Tag Archives | On the Ground in Madagascar

When did you first get interested in working in Madagascar and what motivated you to undertake this work? I began studying ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) in 1987, after a trip to Madagascar in 1984. Hardly anyone was studying lemurs at that time, because Madagascar had been closed to foreign researchers in the 1970s and early 80s. Lemurs have always been completely fascinating to me. What projects are you currently working on that relate to lemurs or environmental conservation? Most recently, I and […]

When did you first get interested in working with lemurs and conservation and what motivated you to undertake this work? After I started my studies in biology, I always assumed that I would eventually go to Africa and work on wildlife conservation, especially with primates. As it turns out, I ended up at the Ethology Lab at the University of Torino (Italy) where my interest for primates dramatically increased and improved, thanks to a bachelor’s thesis that involved vocal tract modeling in […]

When did you first get interested in working with lemurs and conservation and what motivated you to undertake this work? I was an undergraduate student at the University of Antananarivo when I first saw lemurs in the wild during a field trip to the Analamazaotra Special Reserve. During this trip, I learned that lemurs, which are endemic to Madagascar, play an important role in forest regeneration and in ecosystem preservation. Given the beauty and ecological importance of lemurs, I became motivated to […]

  When did you first get interested in working with lemurs and conservation and what motivated you to undertake this work? I have always loved wildlife and found solace in the natural world. Growing up just outside of Sydney, Australia, I was surrounded by the iconic Australian bushland from a very young age. My mother cared for native wildlife that had been injured, like wombats, wallabies and turtles so that they could be released into the wild again. I developed […]

  When did you first get interested in working with in Madagascar and what motivated you to undertake this work? I have been teaching and conducting research in Madagascar since 2008. I was originally offered the chance to take over the Madagascar study abroad program for Michigan State University (MSU) when I first arrived at the university and jumped at the chance. Also, in graduate school at Cornell, I had three very good friends who did Peace Corps in Madagascar and […]

When did you first get interested in working with lemurs and conservation and what motivated you to undertake this work? Working with animals, understanding their behavior, and conserving their natural habitat has been on my mind since I was a child – I always had lots of different pets, and my parents loved to watch various nature documentaries with me. It was always clear to me that I had to study biology, and that’s what I did. About 10 years ago, […]

  I’m a certified redhead from suburban Connecticut with parents from meat-and-potatoes, small-town Ohio. There was no way I could have ever known what to expect from my journey as a researcher working in Madagascar. Although it’s been almost two years since I started – and ended – my adventure in Madagascar, people still ask me what it was like…and I still don’t know how to answer. It was breathtaking, depressing, difficult, inspiring, and lonely; the emotional roller coaster was pretty all-encompassing. On […]

Studying Biogeography: Where Lemurs Live and Why After years of undertaking surveys of lemurs in Madagascar, I literally missed the forest for the trees, as the saying goes. I’d spent considerable time and energy walking along freshly cut trails penetrating deep into the remaining forests on this island. Along the way, my research team and I saw – and were amazed by – the incredible diversity of plants and animals in the forest, many of which are found nowhere else […]