Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Missing Madagascar

I just bought and watched the BBC's brand new show called "Madagascar: the land where evolution ran wild." Much to my surprise, most of the first episode was shot at Tsimanampetsotsa, the park where I was living. Both of the lemur groups I was following are in the video, along with all the forest spots I've come to love.

After all the despair and desperation and disease... You'd think I wouldn't miss Madagascar. Right? I MOST CERTAINLY don't miss everything, but wow, do I miss my animals. And that forest. There is a certain moment when you are out in the forest with the animals, that I miss dearly. It doesn't happen every day. Or even every other day. But then it may just happen every day, if you are lucky.

That moment is when you get a little reprieve from the heat and the bugs and continually loosing the animals. When the lemurs forget that you aren't a lemur, and you forget that they aren't people. Its when you forget that you are even out researching the animals, and are completely absorbed in their drama. You are 100% privy to their lives and have been completely accepted into the group. In that moment, I am completely content and love what I do.

I really miss that. Oh, and watching the young ones play. I miss that too. But the heat and the bugs and the thorns and loosing the group every two second, I don't miss. I believe I promised to upload this video of my being a huge baby, sometime ago.



Field work can be so frustrating and exhausting, but in the end, is worth it and I am missing it. Here is a video of some lemurs eating dirt. Just for fun.



OOh, and here is a video of a snake eating a skink! Poor thing.



Happy summer everyone!

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