We have returned to civilization once again! Our time in Jozani was nice. On the first day, we had lectures and went into the field to study the behavior of the Red Colobus Monkey. The second day was spent mucking about in a stand of mangroves measuring their diameter and estimating their height. On our third day, we walked along transects to determine the population of mammals within each. We saw evidence of bush pigs and Sunni antelope and we heard various monkeys. That afternoon, we studied two plots of mangroves in Menai Bay area. The final day of field work was spent traveling to a marshy area that has the potential to become an ecotourism area. After returning from the marsh land, we traveled to Zala Park (a zoo). There we got a short lecture on how the zoo is used by the local community and how the proprietor has started a school that focuses on environmental education and religion. This was quite the place. We saw snakes, chameleons, tortoises, turtles, Sunni antelope, and hyraxes. The best part of this day was being able to hold a venomous snake. We finished the week by completing the analysis of the data we collected earlier in the week in groups. My group was in charge of writing a paper and presenting on the mangrove surveys. The last night, however, my Teva sandals mysteriously went missing. Never doubt the ability of a thief to ruin your day.
Yesterday was spent lounging around and completing assignments which are due today. Today, being my birthday, we are having a small party at 2 pm with cake (yumm!) and I am working on sorting out my next week which will be spent researching the tree hyrax in Jozani.