Save the fosa!

Entry 8:

Arovy ny Fosa!

Duke student Brandon Semel continues to share his experiences doing research in Madagascar. Spotty internet connections delayed posts.

21 July 2011

Save the fosa!  That’s what our principal investigators, Drs. Luke Dollar and Julie Pomerantz, their in-country research Director, Pierrot, myself, and two other American students, several Malagasy students, and 18 Earthwatch volunteers are here to do!  Earthwatch is a non-profit organization that gives people the hands-on opportunity to see what field research really is like in locations spanning the globe.  Participants help carry the labor and financial burdens of the research, while the researchers share their knowledge of working in places and on projects that few people would otherwise get the opportunity to experience.

Before our Earthwatch team arrives, we begin trap inventory and set up.  Two different cage sizes are among our trapping arsenal, but they essentially both share the same release mechanism.  One end of the approximately 3 ft x 1 ft x 1 ft cage remains closed, while at the other end a door is held open by a hook that releases when the animal steps on the plate: it is connected to the hook by a cable running to the back of the trap.  We’re using fresh Zebu steaks as bait.  After checking to ensure that they are functioning, we place all 50 or so traps on different transect lines in three different parts of the forest.  Once they are set, we will be checking them twice a day, morning and evening, to see if we have captured a fosa!

Captured animals are sedated to minimize stress on the animal, then taken to camp where they are checked to see if they have been captured previously (all new animals receive a microchip under their skin so as not to physically alter their appearance), weighed, have biological samples taken, sexed, and measured (tail and body length, cranial size, body condition, and the list goes on) before recovering in the camp and being released the following day.

These records collected for each individual animal, along with radio telemetry data and satellite images of the park collected in the past, allow Dr. Dollar to gain a better understanding not only of the health and size of individual animals, but also of the fosa population throughout the park.  He’s looking into how these animals are responding to changes in forest type due to human encroachment and slash-and-burn agriculture (the process of cutting down forests and burning the dried remains to make room for farm- and pasturelands), competition with introduced predators like feral dogs, cats, and the Indian civet, and the effect of diseases carried by these introduced animals on fosas over time.

A cloud of dust appears in the distance, signaling the arrival of the team!  So it begins.  The next few days will be spent introducing the volunteers to several projects from which they can choose. Each day they can be involved either with the fosa project, community development, or overall park monitoring and management.  There’s a lot of work to be done in only two weeks’ time!