August/Decembcr 1997 
29 
aJtc a fresh interest and pride in their local insects and 
forests. 
TST Yun Oakley, The Rectory, Bcafrod. Winklcigh. 
I>rvon EX 1 9 8NN, England. 
EARTHWATCH 
THE BLACK LEMUR FOREST PROJECT 
in the end. we conserve only what vve love. We love 
cnly what we understand. We understand only what 
we arc taught. ’ Babr Dioum Dioura, Senegalese Poet 
Hie Black Lemur Forest Project gave me a wonderful 
opportunity to learn nnd lake part in a conservation 
project of another country. I. like most naturalists visiting 
Madagascar, was amazed at its diversity and endemism. 
With a land area of only 2% it has more orchids and 
baobabs than all of mainland Africa. 80% of its plant 
rpecies and 32 of its primate species (among which is 
the Black Lemur) occur only in Madagascar. . 
The project: 
The Black Lemur Forest Protect consists of four main 
parts: 
1 ) Identification and study of 1 emur groups. 
2) Community relations and development. 
3) Training of Malagasy students. 
4) School education outreach. 
Our Earthwatch expedition team was able to 
participate in the first two parts. The first pan was 
identification and study of Lemurs, which involved 
watching and describing individual Lemurs and the 
behaviour of groups in primary and secondary forest 
and in situations where they rely on tourists to feed 
them. The second pan of ihe expedition involved 
interaction with local villagers and tourists. In the long 
*tnn. from data collected by Earthwatch groups, we 
should be better able to understand how well and for 
h'*w long Lemurs can survive in the different situations. 
The team. 
"he size of the our Earthwatch team was good in that 
-e sll felt that our involvement and contribution was 
ecessary and important The team consisted of six 
Africans. Four were Kenyans; one who works for a non- 
governmental organisation (Friends of Conservation ), 
md tow others who work for the Kenya Wildlife Service. 
• *i»ch is the government organisation entrusted with 
*** Protection and conservation of wildlife in Kenya 
** iln working with parks in their countries were two 
,Jvcn from Rwanda and Zaire. The other two members 
** ,eam were a Malagasy student from Antananarivo 
c-. d a British student who had worked with Jersey Zoo. 
- the south of England. 
It was a very exciting and special group as wc all 
came from conservation backgrounds and quite 
predictably wc talked conservation long into the night. 
Even with a language barrier I managed to find out what 
the other African countries where doing, especially with 
regard to the protection of elephants and lowland and 
mountain gorillas. 
In an unexpected way we were able to contribute as 
a group towards conservation in that part of 
Madagascar. Our Principal Investigator has been 
requested to write a management plan for Lokobe 
Reserve which ANGAP hopes to open to tourism. She 
felt our visit was very fortunate as our talks helped her 
clarify some of her ideas, made her change her thought 
about some things and gave her new ideas. 
The study sites: 
a. Lokobe Reserve, which consists of 740 hectares 
ot primary forest. Opened only to researchers, 
we were unfortunately not able to study Lemurs 
here as the team h3d not been given clearance. 
b. Ampasipoye village, which is situated along the 
edge of the reserve and consists of secondary 
forest interspersed with crop farming 
c. Marodoka. which is also a small village. Here wc 
were able to carry out Lemur surveys and talk to 
local people. 
d. Nosy Komba, which is an island of secondary 
forest with a tourism ‘park* (really a very small 
enclosure) established by the community. This 
was our main study site. 
c Ampasidava, which is a small section of inhabited 
bench front land which borders the Lokobe 
Reserve From here a night survey was carried 
out. 
Identification and study of Lemur groups 
The studies entailed a number of morning and afternoon 
sessions of Lemur watching with a partner. Our first 
task was to find our own group of Lemurs which at 
Nosy Komba look about five to twenty five minutes. 
To watch Lemurs at Marodoka we walked (about 35 
minutes) from Ampasidava where we spent a few days. 
When we found a group we took down the following 
details: 
Date 
General Location 
Specific Location 
Weather 
Group Composition : Number of adult males 
adult females 
subadult males 
subadult females 
infant males 
infant females 
Total 
The next task was to find one Lemur in the group 
with distinguishing features. My focal animals included 
one female with no left ear and another female with a 
