Abingdonian 2018

72 The Abingdonian Madagascar Trip When I first heard about a field trip to Madagascar, I knew I had to go! The idea of three weeks in such a remote country, seeing the wildlife, scuba diving and helping scientists with their research, couldn’t have sounded more interesting. And therefore I found myself on one of the longest plane journeys I have ever taken; eight and a half hours to Ethiopia and then four and a half hours to Antananarivo, the Capital of Madagascar. Before being bundled off (me in the most cramped car, with someone holding the backdoor shut the entire time) to one of our only hotel stays, we all had to exchange our Euros into the Madagascan Ariary, the national currency One Euro being approximately 4000 Ar - I don’t think my wallet has ever felt so full. Once at the hotel we were acquainted with the zebu - a cow-like animal with a camel’s hump, which provided our most delicious meals throughout the trip. Another new experience was having to take malaria tablets and use malaria nets (in addition to the many vaccines we had to take prior to the visit). After a night at the hotel we were driven again, this time, to the north of Madagascar, in the Mahajanga Forest. To enter the forest, half of us were loaded onto a huge cattle truck and the others into very old 4x4’s to manage the very bumpy drive through the forest. At the campsite, with Operation Wallacea, we immediately saw our first lemurs, swinging from tree to tree right above our tents. This, snakes in the showers, and huge spiders in the toilets became regular occurences, making all moments of the day exciting. Throughout the week in the forest, we went on trails, locating different types of arachnids, invertebrates and birds, all the while, we benefitted from lectures on the unique biology of Madagascar and conservation efforts employed to help protect it. My favourite research trail was logging the different species of lemurs along the walk, where we used our torches to locate their eyes high up in the trees. Unfortunately the forest was not home to the ‘King Julian’ species of