June: Ankarafantsika National Park and Operation Wallacea Expedition
Fieldwork updates #6
Hi everyone! It’s been a while since an update (or is that just the time warp of fieldwork talking? Aha) and a lot has been happening in the past month so let’s dive in. June was a big month for the sifaka team, we started the month with a very brief trip to Ankarafantsika National Park, the Operation Wallacea Madagascar expedition arrived at Mariarano, two new members joined the sifaka team and we reached 200 faecal samples collected! Along with many other things.
Yet Another Detour: Ankarafantsika National Park
At the start of June, we took our monthly trip back to Mahajanga to connect to wifi and most importantly top up on snacks for the coming few weeks! In keeping with the mantra of this year’s field season to say yes to opportunities, on our way back to Mahajanga the team took a (not so little) detour to Ankarafantsika National Park (ANP) for me to give a talk on my research to a joint University of Guelph and University of Antananarivo field school on ‘one health’ taking place at the park. I have passed through ANP several times during my time in the field but I have only ever stopped the night once, and I honestly don’t remember much of it as we got there at 6-7 pm and left by 8 am the next day, so I was excited to get to spend a bit more time in the park visitor centre, as well as meet some new people from field school.
After leaving Mariarano at around 7:30 am we reached ANP at 1:30 pm in time for some lunch before getting to watch the field schools’ final presentations (where the students presented their final project ideas) which was super interesting. I also got to see a couple of old faces that I hadn’t seen since properly since 2018! I then got to give my talk and answer lots of questions, and luckily for us, our arrival coincided with the field schools’ end-of-season party, so we even got to have some incredible food and do some dancing! It was a great day/night and it was topped off by being able to stay in one of the park’s bungalows which not only had a flushing toilet and running water, but a ‘proper’ queen-sized bed (which my back was very grateful for after 2 months of sleeping on a Thermarest… Sadly the trip was very much a whistle-stop tour and the next morning we were back on the road by 8 am to head back to Mahajanga for a night.
Saying Goodbye and Meeting New Faces: Operation Wallacea Expedition
Once back in Mariarano we only had a couple of days with our little field family before the yearly Operation Wallacea (Opwall) expedition staff were due to join us to start setting up for this year’s season. As I mentioned in the previous update our team were joining the expedition for our final 7 weeks in Mariarano. As happy as we all were for having new and old faces people join us and getting to try and do lots of new things, I must say I was sad to say goodbye to the ‘family’ I’ve been surrounded by for the last 2 months. Not only was I saying goodbye for this field season, I was almost saying a final goodbye and closing this chapter of my PhD, and it wasn’t until the expedition got here that the realisation of that hit me. But, as sad and hard as it was to say goodbye to that chapter of my fieldwork/PhD/life, it was really exciting to have lots of new and old faces appear back in the forest! The past 4 weeks have gone by a lot quicker than I expected, and it has been such a joy to get to meet so many new and interesting people from across the world who have all come to Madagascar for the same reason, because of their love for Madagascar’s wildlife, people ad environment.
Two New Members of the Sifaka Team
As part of the Opwall expedition, we have also had two new members join the Sifaka team! This year I am lucky enough to have two wonderful undergraduate students from the University of Southampton (UK) join the expedition and the sifaka team to complete fieldwork for their thesis project. As part of my role with Opwall I act as the field thesis supervisor for both these students, supporting them before, during and after their 6 weeks of fieldwork in Mariarano and helping them with completing their final year thesis.
This was a role that I was lucky enough to take on last year with 3 other students, and it was so successful I couldn’t wait to do it again this year. We are 3 weeks in, and both the students and the current Sifaka team are loving it!
Data Collection Milestones
This month was also an exciting one for my data collection. In June we reached a whopping 200 faecal samples collected and successfully dried, and it’s looking like we might reach 300 by the time we finish in 4 weeks! Although I may not use/analyse all of these samples it’s great to have this many collected, as it potentially opens up more possibilities for analysis I can do and future questions I can ask with the samples. We have also reached a huge milestone with the behavioural day follows. At the start of the season, we had planned to do 4 sets of five-day follows for each study group (a total of 100 day follows), and at the very start of July, we completed the 3 sets of follows, meaning we only have 1 set of follows left for each group. This means I only have 25 days left of data collection days for my whole PhD, which is super exciting!
Hitting 3 Months in-country
Data collection hasn’t been the only aspect of my fieldwork that has reached milestones. This month I reached the 3 months in-country milestone. For me (and I may have mentioned this before) 3 months is a turning point where I start to struggle and find being away from home hard. It’s the length where you start to almost forget what it’s like to be at home, which is a very weird feeling and it’s hard to explain. But I think 3 months is the optimum time to be in the field, as it is long enough to fully immerse yourself in what you are doing and the place itself, but not long enough that home feels like another world. This is for me though, and I know many people that have done much longer stints of fieldwork and have loved it. Everyone is different and experiences long-term fieldwork differently.
With all this being said, I have had an incredible 3 months and I have again constantly surprised myself in my capabilities and what I can achieve when I put my mind to it. Now I have 4 weeks left in the field/Mariarano (which feels like no time at all when you’ve already been here for 13! Aha), and then it 3 weeks of travelling and relaxing before heading home! I’m so incredibly excited, but I am also sad to be leaving….. I don’t have time to explore all those feelings and thoughts right now, that’s for a later, even longer post.
Hope you’ve enjoyed this 6th fieldwork update. Another update will reach your inbox around this time in August where I will be able to say I’ve finished all my data collection for my PhD!
Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer and as always, if you have any thoughts or comments on these updates or Conservations Tails as a whole don’t hesitate to reach out to me!
See ya later,
Coral