After meeting and working with Professor Wilson I fell in to passion
the same way that someone falls asleep: gradually and suddenly, from
one moment to another.—Tonga Torcida

This fall U.S. high school biology students are watching the documentary short film, The Guide, a coming-of-age tale set against the restoration of a war-torn national park in Mozambique. In the film, young Tonga Torcida dreams of becoming a tour guide at Gorongosa National Park, near where he was raised. But when he meets famed biologist E.O. Wilson, his new view of the world around him—and his future—places him at a crossroads. Should Tonga become a guide, or take on a bigger role in trying to keep the park alive?

After watching The Guide, students have been encouraged to share their questions with Tonga through the Gorongosa Park’s Facebook page and by email.

Inspired by Tonga Torcida’s story and his role at Gorongosa National Park, Maria, a U.S. high school student, began a correspondence with him last week. Read below an excerpt from their e-mails.

From: Maria
To: Tonga Torcida
Sep 17th, 4:50am

Hi Tonga! I am a student living in the United States and today in my
biology class, we watched “The Guide” and I was fascinated by you and
your motivation to do more for your country and people. How did you
find your passion to do this job? I was also amazed by your culture
and language in the movie. How was growing up in Mozambique? Also,
what are your plans to change the Gorongosa National Park so it
benefits the people and the wildlife of the area? I want you to know
that what you do is amazing. You will go far in life by doing what you
do best, helping nature and the people around you. Your passion will
take you far and you will change Mozambique and possibly the world.
Best of luck for you. Greetings from America and please write back
soon!

From: Tonga Torcida
To: Maria

Dear Maria,

In hope that you are doing well, thank you very much for your e-mail,
watching the film, and letting me know that you have liked it.
I thought that people wouldn’t like it, as you can see it’s from the
country side. And it’s my hope that you are enjoying the study of
Biology and the beginning of Life.

My passion to do this job came out after meeting with Professor
Wilson, previously I had a passion with nature, but not as deep as
that i gained from Dr. Wilson. Before, my goal was to learn about the
forest only so that I could get tips from tourists.

After meeting and working with Professor Wilson I fell in to passion
the same way that someone falls asleep: gradually and suddenly, from
one moment to another. I spent most of my life trying not to cry in
front of people who loved me, but I finished reading the book that he
gave me, loved it, and admit that I cried in some parts of this
beautiful life story that you watched on the movie and till now I have
this passion with this job.

Growing up in Mozambique is not as easy as it is in other places,
especially in places where there are very few opportunities e.g.
Gorongosa/Country side, It needs a lot of courage and efforts.

My plans for Gorongosa are very wide. I want to see Gorongosa
becoming the best place on earth, full of animals, the mountain all
covered by trees and bird-life, Stop illegal harvest of the natural
resources from all over Mozambique. People of Gorongosa and
Mozambique, they can only benefit, if, they are SMART and help me to
achieve these plans in order to save the wildlife in the area and
worldwide. As you can read from the web, Gorongosa is very rich and
it needs a big vision and critical thinking depending on the time and
nature of the people living around it, as you know that people of
today are not people of tomorrow, generations keep changing from one
generation to another generation. After the completeness of my
Bachelors in wildlife Management, I want  to achieve at least 80% of
my plans through SMARTER objectives & organize the park’s resources.
To complete the other 20% will need in the future to go for further
studies at least Masters In wildlife Law Enforcement so that I can
convince politicians and members of parliament to approve and amend
wildlife laws suitable for crimes against natural resources.

Looking forward for you to visit and follow us at www.gorongosa.org

Warm Regards from Mozambique

Tonga Torcida

The Guide is directed by Jessica Yu and produced by Jessica Yu and Elise Pearlstein. The Guide has screened at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and the Aspen Shortsfest.

For further information on The Guide connect to www.facebook.com/theguidedoc

You can find educational materials related to Goronogosa National Park and The Guide at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s BioInteractive website.

The Guide, a documentary short featuring E.O. Wilson, is a coming-of-age tale set against the restoration of a war-torn national park in Mozambique. Raised near Gorongosa National Park, young Tonga Torcida dreams of becoming a tour guide. But when he meets famed biologist E.O. Wilson, his new view of the world around him—and his future—places him at a crossroads. Should Tonga become a guide, or take on a bigger role in trying to keep the park alive?

The Guide can now be found on the following digital platforms:

iTunes
Amazon
Google Play
XBOX
Vudu – link coming soon!
Blinkbox – link coming soon!

A note from the filmmakers: 

“In making The Guide, our challenge was to tell the intertwined story of an environment and its people: Gorongosa, the war-torn national park in Mozambique, and its surrounding community of 200,000. We were fortunate to meet Tonga Torcida, a local teenager with dreams of becoming a tour guide. He felt the hopes of the community and the park on his shoulders, and over two years, we tracked his journey to fulfill everyone’s expectations, including his own.

Tonga faced a crossroads when he met famed biologist E.O. Wilson, whose passion for science and discovery revealed a new way to look at the world. As Tonga wrestled with whether to aim for a steady salary as a guide or take on a bigger role in trying to keep the park alive, we witnessed a young man’s coming of age. With breathtaking visuals and gentle humor, The Guide is an uplifting story of a place and an individual that need each other.”

—Jessica Yu and Elise Pearlstein

The Guide is directed by Jessica Yu and produced by Jessica Yu and Elise Pearlstein. The Guide has screened at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and the Aspen Shortsfest.

Mozambique, Africa – Gorongosa National Park, represented by its Warden Mateus Mutemba and the President of “Gorongosa Restoration Project” (GRP) and member of Gorongosa Oversight Committee Greg Carr, recently signed in Maputo a partnership agreement with SOICO Group represented by its Chairman of the Board Daniel David and the Administrator Enoque Massango.

This partnership agreement was signed under the newly created Gorongosa Business Club, an initiative that aims to encourage and involve the Mozambican business community in the noble effort to restore one of the most iconic parks in Africa and the world.

During the act the Warden Mutemba commented: “It is with great pleasure that we note the adhesion to the Gorongosa Business Club of SOICO Group, the main group of private communication in Mozambique, which integrates two channels of television (STV and STV News), the station SFM radio and the daily newspaper O País.”

From left to right: Enoque Massango, Daniel David, Greg Carr and Mateus Mutemba

By the SOICO Group, President David Daniel said “Gorongosa National Park is one of the main symbols of Mozambique and the success of biodiversity conservation in the Park and the development of neighboring communities is only possible with the support of the business community actuating in Mozambique and all Mozambicans. We are certain that our media can play a very important role to alert and involve civil society in the development and preservation of biodiversity, in particular, the project of the Gorongosa National Park.”

A key component of this collaboration will be the dissemination of the activities of GRP in different communication platforms of SOICO Group, namely television, print and digital newspaper and the weekly broadcast of programs relating to Gorongosa National Park on the grid of channels “STV” and “STV News.”

The partnership signed today adds the following to the above-mentioned platforms:

About Gorongosa National Park and the Gorongosa Restoration Project
Gorongosa National Park is Mozambique’s premier wildlife national park located at the southern end of the Great East African Rift Valley. It is home to some of the biologically richest and most geologically diverse ecosystems on the African continent. Its border encompasses caves and deep gorges of the Cheringoma Plateau, vast savannahs of the Valley floor, and the precious rainforest of Mt. Gorongosa. However, the ecosystem was profoundly stressed during Mozambique’s civil conflict (1977-1992). Following the war, in 1993-96, illegal hunters added to the destruction, and many of Gorongosa’s large animal populations were reduced by 90% or more.

In 2005 the Carr Foundation, a U.S. not-for-profit organization founded by American philanthropist and conservationist Gregory C. Carr, joined with the Government of Mozambique under a memorandum of understanding to restore Gorongosa National Park. The partnership, known as “Gorongosa Restoration Project” (GRP), is one of most ambitious Park restoration efforts ever attempted (the restoration has also benefitted from support from USAID). The agreement promotes dual goals of ecosystem restoration and improved human development for the local communities. To date the GRP has revitalized anti-poaching teams; rebuilt park infrastructure; conducted biological monitoring; reintroduced grazers (zebra/wildebeest/buffalo/elephant/hippopotamus); established schools, education centers, medical clinics and agriculture programs; and in 2010 the Government of Mozambique expanded the park’s boundaries to include Mt. Gorongosa and a 3,300 sq km buffer zone around the park.

Mozambique, Africa – In 2005 a tourist arrived for his first ever visit to Gorongosa. The Rangers at the entry gate suggested that he turn around because there would be nothing to see. Stubbornly, he persisted. He spent six hours driving around Gorongosa and saw, precisely, 1 baboon, 1 warthog, and 1 bushbuck. Nine years later, that same tourist visited again and had a dramatically better experience – our recent aerial census gives a hint why.

Lioness and waterbucks at Gorongosa’s floodplain. Photograph courtesy of Michael dos Santos.

Between Oct 25th and November 4th, Gorongosa’s Director of Scientific Services, Marc Stalmans, led an extensive aerial wildlife count of the southern and central parts of Gorongosa National Park. These areas represent about 50% of the park but are considered to be the best habitat with the highest animal density of wildlife. The results of the count reveal an extraordinary rebound in the populations of many animal species. (Animal numbers were decimated during Mozambique’s 16-year War of Destabilization from 1977- 1992.) A total of 71,086 herbivores of 19 species were counted. The results represented an enormous African conservation success story, and a major milestone for the Gorongosa Restoration Project – a 20- year public-private partnership between the Government of Mozambique and the US-based Greg Carr Foundation.

Dr. Stalmans is thrilled with the results:

“The count confirms that wildlife populations are recovering rapidly in the park. There has been a marked increase in density since 2007 for species such as waterbuck, impala and kudu. The waterbuck have recovered to what is likely the single largest population in any protected area in Africa.”

According to Dr. Stalmans, the results also bode very well for the continued growth of these populations in the future. “The results of the count indicate that all large herbivore species, with the exception of the crawshayi subspecies of zebra, now occur in numbers that are sufficient for their continued recovery and viability.”

Not all species were doing as well as expected, however. Blue wildebeest numbers fell below expectations. Lion predation could be one reason for this. However, illegal hunters are known to target wildebeest for their tails. Either or both factors could account for the species lower-than-expected numbers. Dr. Stalmans witnessed the effects of illegal hunting first-hand during the survey – two hunters were caught red-handed with two freshly killed Lichtenstein’s hartebeest. Stalmans also noted commercial logging and agriculture in some border areas of the park. Dr. Stalmans warns, “Despite the very encouraging growth in wildlife numbers, it is clear that illegal activities remain a serious threat. Law enforcement efforts need to be sustained and even increased in many part of the park.”

Despite evidence of the ongoing challenges of protecting Gorongosa, the survey gave everyone on the Gorongosa team a huge morale boost, particularly the Department of Conservation, led by Pedro Muagura. It is Muagura’s 130-rangers that patrol the park day-after-day, protecting the animals from illegal hunting. Pedro Muagura told us: “I used to come to Gorongosa in the end of the 90′s with my students from the Agricultural School of Chimoio and it was very depressing because we could see a beautiful Park, beautiful flora, plenty of fresh water but no animals. We need to stay more than one month to see a sole waterbuck or even some elephant dung and the students couldn’t do any animal identification… Even baboons were difficult to spot. Now everything changed and anyone just on the road to Chitengo, even before doing a proper game-drive will see hundreds of baboons and at least several different species of antelopes.”

Matriarch leads elephant herd at Gorongosa’s floodplain. Photograph courtesy of Jeff Trollip.

The results will inform future management decisions in the park, and allow scientists to predict how the ecosystem will recover. The restoration of Gorongosa presents science with a unique opportunity: to watch what happens to a million acres of wilderness when most of the large animals are removed. The lessons learned could form the basis for restoration projects all over the world. As Stalmans notes: “The recovering wildlife occurs in proportions that are very different from those documented in historical times. The system has switched from being dominated by buffalo to a system dominated by waterbuck. There are interesting research opportunities that need to be taken up in order to help with developing a better understanding of the system dynamics that will assist with management and decision-making.”

About Gorongosa National Park and the Gorongosa Restoration Project
Gorongosa National Park is Mozambique’s premier wildlife national park located at the southern end of the Great East African Rift Valley. It is home to some of the biologically richest and most geologically diverse ecosystems on the African continent. Its border encompasses caves and deep gorges of the Cheringoma Plateau, vast savannahs of the Valley floor, and the precious rainforest of Mt. Gorongosa. However, the ecosystem was profoundly stressed during Mozambique’s civil conflict (1977-1992). Following the war, in 1993-96, illegal hunters added to the destruction, and many of Gorongosa’s large animal populations were reduced by 90% or more.

In 2005 the Carr Foundation, a U.S. not-for-profit organization founded by American philanthropist and conservationist Gregory C. Carr, joined with the Government of Mozambique under a memorandum of understanding to restore Gorongosa National Park. The partnership, known as “Gorongosa Restoration Project” (GRP), is one of most ambitious Park restoration efforts ever attempted (the restoration has also benefitted from support from USAID). The agreement promotes dual goals of ecosystem restoration and improved human development for the local communities. To date the GRP has revitalized anti-poaching teams; rebuilt park infrastructure; conducted biological monitoring; reintroduced grazers (zebra/wildebeest/buffalo/elephant/hippopotamus); established schools, education centers, medical clinics and agriculture programs; and in 2010 the Government of Mozambique expanded the park’s boundaries to include Mt. Gorongosa and a 3,300 sq km buffer zone around the park.

Satellites, Spies, and Savanna Science
By Josh Daskin

Doing ecology in new and exciting places sometimes means that perfect historical data aren’t readily available for comparison with the present, and more creative efforts might be in order. As part of my PhD dissertation with the Pringle Lab at Princeton University, I’ve been using recently declassified American government satellite imagery recorded high over Mozambique in 1977 to study how war-driven mammal declines in Gorongosa National Park might have affected tree cover in the park’s savannas.

The amount of tree cover is crucial in African savannas because many local species require relatively open, but not treeless habitats. Too many trees and you’ve got a forest, too few and it’s a grassland. Many of the mammal species nearly wiped out of Gorongosa in the early 1990s would have had strong effects on tree cover; some species, like elephants, topple and consume parts of trees, but others like wildebeest and zebra eat mostly grass, reducing fuel for fires that might otherwise burn up small trees. So it wasn’t immediately clear whether tree cover would have increased or decreased following the large-mammal declines, but a change in either direction would have major implications for Gorongosa’s savanna-adapted plants, birds, bugs, and other inhabitants.

Left: Gorongosa National Park, July 1977. Cropped from a declassified Hexagon KH-9 satellite image. J. Daskin & U.S. National Reconnaissance Office.

Right: U.S. Air Force C-130 practicing recovery of a satellite film canister in 1969, here for the Corona program, predecessor of Hexagon. U.S. Air Force

I’m using the historical satellite imagery from 1977 alongside more recent commercial satellite photos from 2012 to measure the extent of tree cover throughout the park from before and after the mammal declines. I wrote briefly about the historical satellite image in 2013, but the more I’ve learned about the surveillance program that originally produced it, the more intrigued I’ve become.

The imagery comes from a series of spy satellites called Hexagon KH-9 that were built starting in the early 1960s at the height of the Cold War at the behest of the US Central Intelligence Agency. The program’s existence was just declassified in 2011, but over 1,000 people worked in complete secrecy to construct the satellites.

The Hexagon satellites, only the second generation of American spy satellites, were an impressive feat of engineering, all the more so considering that they were designed largely before the age of computers, mainly with pencil, paper, and slide rule. The cameras had to focus on and photograph Earth from anywhere between 90 and 200 miles up, while they whizzed around in orbit. And, this was long before the days of digital photography, so enormous rolls of film (9 inches X about 20 miles!) were used. Perhaps the most James Bond-esque aspect of the program was how the film was returned to Earth. Re-entry capsules separated from the satellite, and parachuted downwards until they were low enough for an Air Force C-130 cargo plane to snag and retrieve in mid-air.

In learning all this, I’ve discovered that I very likely have a personal connection to this satellite program, too. My grandfather, Walter Daskin, was an aerospace engineer who specialized in re-entry systems, the very part of the Hexagon satellites built by the Philadelphia office of General Electric, where he worked during the time these satellites were designed. My first ventures into the world of science were building paper airplanes with my grandfather and conducting kitchen-counter experiments with my grandmother, a Ph.D. in chemistry. It’s hugely gratifying, yet almost unbelievably coincidental, to find that I’ve spent the last year studying Mozambican savanna using a spy satellite image that he may have played a part in acquiring so long ago.

For the U.S., the Hexagon program played a key role in providing American intelligence during the Cold War. Its high-resolution images allowed sensitive locations like foreign military bases and weapons systems to be photographed safely. For Gorongosa, I’ve found tree cover is about 30% higher than it was in 1977. The most likely cause is the long-term decline in elephants and other browsing mammals, such as impala, reedbuck, eland, kudu, nyala, and bushbuck. The evidence to date suggests that other known determinants of savanna tree cover (rainfall and fire) are unlikely to explain this finding of increased tree cover.

Areas of Gorongosa that gained tree cover (green, “Grass-Tree”) and lost tree cover (brown, “Tree-Grass”) between 1977 and 2012. J. Daskin

If tree cover continues to expand in Gorongosa, the likelihood of full recovery for species like zebra, wildebeest and buffalo, which prefer open, grassy habitats might be somewhat diminished. But, that’s not too great a concern yet. There are still huge open areas in Gorongosa on the floodplain around Lake Urema at the park’s center. More likely is that certain areas once preferred by these species may not be the areas where they will recover first. It will be important to keep tracking tree cover in Gorongosa as the park’s herds recover. I think my grandfather would be proud to see how I’ve repurposed the results of his and so many others’ efforts for modern science and conservation.

Josh Daskin works in the lab of Robert Pringle, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University.

See more videos from the series “Gorongosa Field Notes”

Related: Learn more about the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory at Gorongosa National Park and watch a video about this model research facility and its biodiversity collections and education programs.

Coverage of “Gorongosa Field Notes: The Surprising Link Between the CIA and Conservation”

National Geographic Voices: Cat Watch
Gorongosa National Park
Huffington Post: “Scientists’ Surprising Use of Cold War Spy Photos”

With special thanks to:

Young Women Take on Lion Conservation in Mozambique
By Paola Bouley, Projecto Leões da Gorongosa

The late Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmental activist, Wangari Maathai, once said “It’s the little things citizens do. That’s what will make the difference. My little thing is planting trees.” Well in Gorongosa National Park in Central Mozambique, a small revolution is taking place as a team of young women from a remote village are working to leave their mark on the world, in their case not by planting trees… but by saving African lions.

Celina Dias and Domingas Aleixo—featured in today’s newly released film-short by the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation (EOWBF)—were both born and raised in Villa da Gorongosa, the largest village in the Park’s surrounding buffer-zone. Recruited to Projecto Leões da Gorongosa in 2013, they represent the first women from Gorongosa to ever be employed on a Park science project and the first Mozambican women to work directly with lions in the wild, to study and conserve them.

The new EOWBF short captures some of their first experiences as emerging new conservationists in the field: that “jumping out of your seat” new lion discovery moment, or the exhilaration of being whisked by helicopter to a remote gorge on the Cheringoma Plateau to retrieve camera-traps (for background see “Uncharted Territory”). In their more personal moments off-camera, I’ve also seen the heartbreak on their faces when they discover a snared animal or learn that an elephant has been poached. So despite being neighbors of the Park all their lives and never having seen lions and elephants first-hand until their first few days as science interns, in a short time a deep love for and allegiance to the Park’s wildlife has blossomed for these young women.

Their path has not been, nor will it be, an easy one. Unfortunately, for much of our history, women working on-the-ground in wildlife conservation and particularly taking on leadership positions has been more an exception. Yet in recent years, we’ve seen signs (good signs!) that this imbalance is shifting, and nowhere I think has this shift been more pronounced than in the arena of lion conservation in Africa.

Across the continent, some of the most visible successes towards solving age-old wildlife-human conflicts are stemming from new, women-led organizations, like Lion Guardians, Ewaso Lions, the Ruaha Carnivore Project, and the Niassa Carnivore Project. Strong women leaders (and scientists at that) have stepped up to solve achingly complex problems in ways never before imagined possible. This represents a shift away from more the more normative approach to science and conservation, and one towards a more collaborative, community-based, and peace-building approach. As a consequence we are witnessing a sea change in not only the diversity of actors and voices participating in some of the most pressing wildlife issues of our time, but also a very dramatic change in HOW such projects come together and are manifesting on-the-ground.

For Celina, a working mother who grew up in the care of an older sister who made sure she finished high-school, and Domingas who was fortunate to have a father that strongly valued her education, the “dreaming of some possibility other than digging the earth” and “laying down the hoe” (Domingas’ own words) has manifested. That sentiment is in no way meant to denigrate the crucial roles women play as farmers and mothers in their family and communities, but only to say that women have dreams of being scientists (and a myriad of other roles), too.

There have been many firsts on their new adventure—charged on foot by a cranky lioness; camping among the notorious Gorongosa elephants; collaring a lion and being able to actually lay their hands on the beautiful coat of the animal they so admire; and zipping across the world on a jet-plane to meet and learn from other women scientists, ecologists and wildlife vets in the U.S.

Today they’re a crucial part of our team assisting with everything from lion GPS-collaring operations; deploying and retrieving camera-traps across remote sectors of the Park; teaching ecology and stewardship to young kids; and most importantly, being proud young lion ambassadors in their respective communities.

In 2014, Celina became the first full-time employee on the PLG team and the team affectionately nicknamed her “águia,” which in Portuguese means “eagle,” for her sharp eye and natural tracking abilities—she can see signs of a lion where most others won’t. As for Domingas, thanks to the Gorongosa Restoration Project and Portuguese Embassy in Mozambique, she secured a full-scholarship to pursue her bachelor’s degree in biology which she began in 2014.

These young women are courageously carving a new path for women in conservation in Mozambique. When Celina returned from a lion safari she had co-led for kids from a village located in the Park, we asked the two-dozen boys and girls “who wants to grow up and be a lion scientist like Celina?” Despite hearing lions roar at night from where they sleep and having lived in the heart of the Park most of their lives, they had never before seen a lion in person until that day with Celina. A quiet settled over the group when the question was raised, and then shyly one of the youngest and most petite girls in the group raised her hand.

You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.—Michelle Obama

See more videos from the series “Gorongosa Field Notes”

Related: Learn more about the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory at Gorongosa National Park and watch a video about this model research facility and its biodiversity collections and education programs.

Coverage of “Gorongosa Field Notes: Tracking Lions and Their Cubs”

National Geographic Voices: Cat Watch
Gorongosa National Park

With special thanks to:

Huffington Post
January 21, 2015

By Rob Pringle
Assistant Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University

As we have all become acutely aware over the past few years, the United States government loves to collect data. Lots of data. In the present, that can seem like a troubling manifestation of unchecked surveillance powers. Forty years down the track, however, governmental surveillance efforts that were once cutting-edge start to seem quaint, and information that was once top-secret ceases to be sensitive. Upon declassification, such information becomes an invaluable resource for scientists and other researchers who, for one reason or another, need to reconstruct the past.

An example of how declassified data can be repurposed is described in this new video and blog post produced by the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation in cooperation with Gorongosa National Park, a spectacular nature reserve in Mozambique. Josh Daskin, a Ph.D. student in my lab at Princeton University, is using old CIA spy satellite imagery from the 1970s to understand how the amount of tree cover has changed in the park over the last 30-40 years.

Tree cover is an existential issue for savanna ecosystems, which are defined as areas where grasses and trees coexist, somewhere midway on the spectrum between open grassland and closed forest. The drivers of tree cover in savannas are therefore of great interest to ecologists. In Gorongosa, the question is whether the near-extinction of many large wildlife species during the Mozambican Civil War from 1977-1992 may have shifted the tree-grass balance.

Elephants in particular eat a lot of trees. In 1972, Gorongosa’s elephant population was estimated at 2,500; thirty years later, less than 200 remained. Today, thanks to the dedicated efforts of the Gorongosa Restoration Project, the elephant population is increasing again. In the meantime, however, the ecosystem may have changed, and understanding those changes is an important step in figuring out how to ensure the continued recovery of this iconic African savanna.

So what is Josh’s research revealing? Click through to find out!

Going Back in Time Four Decades

Baseline observations help scientists measure the health of an ecosystem. A lot has changed since the floodplain had its last review, so it is time for a check up. In this episode of “Gorongosa Field Notes,” ecologists Tyler Coverdale and Tyler Kartzinel take a step back in time to recreate vegetation surveys that took place in Gorongosa National Park four decades ago.

One of the main motivations for being out here is to understand how the extinctions of the last 40 years have changed this ecosystem.—Tyler Coverdale and Tyler Kartzinel

Coverdale and Kartzinel are building upon the work of Gorongosa National Park ecologist, Dr. Kenneth Tinley, who led Gorongosa’s first aerial survey for wildlife. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Tinley and his team counted about 200 lions, 2,200 elephants, 14,000 buffalos, 5,500 wildebeest, 3,000 zebras, 3,500 waterbucks, 2,000 impala, 3,500 hippos, and herds of eland, sable and hartebeest numbering more than five hundred. His monumental PhD thesis, “Framework of The Gorongosa Ecosystem”, still stands as the definitive ecological work on Gorongosa and is used as a reference tool by Park Management today.

They say you never really know someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.—Tyler Coverdale and Tyler Kartzinel

What does the work Tinley did mean for the future of Gorongosa? Forty years later Coverdale and Kartzinel are appreciative of Tinley’s work and grateful to the baseline it provides: “We know it’s changed radically in the past, and we know it’s going to continue changing, and anything that we can do as scientists to understand the causes and consequences of those changes, and develop a new framework for understanding how it’s going to continue to change is extremely valuable moving forward.”

Tyler Coverdale and Tyler Kartzinel work in the lab of Robert Pringle, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University.

See more videos from the series “Gorongosa Field Notes”

Related: Learn more about the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory at Gorongosa National Park and watch a video about this model research facility and its biodiversity collections and education programs.

With special thanks to:

The Hippos of Lake Urema
By Jen Guyton

I scanned the shadows in the gray pre-dawn light, my senses on high alert as I listened for the crackling of twigs beneath a heavy hoof or the throaty sawing huff of a leopard on a sunrise prowl. After a few minutes, feeling sure the coast was clear, I jumped out of the truck. Holding my breath, I paced the 50 meters to collect the camera trap at the edge of the river, my field assistant watching my back. This was the hour when I felt most like the poorly-adapted, unarmed, weak and naked ape that I was: I squinted in the dim light, knowing that even elephants can creep silently through the brush, knowing that I would never outrun a livid buffalo whose morning sip I’d disturbed. Knowing that if I jumped into the river to escape, a croc could be waiting open-mouthed for a breakfast snack.

I climbed back into the truck, camera in hand and pulse finally slowing, and looked at my assistant. “Gets me every time,” I said, and he laughed at the wild look in my eyes. The clutch was smooth under my shaking leg, but as I went to start the vehicle, a shadow crept into the corner of my eye. It was a huge hippo, the animal reputed to kill more humans in Africa than any other, ambling back to his daytime refuge in the river after a night of grazing on the upland grass. Never bothering to glance at us, he passed from monochrome to purple-gray and back as he lumbered through our headlights, inches from the bumper of the car. His dinner-plate feet slopping through my muddy tracks down to the river. He scraped the post that the camera trap had been attached to only minutes before, and splashed into the water.

After I mumbled a stream of expletives, my assistant conspicuously silent beside me, I started the vehicle and we went on with our day.

Hippos are among Africa’s most dangerous animals, but their intimidating size makes them critical ecosystem engineers. (Photograph made in Kenya)

During that time I was working on a hippo ecology project in Kenya, where I first learned about the crucial role that hippos play as ecosystem engineers. Hippos can eat up to 40kg of grass every night, and they leave behind swaths of closely cropped and highly productive grass that’s ideal for smaller herbivores. At around 3 tons, the third-heaviest land mammal in the world after elephants and rhinos, they have a lot of weight to throw around. The paths that they use to go to and from their pastures every night can erode into channels that funnel water and provide breeding habitat for amphibians and fish.

It was this phenomenon that I had hoped to study in Gorongosa. Hippo numbers had plummeted during the war, and there were now only 250 in a lake that had once supported 3500. It was likely that their loss had profound effects on the ecosystem. But once I got to Gorongosa in 2014, I realized that the hippos weren’t just rare—they were so scarce that I only saw a handful during several days of concerted searching. In addition, the park boat was the only one for many kilometers around. If I got stuck or the engine failed, I’d be croc fodder.

Channels and trails criss-cross their way across the floodplain to Lake Urema.

But, as often happens in science, I soon understood that hippos were only one piece of a complex puzzle, one species in an assemblage of large and ecologically important mammals that had been heavily hit by poaching during the war. And I recognized that perhaps the most interesting species is the one that defied this downward trend: the waterbuck. Since the end of the war, waterbuck have exploded like confetti out of a cannon, and the floodplain is crawling with them. In fact, they now number about 34,000 individuals, almost ten times more abundant than they were before the war. Why are they doing so well? And, what are the ecological knock-on effects of this sudden dominance by an herbivore that’s much smaller than the once-dominant buffalo and hippo? Like foxes and wolves, smaller herbivores can play a very different role than larger ones.

A few days ago, I came across a passage in a half-century-old study that seems to bring this story full circle: “…we find that a significant inverse correlation exists between waterbuck density and hippopotamus density…” he says as he describes the result of a 1950s effort to restore grasslands in a Ugandan park by wiping out its hippopotamus population. As the hippo numbers dwindled, the waterbuck population spiked. It was a reminder to me that the threads of an ecosystem run in ways that we don’t always imagine. I can’t wait to follow this one and see where it leads.

See more videos from the series “Gorongosa Field Notes”

Related: Learn more about the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory at Gorongosa National Park and watch a video about this model research facility and its biodiversity collections and education programs.

With special thanks to:

Gorongosa Field Notes: Capturing Photographs of Bats in Flight
By Jen Guyton

“Come on, little dude. Fly for me.” I gently prodded the outside of the fabric box that held the dark brown fuzzy lump. It was an Angolan free-tailed bat, Mops condylura, and it wasn’t cooperating.

I was working with Piotr Naskrecki, the director of Gorongosa’s E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory and a renowned nature photographer, to create a photographic catalog of all of the bat species of Gorongosa. Piotr had put together a rather complex setup, involving a white fabric box with holes cut in two opposite sides. A laser points through each hole, and where the two lasers meet is the sweet spot: the bats have to barrel through it to trigger the camera. When a flying bat breaks the laser beam, six flashes burst aflame as the camera, mounted on a tripod a few feet away, snaps the picture.

We’d been working patiently with this free-tailed bat for over half an hour without a single trigger. “Maybe it’s us. Let’s leave and let it be for a few minutes,” Piotr suggested. We left the tent and returned ten minutes later, and I peered into the box hopefully.

The bat hadn’t budged an inch. It looked up from its perch in the top corner of the white box and bared its enormous fangs at me. Piotr called these particular bats “flying vipers”, and I’d felt those pearly white sickles tear through my fingers more than once.

A photograph of the free-tailed bat Chaerophon ansorgei, a smaller relative of Mops condylura, which we convinced to fly inside a 10m-cubed tent. We used a lot more space than we had been working with originally, but we never got the Mops to fly! This photo shows this family’s characteristically long, narrow wings. Photograph by Piotr Naskrecki.

“I don’t know why it won’t fly…” I mumbled, pages fluttering as I scanned for Mops in my copy of Bats of Southern and Central Africa. I was fairly new to the world of bats, having studied larger mammals throughout most of my career thus far, and I hadn’t yet learned to read their behavior.

Jen Guyton (left) and Piotr Naskrecki preparing to photograph bats in flight at the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory at Gorongosa National Park.

“Let’s see… it says here they’re ‘open-air foragers’.” I remembered standing beneath the roost behind the camp restaurant at dusk, how hundreds of free-tailed bats poured out of the roof and tumbled nearly to the ground before they took flight and hurled into the night, zipping like tiny fighter jets past my face.

Our other bats had done fine–but they were leaf-nosed bats (Hipposideridae) and horseshoe bats (Rhinolophidae), both “clutter foragers”, I read, which specialize in flying slowly and stealthily through the jumbled forest vegetation. Their short wings give them incredible maneuverability as they hunt their unsuspecting prey from behind a curtain of leaves. They were the tigers of the bat world, and now we were dealing with cheetahs. Free-tailed bats, it turns out, have long, narrow wings, specialized for flying high and fast. We would never get one to take off in a 1m3 box–it was a physical impossibility. I gently removed the bat from the box, stepped outside, and held it high. It showed me a mouth full of razor blades one last time and took off, its chest hairs almost brushing the ground as it dipped earthward and then zipped off into the darkness.

A photograph of Rhinolophus landeri, a clutter-foraging horseshoe bat. Its wings are short and broad, and can be drawn in to avoid obstacles, as shown here by the wrinkling in the wing membrane. Photograph by Piotr Naskrecki.

That experience gave me an intuitive understanding of the strategies and adaptations of various bat species. I now have a vibrant image in my mind of a clutter-foraging horseshoe bat taking off from the floor of the box, flying in a tight circle, and sticking a perfect landing with its feet clinging to the box’s upper seam. In sharp contrast is the free-tailed bat, sitting, grinning, waiting for space.

Producing a realistic watercolor painting forces the artist to pay attention to the most minute details. Painting by Jen Guyton.

You can learn a lot about an animal through the patience and close observation to detail it requires to turn them into art. In addition to these photos, I recently started painting the animals I study. As I painted the digits of an epauletted fruit bat in fine detail, I thought to myself, “How interesting – its thumb extends far beyond the membrane and has a sharp claw, unlike the little insectivorous bats.” Some reading then told me that these thumbs are used for climbing and clinging to fruit, and I’ll never forget their structure. Art, like science, forces us to slow down and absorb every rich detail. For me, there’s no more vivid a way to see the world.

Jen Guyton works in the lab of Robert Pringle, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University.

See more videos from the series “Gorongosa Field Notes”

Related: Learn more about the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory at Gorongosa National Park and watch a video about this model research facility and its biodiversity collections and education programs.

With special thanks to:

Murky Depths and Mysterious Ecosystems
By Joshua Daskin

Pans (small seasonal ponds) are mysterious habitats. Little is known about their ecology and their occupants are usually well hidden below the murky depths. That’s about to change. In this episode of “Gorongosa Field Notes,” ecologist Joshua Daskin and field assistant Flavio Artur Moniz get acquainted with the animals that call pans home and reveal why these miniature ecosystems are so important to Gorongosa National Park.

“Pans here are really a blank slate scientifically.

We don’t know a whole lot about which species are living in them. We don’t know what those species are doing. Because the system here is relatively unstudied, the questions I’m trying to answer are quite straightforward.”

—Joshua Daskin

Joshua Daskin works in the lab of Robert Pringle, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University.

See more videos from the series “Gorongosa Field Notes”

Related: Learn more about the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory at Gorongosa National Park and watch a video about this model research facility and its biodiversity collections and education programs.

With special thanks to:

Charting the Map of Gorongosa’s Life
By Piotr Naskrecki, Ph.D.,
Associate Director, E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory
Gorongosa National Park

The walk from my cabin to the restaurant where I was meeting a few friends for dinner should have taken about 45 seconds, a minute tops. Yet, on my first night in Gorongosa National Park it took me close to an hour to get there. To me, a biologist with a passion for all things small and multi-legged, this short walk was more like a wonderful obstacle course, with every step punctuated by the discovery of yet another incredible organism scurrying under my feet or landing on my body, attracted to the light of my headlamp in the humid, African night. By the time I made it to “Chikalango”, the famous Gorongosa restaurant, I had encountered probably close to a hundred species of various animals, ranging from a thick column of marauding driver ants to a metallically smooth blind snake to a pair of puffed-up porcupines. On this short walk I had also managed to spot ten species of katydids, one of which later turned out to be new to science. As I sat in the restaurant, forcing myself to appear calm and carry on polite conversation, all that I could think of was the chorus of voices—crickets, toads, bush babies—beckoning me from the darkness outside.

Gorongosa exceeded my expectations in every conceivable way. I had worked in Africa for most of my professional life, but nowhere had I seen a similar combination of habitats—grasslands, caves, rainforest!—and a correspondingly exceptional richness of life. And, to my surprise and delight, it turned out that nobody had ever tried to document this natural bounty in a systematic way. Sure, Gorongosa had its checklist of birds and big mammals, and its flora had been partially cataloged, but what about its butterflies, lizards, and mushrooms? What kinds of grasshoppers or scorpions lived there? Nothing, absolutely nothing was known about them. Here was a place in Africa where I could still be Livingstone, charting the mostly blank map of its biodiversity, uncovering life forms that few, if any, had ever seen before. Right there and then, I vowed to make it my goal to help track and uncover as many inhabitants of this remarkable ecosystem as physically possible. Gorongosa, well known to exert an almost magical pull on anybody who sets foot there, had me firmly in its grasp.

Our knowledge of Gorongosa’s biodiversity is growing rapidly—within the last two years researchers at the E.O. Biodiversity Wilson Laboratory have more than tripled the number of species of animals and plants known from the park. But we are still far from knowing them all.

But documenting life in all its diverse forms is not as easy as it sounds. To compile a list of birds of Gorongosa all you need is a pair of binoculars, lots of patience, and an illustrated field guide that can be purchased at every major airport in Africa. (No offense, ornithologists, but you have it easy.) Yet to make a similar list of ants or lichens of Gorongosa is far more difficult. You need both experts, who are often the only people in the world familiar with that particular group of organisms, and a base where they can conduct their research. You need specialized equipment to record minute details of the organisms’ morphology or a way to preserve their genetic makeup. There has to be a place where biological samples can be processed and safely stored. It quickly became clear that to truly understand all the living components of the park we needed a proper research lab in Gorongosa, a headquarters for both local and visiting scientists. It would also be a place where experienced researchers could share their knowledge with a new generation of Mozambican biologists and conservationists, as it is they who will ultimately carry the responsibility for Gorongosa’s future.

Last year this vision came to fruition. On March 27th 2014 the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory officially opened its doors to researchers and students united in their desire to learn everything there is to know about Gorongosa’s complex web of life. Although we are still very far from knowing all species that make the national park their home, our understanding of its biodiversity is growing rapidly. Within the last two years, based on the results of two large-scale biological surveys and the ongoing documentation of the park’s flora and fauna, the number of recorded species has increased from about a thousand to nearly 3,500. Many of these species have not been recorded from Mozambique before and some are entirely new to science. Certain habitats in the park, such as the relict rainforest of Mt. Gorongosa or deep limestone caves of the Cheringoma Plateau, are particularly rich in new and endemic organisms. The Wilson Laboratory will continue to explore these and other areas of Gorongosa until the still nearly vertical accumulation curve of the park’s species richness begins to level off. This is not going to happen anytime very soon—by the most conservative estimates Gorongosa harbors at least 35,000 species of multicellular organisms, although in reality this number may be twice or even three times as large. And to achieve this ambitious goal—documenting as many species as possible—the Laboratory needs help.

Great Egret (Ardea alba), one of 394 species of birds confirmed from Gorongosa National Park. Photograph by Piotr Naskrecki.

Mozambique has suffered tremendous losses during the civil war and its aftermath, none more tragic than the loss of the country’s intellectual potential, caused by the destruction of many of its schools. But the future of Mozambique and its natural heritage depends on the ability of Mozambicans themselves to manage and protect it, and not outsiders like myself, however well intended they may be. For this reason the Wilson Lab has developed a wide ranging training program to augment the existing science education in Mozambique, with the explicit goal to help create a new cadre of conservationists, researchers, and science educators. We are developing partnerships with major universities in the country to expand their curricula in biology and conservation, and our program of biodiversity documentation is coordinated with the National Natural History Museum in the capital Maputo.

But the mission of the Laboratory extends far beyond a mere inventory of animals and plants living in the park. A comprehensive database of species is only the first step in understanding how this massive ecosystem functions, and disentangling the multitude of co-dependencies among its members is key to its effective restoration. Several projects currently conducted at the Wilson Laboratory are already attempting to shed light on interactions among seemingly unrelated groups of organisms. For example, Dr. Sergio Timoteo and his colleagues from Coimbra University in Portugal are painstakingly unraveling the secrets of the invisible but critically important relationships among plants, their fungal symbionts, and birds. The mystery of how termites affect the behavior and body size of antelopes is the subject of a project by Dr. Ryan Long of the University of Idaho. A group of researchers and graduate students from Princeton University are hoping to explain the dramatic change in the plant composition of the Gorongosa floodplains and the sudden increase in the population of the waterbuck. Closer to my own interests, I will be trying to understand how the loss of large, herbivorous mammals during the civil war might have triggered the incredible abundance of grasshoppers and praying mantids that I have witnessed in Gorongosa.

Invertebrate animals, such as this Rain locust (Lobosceliana sp.), represent the majority of life in Gorongosa, but we still know remarkably little about them. Photograph by Piotr Naskrecki.

The E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory is rapidly becoming a hub of renewed scientific activity in Mozambique. Its research is feeding directly into conservation strategies in the national park, while its educational program helps create a new generation of Mozambican conservationists. And the database of biodiversity of Gorongosa that we are compiling will give me enough understanding of the park’s animal life that soon I should be able to cover the 100 yard distance between my cabin and “Chikalango” with a minimum amount of distraction, in a brisk 30 to 45 minutes.

See more videos from the series “Gorongosa Field Notes”

Related: Learn more about the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory at Gorongosa National Park and its biodiversity collections and education programs.

With special thanks to:

Gorongosa National Park and the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory located on its grounds are the featured cover story of National Geographic’s April 2015 issue of Explorer magazine. The cover photograph is by Piotr Naskrecki, the Associate Director of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory.

Read more coverage of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory at Gorongosa National Park by the National Geographic Society

Watch a video series, “Gorongosa Field Notes,” in which field researchers at the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory carry out important research that is helping to restore and preserve the biodiversity of Gorongosa National Park

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is announcing a five-year, $2.3 million grant to support educational activities and infrastructure development at the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique.

The program will be carried out through the Gorongosa Restoration Project (GRP), a U.S. philanthropy that has led extraordinary efforts to restore Gorongosa National Park over the last ten years. The GRP has been on the frontlines in combatting the loss of biodiversity—one of most important biological and environmental issues in the world today.

USAID is a donor and adviser to the GRP and U.S Ambassador Douglas Griffiths said: “Gorongosa is a magical place, not only as a cauldron of biodiversity, but also for the confluence of scientists, conservationists and development experts working to understand it and improve the livelihoods of people living around the Park. We are delighted that the Howard Hughes Medical Institute is joining one of the world’s most productive private-public partnerships for conservation. This grant will inspire a new generation of Mozambican and international scientists to explore the mysteries of life on our planet.”

Douglas Griffiths, US Ambassador to Mozambique, Sean Carroll, Vice President for Science Education, HHMI, Mateus Mutemba, Park Warden, Gorongosa National Park, and Greg Carr, President, Gorongosa Restoration Project, in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, Monday, June 22, 2015. Credit: GRP

Gorongosa National Park and its buffer zone cover about 10,000 square kilometers in the Great African Rift Valley in central Mozambique. Although Mozambique achieved independence from Portugal in 1975, the ensuing civil war took a toll on the country and Gorongosa. In 2008, the government of Mozambique signed a 20-year public-private partnership with the GRP, a nonprofit organization formed by the Carr Foundation.

“Young Mozambicans are eager to study conservation sciences and this support from HHMI will make it possible to train a generation of Mozambicans in a variety of disciplines, who will then lead Gorongosa and other national parks and reserves throughout the country,” said Greg Carr, President of the GRP.

During the last ten years, the GRP has assisted local farmers, built health clinics and schools, rebuilt Park infrastructure, hired and trained rangers, reintroduced species to the ecosystem and reestablished a tourism industry in Gorongosa. In 2014, the GRP celebrated another milestone with the inauguration of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory, which is poised to greatly increase both research in the Park and science education for Mozambican students.

HHMI funding will be used to support personnel, new educational programs, and classroom infrastructure at the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory in the Park. Funding will begin in July 2015.

“HHMI will be helping to build vital science capacity for managing the Park’s and Mozambique’s extensive biodiversity resources,” said Sean B. Carroll, PhD., Vice President for Science Education at HHMI. “Gorongosa National Park is one of the crown jewels of Africa, and it is also equally important as a destination for science education. This training will build science capacity in Mozambique, which will pay long-term dividends by preserving biodiversity and in helping sustain stewardship of this country’s vast national park and reserve system.”

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute plays an influential role in advancing scientific research and education in the United States. Its scientists, located across the country and around the world, have made important discoveries that advance both human health and our fundamental understanding of biology. The Institute also aims to transform science education into a creative, interdisciplinary endeavor that reflects the excitement of real research. www.hhmi.org

The Gorongosa Restoration Project integrates conservation and human development with the understanding that a healthy ecosystem will benefit human beings, who in turn will be motivated to support Gorongosa Park objectives. www.gorongosa.org

Watch a video series, “Gorongosa Field Notes,” in which field researchers at the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory carry out important research that is helping to restore and preserve the biodiversity of Gorongosa National Park

Friday, July 17th, 2015

Mozambique, Africa–Since July 11th the 2015 Lost Mountain Next Gen Symposium brought together an international group of university students, scientists, conservation leaders and professional adventurers in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique. The twelve-day symposium launched a conversation on “disruptive” conservation—a new model for building community-driven conservation in some of the world’s most remote and biologically diverse places in the world.

“The 2015 Lost Mountain Next Gen Symposium is about bringing future leaders into the discussion now,” Lost Mountain Director, Majka Burhardt explains. “In doing so, we are taking a multidisciplinary approach to one of the most fundamental challenges facing our world today: can there be powerful collaboration between communities and ecosystems that allow them to both thrive?”

The Lost Mountain Consortium is directed by US-based Additive Adventure and Mozambique-based LUPA. The Lost Mountain commenced in May 2014 when Burhardt, a professional climber and social entrepreneur, along with fellow professional climber Kate Rutherford, led a team of biologists, conservation workers, and filmmakers in an exploration of Mozambique’s Mount Namuli. The expedition spent a month conducting scientific and conservation fieldwork, using rock climbing to access previously unexplored habitats. During this time LUPA led the first integrated conservation and real-time rural development assessment of Namuli.

Beyond establishing the first technical rock climbing route on Mount Namuli, the team discovered one new snake species, 40 ant genera and 27 herpetological specimens, dozens of which have yet to be identified.

The Lost Mountain chose to hold the 2015 Symposium in Gorongosa National Park to further develop regional connections between current and emerging conservation initiatives in Mozambique.

The mission of the Lost Mountain is to catalyze a collaborative future for Mount Namuli where people and ecosystems can thrive together. A key tenet of the work includes open-sourcing solutions to these complex issues through opportunities like the Next Gen Symposium.

The United Nations Development Program ranks Mozambique as the third poorest country in the world and the majority of news stories point to the country’s emergence from a tumultuous civil war in 1992. “But Mozambique also has 14 major ecological regions, massive mountains, and numerous endemic species,” Burhardt says. “With the Lost Mountain we’re sharing a different narrative about this diverse land and its people.”

During the 12-day Symposium hosted at Gorongosa’s Community Education Center, 11 Mozambican students, 4 students from other parts of Africa, several members of the Departments of Community Relations and Scientific Services of Gorongosa National Park, as well as a cohort from the United States are learning about conservation planning and management principles, leadership development models, Leave No Trace techniques, and examining contemporary challenges facing conservation and development. The Symposium offers a chance for participants to explore a multidisciplinary approach to conservation, science, and natural resource stewardship in conjunction with learning hands-on skills for working in these environments and forging key connections with current and future leaders.

“It’s time to look the future to create harmony with nature,” says Aurélio Pais, a student at Universidade Eduardo Mondlane. “The conservation of forests and ecosystems like Gorongosa and Mt. Namuli is a way to save our lives, preserve our earth, and allow future generations to thrive here in Mozambique.”

Aurélio Pais

“By bringing key conventional and unconventional players into the mix, we were able to create nimble, effective, and innovative solutions for conservation and development,” Majka says. “We are using the Symposium to make real time decisions and action plans for our next steps with Mount Namuli—that is disruptive conservation.”

The Mozambican students hail from some of the best universities in the country including: Universidade Lurio-Pemba, Instituto Politécnico Superior de Manica, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, and Universidade Zambeze-Mocuba. Together, they form a valuable part of the Lost Mountain Symposium as they help to diversify the groups’ planning process as the program recognizes the strength, innovation and creativity that comes with bringing younger, local students with fresh perspectives onto the team.

“As I waited for the first moment of this adventure, my spirit was captivated by an even greater enthusiasm…to invest time in looking for new perspectives,” says Gerson Tembissa, a Masters student at Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique. “To me, exploring and conserving nature is like moving a chess piece: the victory depends on the way of thinking.”

Gerson Tembissa

The students from Mozambique like Gerson and Aurélio make up the core of the Lost Mountain Symposium group—they represent the bright future that lays ahead for conservation in their own country. The Symposium also offers key networking opportunities in the conservation and park community—a key employer in Mozambique. In fact Gorongosa National Park is the largest employer in the Sofala Province.

“To me, the 2015 Lost Mountain Next Gen Symposium is a great opportunity to raise awareness of biodiversity conservation in Mozambique,” says Aurélio. “I hope to learn a lot and share the knowledge acquired to other Mozambican brothers and sisters.”

“At this point in the process, it’s imperative to bring future leaders into the discussion around conservation and allow them to be part of the action,” says Burhardt. “And what’s even more important? That we do it right now.”

www.thelostmountain.org

Interviews, Imagery, and More Information: Leigh Boyle, Community Leader, Lost Mountain +1-604-910-4903
team@additiveadventure.com

ABOUT THE LOST MOUNTAIN

The Lost Mountain Initiative is an international venture to foster a future where people and ecosystems thrive together on Mount Namuli, Mozambique. The Initiative began with a 2014 field expedition combining rock-climbing, cliffside scientific research, integrated conservation planning, and media. Mount Namuli, a 7,936-foot granite monolith, is the largest of a group of isolated peaks that tower over the ancient valleys of northern Mozambique. It is one of the world’s least explored and most threatened habitats. Here, plants and animals have evolved as if on dispersed oceanic islands, so that individual mountains have become refuge to their own unique species of life, many of which have yet to be discovered or described by science. Biologists and conservationists from around the world have identified Mount Namuli as a global hotspot: a place of critical biodiversity and an opportunity to model a new vision for wildlife preservation that integrates the wishes and needs of local people.

The Lost Mountain Consortium is directed by US-based Additive Adventure and Mozambique-based LUPA. The Lost Mountain is supported in part from a grant from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund—a joint initiative of l’Agence Française de Développement, Conservation International, the European Union, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, the MacArthur Foundation and the World Bank. The Lost Mountain Next Gen Initiative’s presenting partner is Positive Tracks, a national, youth-centric nonprofit that helps Generation Next get active and give back using the power of sport and adventure. With key support from Ethiopian Airlines, Osprey Packs and Goal Zero and supporting sponsors Clif Bar, Patagonia, Kickstarter, Petzl, Scarpa, Julbo and 1% for the Planet.

thelostmountain.org | www.thelostmountain.org/next-gen-2015-symposium/ facebook.com/lostmountainorg | https://www.facebook.com/majkaburhardtofficial
 | @majkaburhardt

Gorongosa Restoration Project integrates conservation and human development with the notion that a healthy ecosystem will benefit humans, which in turn will be motivated to support the objectives of the Gorongosa National Park.

If you would like more information about this topic, or would like to schedule an interview with those involved in the project, please call Vasco Galante at +258 822970010 or email vasco@gorongosa.net.
For more general information, visit www.gorongosa.org

A Portuguese-language edition of E.O. Wilson’s book, A Window on Eternity: A Biologist’s Walk through Gorongosa National Park, is now available. A book launch was held this past spring in Porto, Portugal. Read more below about this remarkable book.

Greg Carr at the launch of the Portuguese-language edition of “A Window on Eternity: A Biologist’s Walk through Gorongosa National Park” at the Cupertino Miranda Foundation in Porto, Portugal, in association with the Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources – CIBIO-INBIO Associate Laboratory

Edward O. Wilson is one of the most celebrated scientists in the United States, a world-renowned biologist and two-time Pulitzer Prize–winner. In his new book, A Window on Eternity: A Biologist’s Walk through Gorongosa National Park, Wilson shows why biodiversity is vital to the future of the Earth and to our own species through the story of Gorongosa National Park, which is located in Mozambique and is among the most diverse places on earth.

Last year Wilson returned to Gorongosa National Park for the formal opening of the Edward O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory. The E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation will be communicating the work of scientists at the Laboratory through its partnership with the Gorongosa Restoration Project.

Gorongosa in Mwani tongue means “place of danger.” And it has been just that. After Mozambique won its independence from Portugal in 1975, a civil war broke out and raged for sixteen years. Because the park was close to the headquarters of one of the opposing armies, it became a battleground. Its tourist facilities were destroyed, and soldiers, hungry for any food they could forage, killed many of the large animals that once teemed in the park. The remarkable story in A Window on Eternity covers how Gorongosa was destroyed, restored, and continues to evolve back to its former state.

Edward O. Wilson examines ant species with a Gorongosa National Park guard. “We are glad that Mozambican scientists and international scientists will work side-by-side, learning from each other,” said Park Warden, Mr. Mateus Mutemba. Photograph by Piotr Naskrecki.

It is in places like Gorongosa Park in Africa, explains Wilson, that our own species evolved. Wilson takes readers to the forested groves of the park’s watershed on sacred Mount Gorongosa, then far away to deep gorges along the edge of the Rift Valley, places previously unexplored by biologists, with the aim of discovering new species and assessing their ancient origins. He treats readers to a war between termites and raider ants, describes “conversations” with elephant herds, and explains the importance of a one-day “bioblitz.”

Gorongosa National Park is home to some of the geologically diverse ecosystems on the African continent including, caves and deep gorges of the Cheringoma Plateau. Photograph by Piotr Naskrecki.

BioBlitzes are censuses of numbers of local species found and identified in a restricted area during a fixed period of time. Featured throughout the book are the creatures that he and his team have found—big and small alike—as illustrated in more than fifty stunning, full-color photographs by one of the world’s best wildlife photographers, Piotr Naskrecki. They range from large animals such as African elephants, lions, baboons, and warthogs; to birds, like yellow-billed storks and village weavers; to reptiles like the pygmy chameleon and Nile crocodile; to insects, including a variety of ants (Wilson’s specialty) and katydids; to spiders like the orb weaver and tarantulas.

Edward O. Wilson collecting insects—a passion that has lasted for over 60 years—in Gorongosa National Park. Photograph by Piotr Naskrecki.

As Wilson examines the near destruction and rebirth of Gorongosa, he analyzes the balance of nature, which, he observes, teeter’s on a razors edge. Loss of even a single species can have serious ramifications throughout an ecosystem, and yet we are carelessly destroying complex biodiverse ecosystems with unknown consequences. The wildlands in which these ecosystems flourish gave birth to humanity, and it is this natural world, still evolving, that may outlast us and become our legacy, our window on eternity.

Readers are introduced not only to remarkable animals but also to the people who are helping to restore the biodiversity in Gorgongosa. Gregory C. Carr, an American businessman and philanthropist, has adopted the park and its fauna and flora as his mission under the nonprofit Gregory C. Carr Foundation. Carr and Wilson, bound by a common devotion to wildlife conservation, have become collaborators and close friends in helping to extend conservation efforts. Because of Carr’s lobbying and advocacy, Gorongosa National Park has extended its boundaries and is creating schools and health clinics for local people, integrating human development with conservation, along with the newly dedicated Edward O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory. Here, in one of the remotest parts of Africa, the local people are beneficiaries of Africa’s greatest wildlife restoration story.

Conservationist Joyce Poole, one of the world’s leading authorities on the African elephant, has helped the traumatized elephants—who are scarred from the civil war—acclimate to humans. Her photographer-naturalist brother, Bob Poole, accompanied Wilson on his trips to Gorongosa, as did writer Morgan Ryan, who is co-author of E.O. Wilson’s Life on Earth, an iBook textbook, being prepared by the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation. Entomologist and photographer Piotr Naskrecki took most of the stunning photographs in the book. A DVD also accompanies the book and features Wilson’s wildlife guide, Tonga Torcida. It was made by Academy Award-winning director Jessica Yu.

Still, it is the lessons that Wilson invites readers to consider that are the heart of the book. Wilson explains how Homo sapiens’ evolution is inextricably tied to the continuing evolution of other species in wildlands. Since the origin of life on Earth billions of years ago, 99 percent of those species that ever existed have come to an end, replaced by others. From the fossil record, scientists have found that mammalian species (like our own) enjoy an average longevity of only about half a million years. Our unprecedented culture and rational power may vouchsafe humanity a much longer life span. Or, maybe not. Our unique powers could well shorten humanity’s time on earth. Today, Wilson laments, the wildlands of Earth are shrinking in acreage and in the human mind. Many writers call this new age the Anthropocene, wherein the planet is of, by, and for humanity. In the worldview of growing information and wealth, there is a restructuring of Earth to accommodate vast numbers of people. Wilson argues

“Please set aside the largest fraction of Earth’s surface possible as inviolate nature reserves. One-half would be nice. Conserving this land and sea is noble and a workable goal, especially when it includes those sections with the greatest density of species.”

How would natural parks, other reserves, and wildlife corridors that would connect them be preferable to a dozen more megacities? Wilson counts the ways, and leaves readers with the hopeful message that we can save global biodiversity, and advises that it would be wise for humanity “in the spirit of precautionary principle move as slowly and carefully as possible, if at all, into Earth’s surviving wild lands.”

Sable are one of 17 species of antelope in Gorongosa National Park. Thanks to the restoration effort, some large animal numbers have increased by as much as 40 percent. Photograph by Piotr Naskrecki.

Praised as “one of the finest scientists writing today” (Los Angeles Times), Wilson uses the story of Gorongosa to show the significance of biodiversity to humankind. And who wouldn’t want to walk through paradise with this most experienced and articulate guide?

A Window on Eternity: A Biologist’s Walk through Gorongosa National Park is available for sale from Simon & Shuster.

Read David Edmund Moody’s review of A Window on Eternity in the Huffington Post.

Stuart Pimm, a member of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation’s Board of Advisors, writes about A Window on Eternity in Nature.

Read Jonathan Weiner’s review of A Window on Eternity in The New York Times.

After years of civil conflict, baby elephants are a symbol of hope for the parks recovering herds. Gorongosa, Mozambique. Photograph by Joyce Poole.

Gorongosa Park: Rebirth of Paradise Brings to Life an Historic Rejuvenation of an African Wildlife Oasis

Three-part adventure series airs on PBS Tuesdays September 22 – October 6, 2015, 8:00-10:00 p.m. ET

Family Sneak Preview Week September 16-22; 
PBS will offer the entire series across all streaming platforms

Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique is one of Africa’s greatest wildlife restoration stories, living proof that nature can recover from near collapse, so long as humans protect it and help it to heal. In Gorongosa Park: Rebirth of Paradise, airing Tuesdays, September 22 to October 6, 8:00–10:00 p.m. ET on PBS, viewers will join Emmy-winning filmmaker Bob Poole on an incredible adventure exploring Gorongosa, as “rewilding” efforts are made to restore populations of magnificent creatures after a civil war nearly destroyed the park.

The success of “re-wilding” Gorongosa National Park is crucial to this East African ecosystem and to the global conservation community. Poole has made it his life’s work to communicate the beauty and importance of Gorongosa to the world. He is joined in the effort by specialists who include his sister, renowned elephant researcher Joyce Poole, philanthropist Greg Carr, who is founding president of the project’s oversight committee, and renowned scientist and conservationist Edward O. Wilson, who serves as a scientific advisor to the park. Together they explore its most remote areas and make new scientific discoveries while telling dramatic stories of war-traumatized elephants who charge humans on sight, lions that are fighting dynastic battles as well as poachers’ snares, and tiny yet epic struggles in the insect world that affect the entire ecology. Every creature plays a part in the rebirth of this complex ecosystem.

“Our deep dive into the return of Gorongosa Park is important because of how crucial its conservation effort is to the ecosystem of Africa – and to the world,” said Bill Gardner, VP, Programming and Development, PBS. “It’s also an epic adventure and an inspiring story of how dedicated people, working together, can make a difference in rehabilitating ecosystems thought to be lost.”

Gorongosa Park provides an experience unlike that available to any other tourist or visitor. Viewers will see Poole’s vivid re-enactment of an unusually aggressive elephant attack; ride along with the research team at night as they fit GPS trackers onto the manes of lions, bracing for possible attacks from others in the pride; and discover a huge aggregation of some of the largest crocodiles in Africa.

PBS invites families to experience the series together and will be making all six episodes available for preview beginning Wednesday, September 16 through Tuesday, September 22 across several platforms, including pbs.org; iPhone; iPad; Android; AppleTV; Roku; Fire TV and Xbox360. For information on where to watch other PBS and local member station content anytime, visit pbs.org/anywhere.

Bob Poole is an authoritative and passionate voice in the scientific and natural film world. He has filmed and directed award-winning documentaries for PBS series NATURE and NOVA, as well as for BBC and Discovery Networks, and nearly 40 programs for National Geographic Television. In 2011, Poole won an Emmy for Outstanding Cinematography on National Geographic’s landmark series “Great Migrations.”

“My childhood in the wilds of Africa inspired my career, but Gorongosa is special for me; this time I will be in front of the camera as well as behind it, capturing the incredible biodiversity and herculean conservation efforts taking place,” said Poole. “The two years I spent filming the park’s transformation fulfills a life-long dream of mine. I was able to combine my passion for animal conservation with my love of documentary filmmaking.”

Episodes 1 & 2, “Lion Mystery” and “Elephant Whisperer”
In the premiere episodes, Bob Poole joins Gorongosa scientist Paola Bouley as she tries to solve a baffling mystery: Why isn’t Gorongosa’s lion population growing? Poole’s lens captures five cheeky lion cubs on their journey to adulthood. Then, he and his sister Joyce, a renowned elephant expert, face charging elephants to gain insights into their behavior. Viewers get a sense of the park’s ongoing, real danger, as Mt. Gorongosa is taken over by a group of rebel soldiers. September 22, 8:00 pm–10:00 pm ET

Episodes 3 & 4, “New Blood” and “Hidden Worlds”
In these next two hours, Bob Poole and the lion team find one of the cubs with a grave wound and race to save her. A massive relocation mission is launched to bring back zebra and eland, Africa’s largest antelope. Then, Poole and a team of scientists estimate that the park may hold Africa’s largest crocodile population. Rappelling into deep gorges, they discover forests full of new species and unexplored caves. September 29, 8:00 pm–10:00 pm ET

Episodes 5 & 6,“Battle Lines” and “Roaring Back”
In the final episodes, Joyce Poole makes a breakthrough with the elephants in Gorongosa, while her brother Bob spends a night chasing a group of crop-raiding elephants. A new lion arrives, sparking a conflict among Gorongosa’s dominant lions. Then, after many sleepless nights, the team is relieved to find a pair of lion cubs that had gone missing. These two are the future of lions in Gorongosa. October 6, 8:00 pm–10:00 pm ET

EPISODE PREVIEWS

Episode 1 | Lion Mystery

Lion researcher Paola Bouley fights for the survival of African lions.

Episode 2 | Elephant Whisperer

Take a sneak peek at what might be the largest crocodile population in Africa.

Episode 3 | New Blood

Find out how insect expert Piotr Naskrecki became a scientist.

Episode 4 | Hidden Worlds

Meet Gorongosa’s very own Tarzan, Harith Farooq; one problem, he has no head for heights.

Episode 5 | Battle Lines

Meet Park Warden Mateus Mutemba & hear what it takes to be warden of a national treasure.

Episode 6 | Roaring Back

Bob Poole takes a tour in a traditional dugout canoe through Gorongosa’s flooded forest.

Gorongosa Park: Rebirth of Paradise website goes beyond the broadcast by taking a close look at the captivating stories featured in the series, and showcases web- exclusive video clips, photo galleries, a lion audio recording and a virtual reality video experience.

PBS Learning Media, in partnership with Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), will also launch a website, http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/gorongosa-park/, with several innovative features, including an interactive map focusing on key components of the conservation strategy, a timeline of the history of the park and videos of Gorongosa scientists at work for viewing the park’s researchers in their natural habitat.
For wildlife fans who want to get involved in the action, HHMI and Zooniverse have developed WildCam Gorongosa, a new citizen science interactive launching in September with links from pbs.org/gorongosa and the PBS Learning Media site, giving users the chance to identify the park’s charismatic animal residents using never-before-seen photographs from 52 trail cameras in Gorongosa National Park. Identified animals will provide critical information for park scientists, and the most impressive images will be used in social materials to create awareness about the park and its amazing story of resilience.

Gorongosa Park: Rebirth of Paradise was produced by Off The Fence.

A version of this article was originally published March 22, 2016 in StarAfrica.com

Mozambican Land, Environment, and Rural Development Minister Celso Correia has defended the need to preserve biodiversity and protect the environment in Mozambique. The minister was addressing the core ceremonies to mark International Forestry Day in the country’s historic Gorongosa National Park, in the central region of Mozambique where he said uncontrolled bush fires and poaching were his government’s key challenges in the management of forestry.

In addition, Correia says the other challenge is the indiscriminate destruction of trees for timber, firewood and charcoal.

The minister said various actions were underway to ensure the sustainable exploitation of forestry resources in Mozambique.

“We have, as government guidance, to promote sustainable development at all levels, and forest management is part of this programme,” Correia said.

U.S. Ambassador to Mozambique, Dean Pittman, (left) and Minister Celso Correia looking at the insect collection at the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory at Gorongosa National Park

He noted that there are “challenges in the sustainability process.”

“One is the growing need for food production, forest areas for food and we have to prepare ourselves and work institutionally to make sure that our wealth, this treasure of ours, continues to serve the Mozambicans of today and of tomorrow. We have to have the awareness of the value that this ecosystem has. And there values of life that exist in the relationship that man has had with this ecosystem called Gorongosa. We also want to promote it so that more Mozambicans can gain awareness of the importance of this ecosystem,” he said.

Greg Carr (in blue), President of the Gorongosa Restoration Project and member of the EOWBF Board of Directors, poses with the dedication plaque for the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory.

The Hippos of Lake Urema
By Jen Guyton

I scanned the shadows in the gray pre-dawn light, my senses on high alert as I listened for the crackling of twigs beneath a heavy hoof or the throaty sawing huff of a leopard on a sunrise prowl. After a few minutes, feeling sure the coast was clear, I jumped out of the truck. Holding my breath, I paced the 50 meters to collect the camera trap at the edge of the river, my field assistant watching my back. This was the hour when I felt most like the poorly-adapted, unarmed, weak and naked ape that I was: I squinted in the dim light, knowing that even elephants can creep silently through the brush, knowing that I would never outrun a livid buffalo whose morning sip I’d disturbed. Knowing that if I jumped into the river to escape, a croc could be waiting open-mouthed for a breakfast snack.

I climbed back into the truck, camera in hand and pulse finally slowing, and looked at my assistant. “Gets me every time,” I said, and he laughed at the wild look in my eyes. The clutch was smooth under my shaking leg, but as I went to start the vehicle, a shadow crept into the corner of my eye. It was a huge hippo, the animal reputed to kill more humans in Africa than any other, ambling back to his daytime refuge in the river after a night of grazing on the upland grass. Never bothering to glance at us, he passed from monochrome to purple-gray and back as he lumbered through our headlights, inches from the bumper of the car. His dinner-plate feet slopping through my muddy tracks down to the river. He scraped the post that the camera trap had been attached to only minutes before, and splashed into the water.

After I mumbled a stream of expletives, my assistant conspicuously silent beside me, I started the vehicle and we went on with our day.

Hippos are among Africa’s most dangerous animals, but their intimidating size makes them critical ecosystem engineers. (Photograph made in Kenya)

During that time I was working on a hippo ecology project in Kenya, where I first learned about the crucial role that hippos play as ecosystem engineers. Hippos can eat up to 40kg of grass every night, and they leave behind swaths of closely cropped and highly productive grass that’s ideal for smaller herbivores. At around 3 tons, the third-heaviest land mammal in the world after elephants and rhinos, they have a lot of weight to throw around. The paths that they use to go to and from their pastures every night can erode into channels that funnel water and provide breeding habitat for amphibians and fish.

It was this phenomenon that I had hoped to study in Gorongosa. Hippo numbers had plummeted during the war, and there were now only 250 in a lake that had once supported 3500. It was likely that their loss had profound effects on the ecosystem. But once I got to Gorongosa in 2014, I realized that the hippos weren’t just rare—they were so scarce that I only saw a handful during several days of concerted searching. In addition, the park boat was the only one for many kilometers around. If I got stuck or the engine failed, I’d be croc fodder.

Channels and trails criss-cross their way across the floodplain to Lake Urema.

But, as often happens in science, I soon understood that hippos were only one piece of a complex puzzle, one species in an assemblage of large and ecologically important mammals that had been heavily hit by poaching during the war. And I recognized that perhaps the most interesting species is the one that defied this downward trend: the waterbuck. Since the end of the war, waterbuck have exploded like confetti out of a cannon, and the floodplain is crawling with them. In fact, they now number about 34,000 individuals, almost ten times more abundant than they were before the war. Why are they doing so well? And, what are the ecological knock-on effects of this sudden dominance by an herbivore that’s much smaller than the once-dominant buffalo and hippo? Like foxes and wolves, smaller herbivores can play a very different role than larger ones.

A few days ago, I came across a passage in a half-century-old study that seems to bring this story full circle: “…we find that a significant inverse correlation exists between waterbuck density and hippopotamus density…” he says as he describes the result of a 1950s effort to restore grasslands in a Ugandan park by wiping out its hippopotamus population. As the hippo numbers dwindled, the waterbuck population spiked. It was a reminder to me that the threads of an ecosystem run in ways that we don’t always imagine. I can’t wait to follow this one and see where it leads.

Jen Guyton works in the lab of Robert Pringle, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University.

See more videos from the series “Gorongosa Field Notes”

Related: Learn more about the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory at Gorongosa National Park and watch a video about this model research facility and its biodiversity collections and education programs.

With special thanks to:

Gorongosa Field Notes: Capturing Photographs of Bats in Flight
By Jen Guyton

“Come on, little dude. Fly for me.” I gently prodded the outside of the fabric box that held the dark brown fuzzy lump. It was an Angolan free-tailed bat, Mops condylura, and it wasn’t cooperating.

I was working with Piotr Naskrecki, the director of Gorongosa’s E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory and a renowned nature photographer, to create a photographic catalog of all of the bat species of Gorongosa. Piotr had put together a rather complex setup, involving a white fabric box with holes cut in two opposite sides. A laser points through each hole, and where the two lasers meet is the sweet spot: the bats have to barrel through it to trigger the camera. When a flying bat breaks the laser beam, six flashes burst aflame as the camera, mounted on a tripod a few feet away, snaps the picture.

We’d been working patiently with this free-tailed bat for over half an hour without a single trigger. “Maybe it’s us. Let’s leave and let it be for a few minutes,” Piotr suggested. We left the tent and returned ten minutes later, and I peered into the box hopefully.

The bat hadn’t budged an inch. It looked up from its perch in the top corner of the white box and bared its enormous fangs at me. Piotr called these particular bats “flying vipers”, and I’d felt those pearly white sickles tear through my fingers more than once.

A photograph of the free-tailed bat Chaerophon ansorgei, a smaller relative of Mops condylura, which we convinced to fly inside a 10m-cubed tent. We used a lot more space than we had been working with originally, but we never got the Mops to fly! This photo shows this family’s characteristically long, narrow wings. Photograph by Piotr Naskrecki.

“I don’t know why it won’t fly…” I mumbled, pages fluttering as I scanned for Mops in my copy of Bats of Southern and Central Africa. I was fairly new to the world of bats, having studied larger mammals throughout most of my career thus far, and I hadn’t yet learned to read their behavior.

Jen Guyton (left) and Piotr Naskrecki preparing to photograph bats in flight at the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory at Gorongosa National Park.

“Let’s see… it says here they’re ‘open-air foragers’.” I remembered standing beneath the roost behind the camp restaurant at dusk, how hundreds of free-tailed bats poured out of the roof and tumbled nearly to the ground before they took flight and hurled into the night, zipping like tiny fighter jets past my face.

Our other bats had done fine–but they were leaf-nosed bats (Hipposideridae) and horseshoe bats (Rhinolophidae), both “clutter foragers”, I read, which specialize in flying slowly and stealthily through the jumbled forest vegetation. Their short wings give them incredible maneuverability as they hunt their unsuspecting prey from behind a curtain of leaves. They were the tigers of the bat world, and now we were dealing with cheetahs. Free-tailed bats, it turns out, have long, narrow wings, specialized for flying high and fast. We would never get one to take off in a 1m3 box–it was a physical impossibility. I gently removed the bat from the box, stepped outside, and held it high. It showed me a mouth full of razor blades one last time and took off, its chest hairs almost brushing the ground as it dipped earthward and then zipped off into the darkness.

A photograph of Rhinolophus landeri, a clutter-foraging horseshoe bat. Its wings are short and broad, and can be drawn in to avoid obstacles, as shown here by the wrinkling in the wing membrane. Photograph by Piotr Naskrecki.

That experience gave me an intuitive understanding of the strategies and adaptations of various bat species. I now have a vibrant image in my mind of a clutter-foraging horseshoe bat taking off from the floor of the box, flying in a tight circle, and sticking a perfect landing with its feet clinging to the box’s upper seam. In sharp contrast is the free-tailed bat, sitting, grinning, waiting for space.

Producing a realistic watercolor painting forces the artist to pay attention to the most minute details. Painting by Jen Guyton.

You can learn a lot about an animal through the patience and close observation to detail it requires to turn them into art. In addition to these photos, I recently started painting the animals I study. As I painted the digits of an epauletted fruit bat in fine detail, I thought to myself, “How interesting – its thumb extends far beyond the membrane and has a sharp claw, unlike the little insectivorous bats.” Some reading then told me that these thumbs are used for climbing and clinging to fruit, and I’ll never forget their structure. Art, like science, forces us to slow down and absorb every rich detail. For me, there’s no more vivid a way to see the world.

Jen Guyton works in the lab of Robert Pringle, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University.

See more videos from the series “Gorongosa Field Notes”

Related: Learn more about the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory at Gorongosa National Park and watch a video about this model research facility and its biodiversity collections and education programs.

With special thanks to: