Art for Gorillas

Category: Art of Conservation (AoC), Community Based Tourism | Date: Aug 19 2008 | By: Julie

Hi Sonja - Glad you liked the previous post with all the colors!

My holiday in Madagascar is coming to a close - soon work will resume in Rwanda. Before we leave this great land of lemurs here is another figure behind conservation, Mbola Manarivo Jean, describing his work protecting Berenty Nature Reserve in the southern region of Madagascar.

To visit Berenty Nature Reserve, we first arrive by plane at Fort Dauphin and then travel on an extremely potholed road for 3 hours. Above are people we meet along the way.

Big tamarind trees compose part of Berenty’s dry gallery forest which is located on the banks of the Mandrare River. It is such a beautiful forest.

Madagascar flying fox bats hanging out near the Mandrare River in the dry gallery forest.
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Verreaux’s sifaka hanging out there too.
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A forest guard.
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A close-up of Didiereacaea in the spiny forest.
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A towering baobab tree.

Sisal fiber drying in the sun.

Oooooommmmmm, Ring-tailed lemurs basking in the glorious sun, appear as if they are reciting this sacred mantra.

I recommend everyone MOVES IT to Madagascar to witness its beauties and treasures.

The country’s flora and fauna face grave consequences due to rampant deforestation and other environmental degradation. Supporting people like Vy and Jean - featured in the videos - helps with protecting the lemurs.

Lords & Lemurs - Mad Scientists, Kings with Spears, and the Survival of Diversity in Madagascar a book written by Alison Jolly, gives terrific information about Berenty and the island’s history as well as details of her research.

Next post from Rwanda,
Julie

Tags: Art of Conservation (AoC), JULIE-PUT

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Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: Aug 12 2008 | By: Julie

Thanks for viewing the previous Madagascar blog which included my first video! The next video is not quite as shaky! We heard from Mike who shares with us information about the new exhibit at the Bronx Zoo in New York called Madagascar and the New York Academy of Sciences recently released Podcast which features the director of the program. I’ll tune in.

Hi Paula. Thanks for your comments. I will continue sharing what I experienced in Madagascar with my Rwandan park staff colleagues. By the way, do you know when you are traveling to Rwanda and/or DRC next?

I recently spent time with my mom, siblings, nieces, nephew, and friends in Des Moines, Iowa USA. Fortunately, my immediate family and friends did not experience horrific damage from this summers torrential rains and flooding. I offer my sympathy to those who lost their homes, fields and animals. I also want to express a BIG thank you to my mom, Jo Ghrist, for her continued support to Art of Conservation. She knows better than anyone that is is not easy for me shlepping duffles stuffed with art supplies, books, computer equipment and everything else from Des Moines to Rwanda! She also knows I am determined in trying to make a difference for a few Rwandan children and a few mountain gorillas. So, MOM, thanks again for your love and support.

Madagascar - a herpetologist’s and entomologist’s paradise - has around 340 known reptile species. Below are photographs a fellow traveler and I snapped during our 2 week Madagascar ecotour.

The watercolors interspered between the photos were made in Rwanda during our art classes last year, 2007.

Chameleons are solitary creatures and spend most of their time in trees.

Pretty watercolors painted be Art of Conservation students in Rwanda, 2007.

The eyes of a chameleon move independent of each other.

Team AoC invited a visiting herpetologist to its three classes. After our discussion about chameleons, snakes, and frogs, we headed outside to get up-close and personal with these reptiles. The students easily located them in the nearby bushes. When finished, we carefully placed them back.

A chameleon takes hold of branches with its toes and fingers which are fused together in two opposing groups. Its tail is used as a fifth hand.

More artful Reptilia from AoC’s students.

Who doesn’t love a hissing cockroach? Sara, my sister, does.

Many other invertebrates abound here in Madagascar: the Giraffe-necked weevil, the Giant katydid, the Lubber grasshopper, scorpions, millipedes, brightly colored butterflies and moths, to name a few.

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And finally, photographs from Al Padilla, a fellow traveler who never ceased to teach and amuse me with his brilliant and humorous views on life.

A gorgeous gecko.

Noses that just won’t stop - actually referred to as rostral protuberances - are used to impress females and in combat.

A painted mantella is pictured above. There are between 220 and 300 frogs species living on Madagascar.

I’ve read that there are currently 67 species of chameleons in Madagascar and new ones are being discovered.

A beautiful smile from this White Nile Croc.

Julie

Tags: Art of Conservation (AoC)

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Category: Art of Conservation (AoC), Community Based Tourism | Date: Aug 04 2008 | By: Julie

Movin’ It on Holiday to Madagascar.

I’d like to share with you short videos of the people I work with here in Rwanda and people I meet along the way who are contributing to conservation.

Please bare with me - videos, editing, YouTube are all new to me!

We’ll start with words from an ecotour guide in Madagascar, Vy RAHARINOSY, as he shares a little about what he does, what is his favorite animal, and the art he likes the most in Madagascar and conclude the video with a taste of Malagasy culture. If you’ve been following Art for Gorillas, perhaps you are familiar with our approach to conservation - my team and I believe in promoting symbiotic relationships between people, animals, and nature. What so impressed me and my fellow travel companions about Vy during our tour of Madagascar is how he brought these aspects together for us and we left the island feeling we knew a lot more - not just about lemurs, but about the people, their culture, their needs, the environmental and economic challenges they face. Vy holds so much knowledge about the many national parks and reserves - each with its own unique ecosystems. And get this, he studied philosophy in India and sings Elvis and Nat King Cole beautifully and loves dogs.

Vy Raharinosy, my Malagasy Hero

Vy hires superb local forest guides who offer excellent details about the animals, reptiles, birds and trees. Above is ‘le petit frere’, the little brother, who along with his big brother, sister, and father is a guide in Andasibe-Mantadia National Park - a rainforest situated in the east of the island.

I stood entranced when this Indri indri began its calls to the other lemurs - I’ve never heard anything like it. Still in Andasibe-Mantadia National Park.

Mama Indri indri with her baby’s head poking out from the comfort and safety of her belly!

Above, a Diademed Sifaka in the same montane forest - about 4 hours by car from the capital, Antananarivo. Madagascar’s rainforests were once in a band extending from the north to the south. Now only fragments remain due to deforestation caused by the timber industry, slash-and-burn agriculture practices, and the production of charcoal for cooking.

Here, Vy’s favorite lemur, the bamboo lemur. Hiking through forests, I was comparing the plight of the mountain gorilla whose habitat is a chain of volcanoes extending through DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda to that of the lemur found only in Madagascar - both primate species are endangered. ORTPN, Rwanda’s park and tourism service and a partner of Art of Conservation is protecting the gorillas primarily through tourism, empowering park staff, and trying to set in motion sustainable income generation and good health for the communities surrounding the park.

Do those of you who have traveled to Rwanda think that ORTPN is perhaps a model for Madagascar? Can increased tourism help the Malagasy?

I booked my ecotour with Ged at Terra Incognita Ecotours. Ged brings clients to Rwanda to see the mountain gorillas and this is how I got to know him. Click here to visit Ged’s wonderful ecotour offerings.

More on Madagascar coming up.
Julie

Tags: Art of Conservation (AoC), Rwanda Park & Tourism (ORTPN)

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