat. Thus, my main interests are to understand how black howler monkeys manage to be resilient and to maintain their roles as seed dispersers amidst a rapidly changing landscape.

My study sites typically encompass small forest fragments that serve as shelter for these primates and countless small critters within the ever-growing urbanization. This time, however, I’m also collaborating with Dr. Sarie Van Belle, a researcher conducting long-term studies on black howlers, to work within the protected confines of Palenque National Park (PNP)—a vital stronghold of local biodiversity.

Biodiviersity of Palenque, Chiapas

The people

Before going into the details of this adventure, it's important to acknowledge that none of my endeavors in the field would have been remotely possible without the untiring support of my research teams. Throughout this project, I've had the privilege of working alongside four teams, each composed of early-career biologists with a passion for primatology, ecology, conservation, or wildlife in general. Spending countless hours together in the field forged bonds that transcended simple companionship; in the harsh conditions we faced daily, trust and mutual respect became indispensable. 
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Field research assistants during the field seasons from 2022 to 2024. Photos by ACN, DL, VCV, and IGA.
Among the people who accompanied me on this journey were Paulina, the eternal optimist; Irais, the tenacious apprentice; Alba, the seasoned field biologist; Erika, the meticulous explorer; Liz, the natural primatologist; Jorge, the embodiment of natural intuition; Nacho, the cheerful go-getter; Ulises, the unwavering wit; Valeria, the stabilizing force; and Dallas, the always-by-my-side.

​The fieldwork

During the pilot study in 2022, my team, comprising Paulina and Dallas, and I, ventured into various forest fragments across the transformed landscape of Palenque, securing permissions from landowners to conduct research on their properties. It was heartening to still be recognized as the biologist "following the monkeys" and to reconnect with the people of Palenque after such a prolonged absence. Their willingness to offer their land and assistance facilitated our surveys, enabling us to identify the groups of black howler monkeys for our research. Over the course of three months, we habituated the unfamiliar groups, experimented with new methodologies, and refined old techniques in preparation for the subsequent data collection phase. Despite the sweltering heat, relentless mosquitoes, and occasional encounters with venomous snakes, we remained optimist as we laid the groundwork for what was coming ahead.

​In May 2023, I returned to Palenque after being away for nine months. This time, I was accompanied by Irais, Erika, Alba, Jorge, and Liz, with whom we formed two field teams during the first five months of research. Later, Nacho, Ulises, and Valeria, joined me for the long final stretch of the project. Due to the harsh conditions of the highly degraded forest fragments, camping at the sites was neither safe nor logistically feasible. Thus, we all cramped in an apartment in the town of Palenque—our temporary base camp.
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A group of sleeping black howler monkeys on a rubber plantation. Photo: ACN
Fieldwork for this research feels like assembling a thousand-piece puzzle that requires high coordination among team members to succeed. We usually arrive at the study sites before sunrise, with the hope that our study groups will wake up to a howling chorus. When the groups choose not to howl, we start a survey by spotting potential roosting trees from afar. After finding them, we spend all day with the group, following every step they take while collecting data on their activity, their collective movement, the tree species they feed on, and more. 
​The reason to continue...
While it is a privilege to observe primates in the wild, I found myself reflecting on their survival amidst disturbed sites on many days spent under the sleeping groups. It is becoming increasingly clear that the high rates of deforestation, site isolation, river pollution, road noise, and presence of domestic animals—all consequences of human activities—continue to escalate. It is sad and a reminder of the gravity of the situation when we observe monkeys caught in the crossfire of human activity, struggling to survive on plantations and navigating treacherous highways. It is my hope that my study will contribute to a greater understanding of the importance of respecting and protecting black howler monkeys and their habitat in an area that relies so heavily on them.
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Me, observing the monkeys in the beautiful protected forest of Palenque National Park. Photo: Ignacio Guzmán

Field Notes #12 - Adventures in forest regeneration at Marojejy National Park

3/16/2024

 
Text and photos by Kat Culbertson
PictureTeam Members Fetra and Edouard pose for a photo on the hike up to Marojejy Summit
​Breath-taking rainforest covered mountains. Clear, cool streams overflowing with tadpoles. Adorable tiny – and I mean tiny – chameleons. Treacherous, steep, muddy, vine-covered terrain. Skipping over slippery rocks on your way to ‘work’. Hiding away in a tent for two weeks at a time. Fending off leaches, wasps, and scorpions…
 
 
If this sounds like I’m describing a grand adventure, then fieldwork in eastern Madagascar may be right for you! While working in Madagascar across the past four years – both as a Peace Corps Volunteer and as an ecology researcher – I’ve had my fair share of both incredible highs and frustrating lows, but I’m excited to report that this last time around, I’ve had the best experience so far.


PictureIn the forest, sometimes the easiest path is a stream...
Starting in summer of 2023, I’ve been lucky enough to launch a project on rainforest regeneration at Marojejy National Park (with the aid of my advisors, my awesome collaborators at the Lemur Conservation Foundation, and three small fieldwork grants). This hyper-diverse reserve is a little patch of mountains – known as a massif – reaching across a 2,000 meter (6,000+ foot) gradient in the northeast corner of Madagascar. The park includes ecosystems ranging from lowland rainforest growing over 30 meters (100+ feet) tall to elevation-stunted dwarf topping out at 10 feet tall to alpine prairies. It is home to more than 2,000 plant species, 11 species of lemurs, and over 80 species of reptiles – just to name a fraction of its biodiversity. While scientific expeditions have been conducted in the park across 70 years, there is still little known about the vast majority of Marojejy’s species and the complex interactions between them. (In fact, one of the trees we snagged leaf samples from last year may be entirely new to science!)

PictureA millipede crawls over the stump of a tree illegally harvested for the precious timber trade
Unfortunately, this international treasure is not immune to the numerous anthropogenic disturbances that threaten biodiversity globally these days. Forests continue to be cleared in across the region – including the more remote reaches of Marojejy park itself – for expansion of cultivation, fuelwood, and timber products. Illegal extraction of precious woods – especially rosewood and ebony – for thirsty international markets also continues deep within the park, a vast reserve of over 50,000ha (193 square miles)  in which it’s easy to hide and challenging to patrol… due to a combination of challenging terrain, poor infrastructure, and lack of funding. Of course, climate change is also affecting the resiliency of the park’s forests and interactions between species across the region – in ways that we don’t know, especially given the lack of baseline data.


PictureKat (the author) and local botanical expert Mr. Edouard pose for a photo next to a giant strangler fig
A conservation situation as complex as this one necessitates a multi-pronged approach to ensure that ecosystems and the biodiversity they contain are preserved for future generations. One key aspect of ecosystem conservation, especially in the face of ongoing deforestation and legitimate demand for timber products, is forest restoration. While tree-planting is currently a hot topic – for its role in carbon sequestration, alongside biodiversity conservation – little is actually known about how to ensure that a scattered saplings develop into a functioning forest ecosystem. This process of natural forest regeneration hinges on a variety of factors that are influenced by specific ecosystems and context, including how degraded the site’s soil is, how far seed-producing trees are from the deforested site, and whether any seed-dispersing critters (such as lemurs and birds) are still around. The further away a restoration site is from the forest, the longer it’s been used by humans, and the more anthropogenic factors nearby that could create new disturbances, the more complicated forest regeneration becomes, and the more divergent trajectories it could take. Unfortunately, few of these trajectories may result in a forest resembling the original one!

The goal of restoration, or assisted natural regeneration, is to ensure forests are back on track to re-growing through eliminating some of the key barriers that are currently blocking the natural regeneration pathway. The relative importance of these barriers varies in different places and different ecosystems, and currently little is known about which ones are the most important to address in Madagascar.
 
Extensive regenerating areas in Marojejy, previously cleared and cultivated, but sitting within a matrix of primary rainforest and abandoned for 25+ years, present a unique opportunity to understand natural forest regeneration pathways and understand the most important barriers to restoration in this context.

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Thick, tall, non-forest vegetation still dominates most deforested areas in Marojejy
This past year’s fieldwork – the actual ‘work’ component of it – involved surveying various regenerating forest areas to assess the type and number of trees growing in them, and evidence for regeneration processes. While I’m still working through the data, the preliminary takeaway is unfortunately that even forests in more-ideal regeneration conditions need our help: Even after 60+ years post-abandonment, old fields in the park are simply thickets of tall herbaceous vegetation, with no or very few trees present. This is a phenomenon known as ‘arrested regeneration’, when an ecosystem gets ‘stuck’ at an early stage along its regeneration journey, and may remain there for decades without additional disturbances or interventions.
 
We’re not sure why this is happening at Marojejy, though it likely is governed by the balance of dispersal factors (are there enough animals around to disperse seeds into regenerating areas?) and competition factors (do herbaceous plants and/or vines grow faster than, and thus outcompete or strangle young trees?), as well as the underlying dynamics of climate change (is the climate simply less suited for forest recovery now than it was 50 years ago?). I’m currently en route back to the field, where I’ll be working with my team to set up an disentangling some of these factors. We hope that this project will inform future restoration and ecosystem management actions in this region and beyond.
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Stay tuned for the next stages of this research journey!
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Our field team poses for a photo on a rainy day - from left to right: Kat, Richard, Fetra, Dezy, and Fred

Field notes #11

11/30/2023

 
Text by Fetratiana Rakotomanga
Before telling about our adventurous fieldwork, I want to say that I feel lucky to have this opportunity to work with my mentor Katherine Culbertson on the project. At first, I did not plan to apply at all because of the fear of not being capable, or not good enough for that type of project. 
​With the help and advice from my closest friends and my family, I decided to try and have no regrets for taking that opportunity, which has given me the chance to meet and work with extraordinary people.
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Fetra and local botanical expert Edouard pose with a waterfall on the hike to Marojejy’s summit (PC: Katherine Culbertson)
We began our wonderful way in Antananarivo (Tana), where I met my mentor and several other members of the Razafindratsima lab. These connections and planning meetings set a strong foundation to strengthen our knowledge, skills and experiences. Our fieldwork had two different parts, the first month was held at KAFS or Kianjavato Ahmason Field Station, Vatovavy region. The place was calm and peaceful. The friendly team we worked with made it more pleasant too. We had the chance to participate in one of their plantation events in a large gap surrounded by forest.
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KAFS reforestation coordinator Romuald demonstrates how to plant a sapling at a restoration site near Tsitola forest (PC: Katherine Culbertson)
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The day’s work is finished at the Tsitola restoration site
​The astonishing view from famous mountains such as Sangasanga and Vatolahy shows how the complex and interesting landscape might influence the vegetation, especially the view from the top of Vatovavy, the region’s namesake. That view was memorable. The 11th of August, we left Kianjavato, heading to Marojejy. 

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Landscape views from the top of Vatovavy mountain (PC: Fetra Rakotomanga)
​We were sad to leave the great team at Kianjavato but Marojejy National Park still held a special gift for us. ​
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Part of our field team (Fetra, Kat, Edouard, and Dezy) pose for a photo in Marojejy National Park (PC: Frederic Ramahavita)
The place changed but the good vibes remained as we worked with our botanist and local guides. I would like to take the chance to thank all of them – Dezy, Edouard, Fred, Richard, and Rabesahala - who helped us gain more experiences and skills. For example, I learned to identify some species by their distinctive characteristics, like “rara” with red sap like blood (“rara” means blood in Malagasy) and many more. They use vernacular names and morphologic criteria to identify the tree species, which contributes important value to scientific study. ​
I enjoyed the contrast between two weeks inside the humid forest and two days in the city of Sambava. Staying in the forest felt like spending two weeks in paradise, as our guide Dezy always says, and then we came back to the civilization again for two days for supplies. Do not let me forget to say that the song of the stream and all the birds near every camp that we have been in gave us sweet dreams after hard work. I can say that I loved our fieldwork! Thanks also to our collaborators at Lemur Conservation Foundation (LCF) who gave us magnificent days near the ocean when we were out of the forest. 
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Having a guide that is specialized in mammals and amphibians increased considerably our chance to see many endemic frogs like Mantella sp., Boophis sp.; reptile like Brookesia, almost all iconic birds and amphibians that Marojejy is known for, and also the “bokimbolo”: Hapalemur occidentalis that we can see very near at Camp 1. (Photo 6)
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The road became impassable for vehicles on the way to one of our Marojejy field sites, Andongozambe, so we hiked an extra 5km on foot (PC: Fetra Rakotomanga)
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A bokombolo (bamboo lemur, Hapalemur occidentalis) snacks on bamboo near Camp 1 in Marojejy (PC: Katherine Culbertson)
Before leaving the first site, we made the hike of 5.1 km and over 4,000ft in elevation to the “sommet” the two last days. On our way, we saw the Helmet Vanga : Euryceros prevostii. We spent a night in camp 3, a very cold and quiet camp it was. We did not feel very lucky arriving at the top with rain, but it was and will always be a part of the adventure and still we had a wonderful experience.

Sadly, during our fieldwork, we also witnessed many activities that threatened the ecosystem including forest clearance, wood harvesting and some lemur traps. These activities can have a huge impact on the biodiversity that the park shelters. Much work has been done before to try to prevent these illegal activities and conserve the forest, but there is still more to do, so we encourage you to stand with us for the sake of our nature. These ongoing threats to biodiversity show us up close how reforestation (the main research of my mentor) is important.
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Unfortunately, illegal harvest of precious woods, like this tapika tree, is not uncommon within the park (PC: Fetra Rakotomanga)
To wrap up, I want to thank my mentor first for all of the knowledge and skills that she taught me during the fieldwork, and for continuing to mentor me on the development of my research now. The guidelines she gave have helped me build the first criteria of being a scientist as I advance through the first big steps of my career. Second, a big thanks to Dr Onja Razafindratsima and her lab for their hospitality. I was quiet and a little shy at the beginning when I first met the lab, but they never made me feel outside the box. They are very open to everyone and close to each other, so that it does not feel like a lab but a scientific family where you can grow as a seed in a healthy community.
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Fetra enjoys a cup of tea in the forest (PC: Katherine Culbertson)
There is always a starting point for everyone but do not let that make you feel that you are not good enough. There will always be people who have already gone through your stage willing to help you, so I just want to say: “take the chance, give your best and enjoy”.

Field notes #10

10/13/2023

 
Text by Jessica Stubbs
Even in my initial meeting with Onja and first time entering the scientific arena of the Razafindratsima Lab, I was dreaming of Madagascar. The lab’s fluorescent lights transformed to a warm forest glow, the office chairs into exalted Rahiaka trees, and coffee mugs into prodigal epiphytes. I knew the Razafindtratsima Lab would soon become my ecological haven, a space of immense scientific curiosity and professional cultivation. Propelled by the unparalleled guidance of Jade Tonos and galvanized by the extensive data accumulated by the lab, I conducted my Honors Senior Thesis. With every data point I analyzed, scientific article I consumed, and ArcGIS visualization I inscribed, the magnetism of Madagascar intensified. My burgeoning zeal to experience the ecosystems I had studied through the corridors of academia and investigated through the glow of my computer had fortified into an urgent scientific ambition. 
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Jessica holding a rufous mouse lemur in Ranomafana National Park
Thus, when the lab offered me the opportunity to become a Field Technician in Madagascar, I felt as if I was finally able to realize my ecological decree and ameliorate the dissonance between my most profound academic passion and personal experience.
​Armed with robust rubber boots, a plethora of ambiguous antibiotics, and an inexplicable sense of loyalty to the ecosystems and lemurs I was yet to meet, I was ready for anything. The first week in Antananarivo was a vibrant and kinetic rush of unfamiliarity and culture. Scouring the teeming markets for field supplies, absorbing my first words of Malagasy, and ambling along the restless streets was exhilarating. Most exuberant, was having the momentous privilege to experience lab member Vero’s wedding. Dancing in effervescent swirls of Malagasy family members, consuming heaps of aromatic ravitoto, and reveling in the cultural exuberance of the wedding traditions was a singular experience of exceptional joy. The entangled vibrance of Antananarivo was a sensorial introduction to Madagascar and only a nascent glance into the incredible country I was soon to explore. 
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Landscape on the way to Ranomafana (photo by Onja R.)
While driving to Ranomafana, the boisterous contours of the city melted into expansive verdant hills, imbricating agricultural fields, and meandering brown streams. The landscape was punctuated by lines of laboring zebus, rich piles of fresh bricks, intimate huddles of market sellers, opinionated discourses among geese, and clusters of enthralled children. 
After ten turbulent hours drinking in the amorphous scenery from the car window, we arrived at the ValBio Research Station perched in the hills of the Ranomafana village. Settling into Valbio felt akin to reuniting with distant relatives. I ostensibly felt a powerful undertow of deep kinship while meeting the fellow researchers as we all seemed to vibrate with a similar reverence for the ecosystem and space we were occupying. Science innovators, field technicians, international students, and Malagasy conservation practitioners created a space infused with passion.
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View of Ranomafana rainforest (photo by Onja R.)
After a few days gathering our supplies and coordinating our research objectives, we set off through banana fields and up arboraceous mountains to our campsite to begin the real work embedded within the forest. 
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our campsite in Ranomafana (photo by Kat Culbertson 2022)
Our campsite was tucked into a high forest, adorned with misty condensation and opaque with fragrant smoke from the kitchen. After warm introductions with camp members and satiating piles of rice and beans gilded with spicy Malagasy sakay, I settled into my tent and felt an inexplicable sense of belonging in this novel environment with my newfound family. Daily life at camp distilled down to a very simple equation, one that soon revealed its agency to sharpen intellectual focus, foster scientific curiosity, and promote ontological reflection. 
Meals consisted of rice and beans, showers were taken in the river's embrace, purpose was found in the lemurs, and community thrived among the people and biota around us. The endless onslaught of news cycles, inundation of messages and emails, and perennial duty of academic and professional tasks faded into the immediacy and immensity of the forest. The profound reduction in external stimulus honed my abilities as a conservation practitioner and allowed my somatic and cerebral capabilities to unify in the research, questions, and wildlife that enveloped me. ​
Every morning we transformed into tactical lemur detection machines. During daily eight-hour lemur follows we traversed every path the lemur journeyed, measured every tree they nibbled, collected every fecal deposit they generously left behind, and recorded every behavior they displayed. Wading through rivers, ascending ridges, and scaling peaks, our team became unwavering instruments of observation and scientific crusaders of conservation. We quickly fused to the habitual cadence of the lemurs and the pulse of the ecosystem. When the lemurs flew through the forest, we raced behind them and when they napped in the canopy, we rested on the forest floor. Becoming embedded within Madagascar’s natural vivacity was truly an enveloping practice in ecocentrism, one filled with deep intrigue and profound joy. 
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Everyday was met with a multitude of novel lessons, inspiring curiosities, interminable giggles, scientific inquiries, lemur connections, persistent leeches, and legions of rice and beans. Never before had I possessed so few material effects and external comforts, and yet felt so fulfilled. My mind was kinetic with research ideas, empirical conquests, and experimental propositions. After lemur follows, we would march to the lab (a makeshift arrangement of tarp and sticks) and dive into preparing fecal samples with multiple treatments to delineate how the lemur microbiome affects seed germination rates. Conducting innovative science in the middle of the forest truly instilled the importance of embracing constant agility, improvement, and adaptation in an environmental arena of finite resources and unlimited stochasticity. As an emerging conservation practitioner, these experiences fortified my scientific problem-solving dexterity and imprinted an enduring zeal for advancing research on the front lines of conservation.
Beyond catalyzing the counters of my intellectual prowess, the endogenous connections and palpable kingship that developed with the lemurs and fellow field technicians were transformative. Camp members and field technicians became an instant troop of unwavering loyalty. Hundreds of hours spent in the forest welded us together interminably. Picking leeches off each other, sharing meals under the canopy, teaching plant varieties, exchanging languages, and collectively immersing in the centripetal intrigue of the lemurs infused every lemur follow with an immensity of supportive reciprocity. Back at camp, the enveloping sense of community transcended challenging conditions and crystallized into interrelational wisdoms, connections, and understandings. Playing dominos with fierce determination, boldly pioneering novel food concoctions, piling around the fire, and passing jugs of steaming burnt rice water around the table were liminal moments of enduring warmth.
Punctuating our time at camp were both restful and exuberant sojourns at the ValBIo Research Station. There, we extracted DNA by processing our fecal samples utilizing advanced laboratory techniques. In the lab, I sharped my pipetting precision, gained confidence mixing fragile chemicals, and advanced my ability to curate immaculate lab playlists to foster the ideal musical feng shui for science. Spending afternoons in the lab, meals with impassioned researchers, and evenings organizing supplies and trading lemur stories with volunteers further reinforced my avidity and esteem for the imperative research we were conducting. From skillfully collecting lemur fecal deposits from the forest floor to methodically purifying and extracting genetic information from samples in the lab, I was developing a comprehensive understanding of advancing conservation research. 
​By the time I boarded my flight back to Berkeley, my planetary ambitions and personal pursuits had been perennially fortified in the forests of Madagascar. Every connection and curiosity inscribed by Madagascar underscored my resolve and urgency to effectuate critical conservation action. I was overcome by an immensity of gratitude and a profound sense of obligation. The last three months had imbued a steadfast faithfulness and a fierce loyalty to the ecosystem in which we had surrounded our lives for the last three months. Every lemur became kin, every team member an ally, every lab mate a teacher. Each moment in the forest and lab was saturated with a profound sense of meaning and duty. Every lemur follow and data entry carried the weight of the whole species. Living and operating with such thoughtfulness and allegiance is the paramount lesson I will imprint into the futurity of my professional ambitions and personal crusades.
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