Stolen traps and other problems

From the beginning on we had a major problem, well Jacques had the problem. Someone was stealing his traps which he used to catch Microcebus and one trap is worth about 30 € which is a lot of money and even more for Malagasy relations. Whoever stole them couldn’t really use them for anything and we do not know why they stole them. Often you have such problems if you don’t talk with everyone in the area but we did. First thing we did was talking to the people in the village of Ihazofotsy as well as with the people from the houses in the surrounding area. Usually that is enough for them to accept the work and leave you alone. Our guides and guards were very upset about the stealings and they went to all the people and asked them about the traps, but only managed to retrieve two which were hidden somewhere in the bush. This and the problem that Jacques got a middle-ear-infection caused us to give up the camp in the area. We couldn’t possibly afford to loose anymore equipment. Fortunately the reptile work was done by the time we made the decision to give the camp up. This was obviously very bad for the people who worked for us as if the traps hadn’t been stolen they would have earned a lot more money. We knew it wasn’t any of them or of the village of Ihazofotsy but it was impossible to stay.