Madagascar Research Assistant Projects

Research Assistants will be joining an expedition with a fixed 4-week itinerary that contains training course elements as well as the various research projects for which help will be required. Working on this expedition will give volunteers the opportunity to see a wide range of the endemic Madagascar fauna as well as the opportunity to help on a valuable rapid biodiversity assessment project with Malagasy support staff.

AM101 Mahamavo Forest Rapid Biodiversity Assessment (Expedition 1)
There are 12 x 3km forest transects and 4 x 3km boat transects that need to be repeatedly surveyed over the 4 week period. In the first week the group will be at the Mariarano Base Camp and will then spend the next two weeks in one or more fly camps in more remote parts of the forest before returning to the Base Camp for the last week to finalise the surveys in that part of the forest and to ensure the data are input ready for the final assessment report. In the first week all volunteers will have daily lectures on Madagascar Wildlife Ecology interspersed around the survey programme. The aim of this course is to give participants an overview of conservation issues affecting Madagascar, develop identification skills and learn much more about the unique wildlife of the island. The survey work will include early morning and evening transect surveys for birds, frogs, reptiles and lemurs, spotlight surveys for nocturnal lemurs and reptiles, boat based surveys for the same groups, forest structure surveys, spotlight surveys for crocodiles, mist net and harp trapping for bats, trapping for fossas, tenrecs and rodents, pitline surveys for reptiles and small mammals, frog surveys and time budget surveys for diurnal lemur species. There are a number of new frog and bat species that have been recently discovered in Madagascar so it is possible that these in depth surveys in the Mahamavo forests may uncover additional species.


During the second and third weeks the group will move to the eastern forest fly camp to complete the same in-depth surveys in these forests.  In the final week the teams will return to Mariarano to complete the surveys which will have been started in week 1 and ensure the database is updated. The camps operate a whiteboard system where the scientists sign up the night before where they are going the following day and how many volunteers are needed to help with the surveys. Volunteers can then rotate between survey teams to gain a wide range of experience.