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.
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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.
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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. |
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