The Latest Wildlife Find

You never know where you might find interesting wildlife in Madagascar. It could be deep in a rain forest. It could be in a palm tree. The beach. On the porch maybe. Or you might find some wildlife in your soup.

While enjoying a bowl of curry coconut soup, my wife Cindy said, "What are all the black spices? They're tasty. Is it pepper?" Now I made the soup, so I know what all I put in it. There were a lot of ingredients, but black pepper wasn't one of them. The little black bits floated, so Cindy had been gleefully skimming them up with each spoonful. Our roommate, Swanni, and I looked at our bowls. We too had some non-existent black pepper floating on top of our creamy yellow soup. Then Cindy, as she was just about to slurp another delicious spoonful, saw something out of the corner of her eye, "I think the spice has wings!" 

Well, she is a doctor, so we all had a closer look. After taking a few photos, we all agreed the "black pepper" did indeed have wings...as well as six legs and a pair of coconut-coated antennae. 

Then we did the only thing a doctor, a soon-to-be doctor and a science teacher could do; we investigated and contemplated where the creatures came from...as we finished our soup and had some seconds. 

Our conclusion? We believe the creatures to be weevils who were living inside of the peanut-like beans I used for the soup. I cleaned the beans before I cooked them and they seemed fine. But bean weevils like to live their entire lives in or on a single bean. The eggs are laid on a bean and then the larva chew their way in and spend the rest of their life in their comfy little bean home.

Sadly, during the cooking the weevils crawled out and met their unfortunate curried fate. 

Photo 1: A delicious bowl of creamy coconut curry soup a la bean weevil.

Photo 2: The green things are thyme leaves. The black things...well, aren't.

Photo 3: Note the wings and legs on the "black pepper".

The Two-Headed Butterfly

Here is a more close-up look at last week's two-headed butterfly. Double click it to make it even bigger. Most of you guessed which one was the real head, but image if you were a bird flying around looking for a meal and you say those two fake antennae twittering in the breeze. Add the eye-spot, and it's a tough call.

Important Update on the Butterfly, Feb. 25:

This butterfly is not just weird...it's an ALIEN! Just today, I received a message from my wife's office straight from one of the head conservationists (scientist who tries to protect plants and animals) . He said to keep a sharp eye out for an alien named Chilades pandava. Now to a scientist, an alien is not a three-eyed, two-headed green blob from space. An alien is any plant or animal that is growing where they don't belong.  (Remember the garlic mustard that is invading our trail?) This butterfly is far from home. It belongs in southeast Asia, not in Madagascar. 

In other places where it has become an alien invader, it has done a lot of harm to cycads. Wow! That's bad...but what's a cycad? Well, I'll tell you. They are tropical plants that look just like ferns and palm trees, but their not. They are cycads. They are some of the oldest plant species on the planet and this butterflies larvae find the leaves delicious. Too delicious. They eat so many leaves that the cycad can die. 

Scientists are looking for natural ways to fight this alien. They did find a parasite that attacks and kills them, but it doesn't kill too many of them, because the alien butterfly larvae have bodyguards that keep them clean and safe. And how do they pay these bodyguards?  With a nice sugary treat that oozes out of their backs. And who are these bodyguards? Ants, of course.

Here's one of the bodyguard ants doing her thing. Insects live in one amazing world don't they?

More Photos from Mahabo

Here's a few more photos from the Mahabo research center. If you want to see them larger, just double-click them.

This isn't exactly Niagra Falls and this isn't exactly our Honeymoon, but it is a great big waterfall nonetheless. In Malagasy, it's called Chute Andriamamovoka (say that three times fast).
Some children stopped by after school one day and we played a few games. This is a rousing round of hot potato. We had no music, so one of us would count to ten instead. If it was one of us counting, we had to use French or Malagasy. If one of them was counting, they had to use English. Then we had to count backwards too. The teacher in me couldn't help it. I also used a lot of feverish hand motions and drawing in the sand to try and explain the game "Duck, Duck, Goose." It turns out they already knew the game. It was just called "Red Duck, Blue Duck."

Wading through a long, long stretch of flooded forest and wondering if all the warnings about leeches are true.

All I had to worry about was my camera getting wet. This family had a baby to keep dry. That's the pink lump on the woman's back.
They also had a dog, but he took care of himself. 

Earlier in the week, we ordered two baskets from these local weavers in the village. They made these gorgeous baskets in a matter of days. The wraps they are wearing are called lambas. 

One giant grasshopper.
And an even bigger spider. He lived in our bungalow and we were sure to make sure where he was before we crawled under the mosquito net for the night. He didn't move for days. When his legs stretched out, he was about as round as a softball.

The Indian ocean and a large dugout fishing boat used by the local villagers. It is made from a single tree, but they are now a thing of the past. There are no trees left that are even nearly big enough to make a boat from. The forest's have been damaged due to overuse and and an increase in needed farmland. You can't grow rice or taro roots in a forest, so the forests are cut and burned. It seems bad, but then again, if you were poor and needed to feed your family, I bet you might be willing to cut down a few trees.
A very big and very shiny beetle. Possibly a kind of click beetle, but I'm not sure.

A lizard of some kind that loved to hang out near our bungalow. That was fine with us. It just meant there would be less insects. We were just afraid the spider might eat her. Seriously.

Speaking of spiders, here's a hundred or so baby spiders emerging from a nest.

Chameleon or stick? Pretty good camouflage wouldn't you say? Look at the pointy nose.

Some More Wild (and Not-So) Life

Here are 3 different insectivores from around town. Some creepy, some cute, but they all eat insects.

There's a lot of big crazy-looking spiders here. They're not nearly as cuddly as lemurs, so they didn't show up much in the movies. This is some sort of funnel spider, I think. Maybe some of you could do some research and see what you can find out. 

What do you think the funnel or nest is used for?A very camouflaged chameleon hunting in the trees. Not only do they blend in with their color, they also blend in by moving very, very slowly. They even sway and wobble back and forth as they move like a leaf just blowing in the wind.

The are camouflaged from underneath too, but for a different reason. They are skinny to blend into the limbs. There are things out there that eat them too.

A little gecko that shares our porch. He's about the size of a nickel. Look at the big eyes for hunting and the  camouflage to make sure his prey doesn't see him coming.

First Malagasy Wildlife

I finally arrived here on the island last week. Sorry, but there were no A few interesting things have happened. The President of the country and the Mayor of the capital city where we live are having an argument. Not every country in the world has elections like we do in America to decide who is in charge. The President of Madagascar was elected, but the Mayor has decided he wants to be in charge, so told the country on Saturday that he is now in charge and they shouldn't listen to the old President. Some people are very upset and there has been some fighting and stealing and burning of buildings. But my wife, Cindy, and I are safe. All the people I have met have been very nice. 

I have come across some very cool wild animals here in Madagascar, but so far they have all been in our apartment. Here are some photos of an amazing weevil that lives in our kitchen. My wife has named her Weevy. When she is scared (Weevy, not my wife), she curls up and plays dead for about 10 minutes. She also tries to hide, but instead of using camouflage she uses mimicry. That means she tries to look like some other kind of creature, like dressing up for Halloween. In the top photo, she is doing a toad impersonation. That dark spot on her head is not an eye. In fact, that isn't her head either. That first body part you see is her thorax. She also tucks her back 4 legs together, so they only look like 2 big legs. In the second photo, you can see her head. It is tiny, but her mouth isn't. That long pointy part is her proboscis she uses to eat grains and fruits. 

I miss you all very much. And I will try to keep the photos and posts coming now that I am actually here in Madagascar. The internet is not very reliable here, so it may not be every day, but I will do my best.

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