Day 3

After a quiet morning the shopping spree begun. Food, camp equipment and gas for the car was needed. The only out-of-the-ordinary event for the day was a gecko falling from the sky and landing on my neck. Caught me by surprise, to say the least.

Stuff are tucked away in boxes and prepared for easy packing of the cars tomorrow morning. We get help from TFCG with a car to drive some of the equipment since our car is on the smaller side. Unfortunately we weren't able to get a sim-card for a field Internet connection of the iPad since the phone company's system had crashed. So no day-to-day updates can be made during this 7-8 days long first leg of our fieldwork to Ruvu South Forest Reserve. However, Nike, Andy's wife, borrowed us her mobile Internet device so some updates may be possible after all!

Our 4-wheel drive for the Ruvu South FR trip.

 

 

Skickat via Blogsy

Day 2

This morning our survey team was complete with the arrival of Simon. Andy's been scurrying around all day to get all permits and arrangements while me and Simon had a relaxed day. Good to recharge the batteries before fieldwork begins. Found out that I could get a sim-card for the iPad so I hope it will work when we get out into the field!

Simon relaxing on this nice Friday afternoon.

 

The decission to go to ravened Ruvu South Forest Reserve or not came in favor of going. Arranging for a new site will be too time consuming. Fingers crossed that some patches of forest are left for our sought for galagos!

 

Skickat via Blogsy

Day 1

Leaving Doha at 2:30am in a half-full, very nice and new airplane. Three seats to myself. That is how it always should be! This flight was a strangely satisfying flight from start to end. The luggage and customs hassle at Dar es Salaam airport wasn't a hassle. Everything just flow in a very unusual and smooth way. Got picked up by Andy and went for some breakfast at this very nice coffee place Epi d'or. A perfect start for a day that contained shopping, meeting people, organizing and permit fixing.


 

Started off at the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group (TFCG) to confirm and decide on fieldwork logistics, borrowing equipment and collecting a map over one of the study site near Pugu Forest Reserve - Ruvu South Forest Reserve. This is an area that has been subjected to quite extensive illegal logging for charcoal production.

 

With the very kind help from Theron Morgan-Brown at TFCG a map was produced from satellite images taken one year ago over the region. We were taken aback from the results! The forest is almost completely gone! What to do now? Though the Rondo dwarf galago (Galagoides rondoensis) residing in the area probably can be found in patches, it will most likely be a very hard place to camp and work at since smoldering charcoal pits will be pretty much everywhere.

 

Will have to seek a new site? Perhaps. However, new permits are needed if the alternate site discussed at Sadaani National Park, the Zaraninge Forest, is chosen. Permit obtaining - a task not to be taken lightely!

 

Skickat via Blogsy

Airport entertainment

Things to do at airport when bored: Paraprosdokian Fun

Skickat via Blogsy

Journey begins!

 

Day 0

A long journey begins. Just before I leave home the bag with all the traps rips at the seems. Not the best start! No time to repack so leave anyway. These things usually can be fixed at the airport, I think. True enough, I get help at the airport to saran wrap the holy bejesus out of the bag! Wonder if I will be able to access anything myself without extensive power tools now...anyways, overweight luggage safely checked in and first leg of the journey is completed as I now have arrived at Doha. The second leg to Dar es Salaam starts at 2am so there is quite a bit of a wait (7 pm here now... ). However, flight to Doha was on half-full plane so it was quite comfy and waiting in the lounge area is nice. Tomorrow - Tanzania!

 

Skickat via Blogsy

New dates and survey sites set

Flexibility is a must in a project like this. Two days before my scheduled departure date to Tanzania a sudden change in plans were made and we decided that it'd be better to postpone my trip with a week to match the arrival of Simon better. Said and (almost) done! Good thing about this is that almost everything is set and ready to go a whole week in advance now! New departure date from Sweden will now be August 22.

Survey sites are confirmed now! Due to the limited time we have for fieldwork the focus on this trip will be sampling populations of Galagoides zanzibaricus udzungwensis (mainland Zanzibar galago), Galagoides cocos (Kenya Coast Galago), Galagoides rondoensis (Rondo Dwarf Galago) and potentially Galagoides orinus (Mountain Dwarf Galago). The surveys will be conducted at the following sites:

• Site - Mtai Forest Reserve
• Species hopefully present - G. z. udzugwensis (northern range limit); G. cocos (southern range limit); G. orinus (if present then at 800 m a.s.l.)
  
• Site - Pugu Forest Reserve (forest area nearby the reserve)
• Species hopefully present - G. rondoensis;  G. z. udzungwensis
  
• Site - Nyumburuni Forest Reserve
• Species hopefully present - G. z. udzingwensis (southern range limit)

The map on the project website www.galagoides.se have been updated and show you were the sites are located.