Working in the transects

On the first day we walked around the area to figure what types of forests are available and where we were going to set up our transects. Jacques was responsible for the mouse lemurs whereas Tahiana recorded the plants. Our job were the reptiles. A transects is 1 km long and is divided into plots of 25 m each. The plots are marked with a bit of red cloth. For the actual work you walk/crawl/climb along the transect and search on every tree, in and under every dead wood/stone, substrate etc. for reptiles of all kinds. Once you have gotten used to the reptiles, you don’t have to catch them any more for identification but just note how many of what kind you find in the respective areas. It is not the easiest work as we worked in the dry forest… and the dry forest is spiny forest and if they say spiny they bloody well mean it !!! OUCH! It hurts crawling through those bushes. You have to be a little careful while searching for the reptiles as there are heaps of other critters you don’t really want to come across, such as centerpeds, scorpions or even a black widow. With scorpions it really is the way you imagine it. You flip over a stone and you got one. Very interesting creatures to be found all over the place. Have a look at the pictures and you get an idea (more pics will follow in other posts, so just a few to start). I will also try to show you a video of a hissing cockroach, they are kind of cute I think. Personally, I hate catching those geckos that loose their scales. I know it is a defense mechanism and it’s not supposed to hurt but who really knows?! Luckily we didn’t catch one that lost all the scales as a naked gecko is really a horrible thing to see!