Operation Wallacea in Madagascar: Day 8
Day 8 – Mariarano 20/06/2024 – Thursday
Our second full day in Mariarano. After yesterdays long yet memorable day, everyone slept very well and woke up rested to the sound of the chickens and roosters at sunrise.
Group A did the butterfly survey by the river in the morning, the view was as beautiful as the intricate designs of the butterfly wings. They caught many of the Monarch butterfly which had an ombré-orange wing with specs of black. Group B did the bird spotting route where they played bird sound and investigated the variation of birds who flew to their call. The route was musical which kept it interesting as well as visual. Group C had an extremely tiring hike in the morning where they hiked 5.5 hours in the morning and found several day geckos and Chameloens with different colours. Group D were lucky to start the morning at 7 with the mist nets which, as aforementioned, was a relaxing, memorable experience. They found only 3 birds which is less than Group C but they all still got to experience how it felt to measure, hold and release a bird.
Luckily for us, in the afternoon we found out that there was a Malagasy market running in the Mariano village which we saw as the perfect chance to buy our souvenirs for loved ones. The village was a fantastic experience in itself, it was genuinely bustling with music, people and colours with so many different things to buy and admire.
After our enlightening time at the flourishing marketplace, the afternoon hikes and surveys consisted of butterflies, inverts and forest plots. As the evening began to rise, group C searched for spiders in the forest. They used their head torched to look out for ‘glittery eyes’ which helped to locate the spiders before collecting them and storing them for data collection.
Group D did a long lemur hike where they all attempted to spot at least 2 each and were highly successful and whilst that went on, group A did a herp survey where they witnessed night geckos hunting but unfortunately no snakes.
Simreen & Robyn
