Volunteers will be based in the village camp of Ifotaka and during
the first week will complete a Madagascar Wildlife Ecology course.
This course consists of a series of lectures with practicals in the
field to demonstrate the different survey techniques and to learn
the identification of some of the more common species. The course
will give participants an overview of the conservation issues
affecting Madagascar and facilitate an understanding of Madagascar’s
unique ecology. The surveys across the North Ifotaka reserve will
be based at a couple of different camps over the survey period and,
at each of these camps, four 3km trails are used for the surveys.
The bird surveys are being done from point counts and mist nettings,
lemur density estimates from day and night transects with Sherman
trapping for the nocturnal lemurs, lemur feeding ecology and
behaviour from scan and focal sampling of the Verraux’s and
Ring-tailed lemurs, iguana species activity budgets from focal
sampling and physiological experiments, vegetation surveys using
Gentry plots to provide detailed descriptions of the species
diversity and physical structure of trees and bushes in each main
habitat type. In addition, transects are completed to quantify the
level of invasive species (e.g. Prickly Pear cactus, Sisal) and
distribution of rare species. Volunteers can rotate between these
survey groups throughout their stay in order to develop a wide range
of skills.
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