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Quarterly
Report from the Field: Betampona Reserve
October through December 2002
Charlie Welch,
Betampona Project Director, prepared this section in English,
to summarize the highlights of the Oct.-Dec. 2002 trimester report
written in French by Bernard Iambana
and the agents.
I.1. Released Varecia variegata variegata
This
trimester has been a very exciting one for the project. Third
group releasee Hale gave birth 10/22/02 to twins, after a
gestation period of 100 days. The sire was a wild male. Hale had
been released into the reserve in January 2001, and this birth
marks the project's first "out breeding" of a released
female with a resident wild male. Both infants are thriving and
are already eating much fruit in the forest. The resident wild
male actively helped Hale guard the infants, as is normal for
Varecia, and he is still with the family group. No monkey chow
provisioning was necessary, even in the period of high metabolic
demands on Hale during lactation.
After
Hale gave birth, the rest of her family group moved to the north
- Tany and Masoandro are her offspring of 2000 and Kintana from
1999 - all were born in the U.S. Kintana has not been sighted
since December, but we suspect he is still alive and somewhere
in the reserve with an expired radio collar. Wild male Rahona
has joined Tany and Masoandro.
Sarph,
the only remaining member of the 1997
release group, has also apparently bred with a wild female.
He is regularly sighted with a wild female and a single infant
in the northern part of the reserve. Since Sarph was observed
assisting in infant guarding, it is most likely that he is the
sire.
I.2.
Wild Varecia variegata variegata
The
sub-groups in the Sahabefoza region were often found together
in this trimester. Kalo gave birth to twins, as did Ando in the
north, but Lucy, Mirana and Soa have not been sighted since last
trimester.
II.1. Indri indri
The female with green collar of the northern group that had an
infant last year gave birth again. This is our first observation
of consecutive year Indri births, with surviving infants. The
female Indri in the southern group also gave birth.
II.2.
Other Lemurs
The
white fronted lemurs (Eulemur fulvus albifrons) also seemed to
have a very high birth rate this year with a particularly high
percentage of twinning. Bernard notes an observation of triplet
infants on one female, but this could have been instance of an
infant transferring to another mother for a short period.
The
year 2002 produced bumper crops of babies of all the lemur species
observed. This could have been as a result of a forest unusually
rich in resources. And that richness could be the result of the
excessive amount of rainfall (without cyclone winds and forest
damage) for 2002. Years more of data collection will either confirm
or refute that theory.
II.3. Other Mammals
There have been no observations of Fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox)
since the early dry season (Oct.). Of course this is good for
the released lemurs!
II.4.
Amphibians
-
Many young frogs, tadpoles, and eggs were observed during this
trimester. The eggs were found in tree holes, stream edges, and
even on leaves.
- 3 possible new species of frogs were observed this trimester:
Mantidactylus decaryi,
Mantidactylus depressies, and an unidentified Mantidactylus sp.
II.
5. Reptiles
- Phelsums guttata and Uroplatus lineatus were observed shedding
their skins.
- Many cries of Uroplatus being eaten by birds were heard this
trimester.
- Brookesia superciliaris were observed frequently.
- In general, young reptiles were much more frequently observed
than in other trimesters.
- Reptile eggs were found in leaves of Pandanus and Ravinala and
in rotten tree trunks, as well as under leaf litter on the forest
floor.
- A snake tentatively identified as Dromicodryas bernieri was
found in the reserve.
- Other chameleon genera found include Furcifer (in bamboo along
the river outside the reserve) and Gehyra mutilata (in a house).
II.6. Birds
Two Nightjars, Caprimulgus enarratus, were found nesting with
eggs. One at 1.5 meters height in an Asplenium nidus fern and
the other on the ground.
III. Plant Phenology
- The plant phenology study continues, following the flowering,
fruiting, and leaf growth cycles of the 30 most important trees
species to Varecia.
- The forest regeneration site continue to be monitored with a
minimum of intervention in the form of cutting back of invasive
herbs. Several native secondary forest species, including Harongana,
are growing rapidly in the plots.
IV. Meteorology data
The
amount of rainfall recorded for the year, 2002, is nothing short
of astounding. At Rendrirendry 4803 mm of rain was recorded and
if rain gauge overflow is taken into account, certainly more than
5 meters of rain fell on Betampona. The C.T.H.T., a Cooperation
Francaise agricultural project in Tamatave town measured over
5.5 meters of rain for the year. The "normal" rainfall
amount for the area is between 2.5 and 3 meters, just to give
you an idea of how much above normal the rainfall amounts were.
(5 meters of rain is equal to just under 200 inches!) As I mentioned
earlier, the affects of this quantity of rain on the forest remains
to be studied over the long term.
Some
Closing Remarks from Charlie
The
year 2002 was really a landmark year for the Betampona project.
The successful breeding and raising of infants by two of the introduced
Varecia has been rewarding, and gives us hope for future reintroductions
in one form or another. Equally rewarding, Bernard Iambana, Adam
Britt`s assistant, very capably stepped into Adam`s boots as research
coordinator. He has done an excellent job under demanding circumstances.
As I write this, Bernard is doing a 2-month training period in
the U.S. in St. Louis. His training will be split between the
St. Louis Zoo, Missouri Botanical Garden, and the University of
Missouri in St. Louis. More details of his training will follow
in the next trimestrial report.
Returning
to Adam- for those of you who do not know, Adam has taken a job
as the coordinator of Madagascar Threatened Plants Appeal program
with Kew Botanical Gardens. In fact we look forward to seeing
him in March when he visits Ivoloina to discuss the Palm Bank
collaboration and goes up to Betampona to collect samples from
endangered palms. Adam was a very integral part of the success
of the reintroduction effort as well as other aspects of the project.
We just could not have done it without him. His hard working,
hard driving ways not only kept things going forward in the most
trying of times, but also set an excellent example that is still
followed by the crew at Betampona today. Over the past few months,
Adam also has continued to work on the numerous publications about
the Betampona project which he submitted to journals in 2002-
several papers have been revised following editors' requests and
final versions have been re-submitted or accepted. We would like
to take this opportunity to wish Adam, his wife Ceri (who unflinchingly
adapted to isolated life at Rendrirendry), and his daughter Sally,
all the very best in the years to come.
We
all work to protect Malagasy wildlife, but we all know that conservation
of habitats and biodiversity is the ultimate goal. With this in
mind, it seems appropriate to copy here some quotes from Chris
Birkenshaw, Technical Advisor for Missouri Botanical Garden-Madagascar.
He wrote an article in Ravintsara (Volume 1, Issue 1, December
2002), the new MBG newsletter on Malagasy plants and their conservation.
He chose Betampona Reserve for the first feature in the section
"Priority Areas for Plant Conservation" and wrote:
"…The
botanical importance of Betampona lies in its high species diversity
and the presence of many species with highly restricted distributions,
some of which are known only from this site. In a project to estimate
the risk of extinction of the ca. 100 species in Madagascar's
7 endemic plant families, 20 species were recorded from Betampona,
more than any other site in Madagascar, and of these, 3 are known
only from this forest…If the Malagasy flora as a whole reflects
the pattern shown by this modest sample, then Betampona would
be the area with the highest priority for conservation in Madagascar.
Indeed, a browse of the botanical literature suggests that this
may be the case…
Betampona…is now the sole significant vestige of low elevation
evergreen humid forest in hundreds of square kilometers: a tiny
jewel set in an otherwise trashed and eroding landscape."
Chris
writes on and recognizes the Madagascar Fauna Group-ANGAP partnership
for their conservation and research programs that are also largely
to credit for Betampona's current protection.
The
above is an English summary of Bernard
Iambana's full report in French by Charlie
Welch.
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