Click Here for Expedition Dates

Forest Site

Research is completed at a series of forest camps in the Mahamavo forest. Arrivals on this programme complete an introduction to Madagascar Wildlife and Conservation course alongside practicals in survey techniques. Following this you will be helping teams of field biologists completing standardised surveys on a series of key taxa. The Mahamavo forests are dry, deciduous forests which are becoming increasingly scarce as deforestation continues to threaten habitats across the island. These surveys are aimed at assessing the biodiversity of the community managed forests here and collecting data focusing on long term trends in species populations and habitat use.

Key activities:

• Herpetofauna: walk slowly along forest sample routes, led by a herpetologist, scanning the vegetation and ground carefully for reptiles and amphibians since many species in the Mahamavo forest, particularly leaf tailed geckos, are quite cryptic. When an individual is detected the location, species and the distance from the route centreline are recorded. These transects are completed both during the day and at night using spotlights.
• Lemurs: walk slowly along the route with a lemur specialist scanning the canopy closely for groups of lemurs. When a troop is detected the location, species, troop size and the distance from the route centreline are recorded. These transects are completed both during the day and at night using spotlights.
• Birds: join an ornithologist completing point counts in the early morning. Teams form an outward facing circle and record all the birds seen or heard over a 10 minute period. Mist nets are also used for cryptic species. When birds are caught the ornithologist will demonstrate how they are removed from the net, handled and morphometric measurements recorded. Blood samples are also taken from the first 20 individuals caught from each species for genetic analysis.
• Amphibians: walk to an inland lake or rice paddy with a herpetologist and collect as many frogs as possible over a 40 minute standard search period. Each frog collected is identified to species, weighed and morphometric measurements taken to determine the abundance of each frog species in the area as well as the population structure.
• Butterflies: Pollard surveys of butterflies are completed along a series of fixed transects.
• Forest structure:  A crucial data set when assessing biodiversity trends. You will be taking measurements in a stratified sample of 20m x 20m plots in the forests to track changes in canopy height, sapling density and basal area.

Marine Site

The marine site is on Nosy Be, a small island off the north west of Madagascar. If you are not already dive trained, you can spend your first week at this centre completing an SSI Open Water dive training course, before moving onto the Indian ocean reef ecology course in your next week. This course consists of lectures, morning and afternoon in-water practicals, and trains you in some of the survey techniques used in the marine environment to assess the status of reefs and their associated fish communities. If you are already dive trained or just wanting to snorkel your first week is on the Indian ocean reef ecology course and the second would be spent working with different researchers on site. Projects you will join include monitoring of fish populations, reef structure surveys and coral watch.

Key activities

• SSI dive training course: This course involves a combination of theory lessons, confined water dives, and open water dives to gain an official SCUBA qualification.
• Indian Ocean Reef Ecology course: Completion of a Indian Ocean reef ecology course consisting of lectures and in water practicals either by diving (if a qualified diver) or snorkelling. The lectures cover an introduction to coral reef ecosystem, coral and algal species, marine megafauna, mangrove and seagrass ecology, ecologically important invertebrates, identification of coral reef fish, reef survey techniques, threats to reefs and marine conservation.
• SSI referral course: For this option students need to arrive having already completed their theory and pool training components either with SSI or PADI. This course takes three days to complete, after which students will join the Indian Ocean reef ecology course.