Madagascar - School Expeditions

Madagascar schools booklet 2012

Expedition structure

Madagascar has some of the most spectacular biodiversity in the world (lemurs, tenrecs, baobabs, and over half of all known chameleon species), much of which is endemic. The school groups have the choice of two itineraries:

·     Mahamavo dry forests for one week with a transfer to Nosy Be marine site for one week

·    Mandrare Valley spiny forests for one week with a one week lemur and chameleon overland trip through the eastern rainforests back to Antananarivo

In the Mahamavo forests, the Opwall teams are working with Oxford University on gathering data on carbon, biodiversity and community economics to submit the forests for funding using the REDD+ scheme.  The Mandrare Valley in the SE corner of Madagascar is being proposed as a new Biosphere Reserve and the Opwall research is aimed at providing support data needed for this application.

Forest week

In both forest sites, the teams will split their time between the forest surveys and completing a Madagascar Wildlife and Culture course. The practical sessions will include (depending on site):

·    Herpetofauna routes (both sites) – A small group of students led by a herpetologist will walk slowly along a forest sample route scanning the vegetation and ground carefully for reptiles and amphibians since many species particularly chameleons are quite cryptic. Spotlight surveys are also done in the evening.

·    Lemur routes (both sites) – Groups walk slowly along the route with a lemur specialist scanning the canopy closely for groups of lemurs.  When a group is detected, the location, species, group size and distance from the route centreline are recorded. These transects are completed both during the day and at night using spotlights.

·    Bird point counts and mist netting (both sites) – Students will join an ornithologist completing point counts in the early morning.  Teams form an outward facing circle and record all the birds seen or heard over a 10 minute period. Mist nets are also used for cryptic species and, when birds are caught, the ornithologist will demonstrate how they are removed from the net, handled and morphometric measurements recorded.

·    Wetland birds by boat (Mahamavo only) – This boat based survey will follow a route through mangroves and out into an estuary with mud flats recording all the wetland bird species.

·    Small mammal trapping (both sites) – Small mammal traps will be baited and set in the evenings and students will then check traps and help process any captures in a morning session. 

·    Bat mist netting (Mahamavo only) – Mist nets are used to sample the bat communities and all bats captured will be identified.

·    Forest structure plots (Mahamavo only) – The aim of making measurements in a stratified sample of 20m x 20m plots in the forests is to estimate the amount of carbon stored in woody vegetation.  In addition, this activity monitors trends in some indicators of forest physical parameters (canopy cover, sapling density). 

·    Vegetation plots (Mandrare only) – This will involve mapping rare and threatened species and invasive specie s in the high and low spiny thickets and measuring species diversity and forest structure.

At each site, the groups will also complete a Madagascar Wildlife and Culture course with lectures on Introduction to Madagascar (diversity of Madagascar wildlife, people and cultures), biogeography and evolution of Madagascar wildlife (why so many species are endemic, distribution of major habitats), species concept (endemic amphibian, reptile bird and mammal species in Madagascar, what is a species?), biodiversity conservation in Madagascar (National Park system, human impacts on wildlife), people in Madagascar (major cultures and languages) and conservation synthesis (how the data from Mahamavo, and Mandrare are being used).

Marine week at Maradoka, Nosy Be

During their marine week, the school will be based at the Nosy Be Marine Camp and will be completing one of the following options:

·    a full PADI Open Water dive training course

·    completion of a Indian Ocean reef ecology course consisting of lectures and in-water practicals either by diving (if a qualified diver) or snorkelling.  The lectures cover an introduction to coral reef ecosystem ( reef formation east Africa reef distribution), coral and algal species (growth forms and common species),  marine megafauna (whale shark migrations, whales of southern Africa), ecologically important invertebrates (lobster fishery,mollusc fishery), identification of coral reef fish (herbivores, piscivores, omnivores and splecialists such as cleaner fish), reef survey techniques (quadrats, transects, stereo video), threats to reefs (climate change, fisheries, invasive species) and marine conservation (Madagascar marine protected areas)

·    completion of a PADI Open Water referral course (students need to arrive having completed their theory and pool training) which takes the first 3 days and they then join the Indian Ocean reef ecology course

Lemur and chameleon hunt - Mandrare expedition
Instead of going to the Nosy Be marine site, the Mandrare valley option takes the group overland on a lemur and chameleon hunt in week 2 ending up at Antananarivo. Each day combines some time on the road travelling in a Tata bus. There will be visits to spectacular natural ecosystems, rural farms and villages and to several of the iconic protected areas, such as the Ranomafana National Park (which is a World Heritage Site) and the sacred mountains of Anja in the heart of Betsileo country.  The journey will end each day in a basic campsite with views out over the Malagasy landscape and at several of the stopovers a night walk is also offered to allow you to observe the nocturnal mouse and dwarf lemurs.  The objective is to see species such as Indri’s, Black and White Ruffed Lemurs, Bamboo lemurs Ring-tailed lemurs and as many species of Malagasy birds and chameleons as possible.

Example research questions for IB, EPQ or CoPE
How do bird communities of Madagascar compare with those found on the African mainland?
What is different about the Madagascar herpetofauna compared to the rest of Africa?

How does the 2003 Dreamworks movie depiction of Madagascar wildlife differ from the real fauna?

What are the main characteristics that make chameleons successful?

How can satellite images help conservation efforts in Madagascar?

What are the main threats to Madagascar wildlife?

Can conservation in Madagascar succeed?

Why are lemurs thriving in Madagascar?

Why are the tenrecs of Madagascar so unusual?