In this series, I have compiled portraits of both people and lemurs taken during a study abroad field school in Madagascar. I was a student participating in this group which stayed at a research center called Centre ValBio. I chose individuals to take portraits of from this center, and all the lemurs observed here are in their natural habitats.
Alexandra Shea, a young woman from Beacon, New York, volunteered in Madagascar to gain field experience in research. Her dream is to study and conserve elephants after receiving her PhD to help prevent her greatest fear, a world without elephants. Working at Centre ValBIo has made Alexandra realize how amazing it is to find brilliant, ambitious women from Madagascar working with her, and how she would have never known them if she did not choose to volunteer. After Madagascar, she will be moving to California with her fiancé and looking for PhD program to accept her.
A young woman from Gainesville, Florida, Amanda Du Bour had gone to Madagascar with Stony Brook University as an undergraduate and from then on fell in love. Almost a decade later she became a teaching assistant to Patricia Wright for the same program. She has been doing research on lemur nutrition for years and is attempting to pursue a doctorate in the coming years. At Centre ValBio, she focused on the students and working with them on their independent projects. Amanda has a deep connection to Madagascar and plans to continue returning as often as she can.
Raoul Seroy, a Stony Brook University Student from Washington Heights, Manhattan, wanted to explore field research and see if it was right for him. An avid bird lover, he researched bird species in different areas of Ranomafana National Park to see how the edges of the forest affect them. Raoul enjoyed making new friends in the other students and pushing his limits as he adventured on the other side of the world. Upon returning he plans to prepare for graduation and apply for a job since he will be starting his last semester in the spring.
RANDRIANARISATA “Dede” Désiré is the Coordinator of Logistics and Audio-Visual Department at Centre ValBio in Ranomafana National Park. Dede worked very closely with the study abroad group for Fall of 2019 including accompanying them on their cross-country expedition. He even invited them and other members of the Centre ValBio community to the reinternment ceremony for his ancestors. This is a traditional Malagasy ritual where the bodies of the ancestors are exhumed from their temporary resting place to the ancestral tomb and is treated as a joyous celebration with food and a zebu sacrifice.
Emily Farrel, a Stony Brook University student from Commack, New York, came to Madagascar to explore her interests while discovering one of the most unique places in the world. As a passionate environmentalist, Emily wants to choose between working hands-on with animals or going into environmental consultation in the future. She loved everything about Madagascar, especially the spiny desert with its Baobab trees and abundance of life. Emily chose to study the environmental awareness of tourists and how that affects their attitudes towards conservation. Though she loved going to Madagascar, Emily was craving American food and planned to get fast-food burger on her way home from the airport.
A teaching assistant for Stony Brook University, RAKOTO Franck grew up in Madagascar and now lives in the capital city, Antananarivo. Franck teaches paleontology and Malagasy language and culture to the study abroad students from America. He has a passion for photographing small reptiles and amphibians and spends almost every night outside looking for subjects to photograph. Franck spends almost six months dedicated to teaching the study abroad students at Centre ValBio every year, which can make this job quite demanding.
A guide at Centre ValBio, RANDRIANIRINA Georges René, grew up in Ranomafana. As a local to the area, he was able to acquire a job as a guide to Ranomafana National Park and specialize in following primates for Centre ValBio. He was worked there for 17 years and guides researchers and students as they study lemurs in the rainforest. Many people in Madagascar live near preserved areas and choose to work as guides, cooks, or porters out of convenience.
From a village in the Southeast of Madagascar, RANDRIANANDRASANA Herizo was chosen to participate in the study abroad program of Stony Brook University with the American students in Madagascar. Though he lives there, he has never travelled to the areas we were in since the country’s infrastructure is limited. He studies Biodiversity at the University of Fianarantsoa and has a passion for frogs and other amphibians. He researched the biodiversity of frogs at different elevations in Ranomafana National Park along with learning how to research them from professional amphibian researchers. Herizo, like many other students who never left Madagascar, dreams of studying in the United States. He has regarded every experience during this program as a blessing and says it is indescribable how amazing this experience was for him.
Jacob Murphy, a Stony Brook University student from Coram, New York with an abundance of research experience, chose to study abroad in Madagascar to gain experience in a field other than marine research. As a research project, he studied the cultural perception of drones and the uses of drones in Ranomafana National Park which had been part of a larger research project which he had planned for months before arriving in Madagascar. After having done research in South Africa, Jacob found himself enamored by Africa and always plans to return in some way. Upon returning from Madagascar, Jacob plans to receive a lab tech position to start working in his field as he finishes his degree in Ecosystems and Human Impact.
Kyler Phillips, a student from Purdue University was able to join Stony Brook University students as they studied abroad in Madagascar. Kyler is used to hiking in his home of Bartlett, New Hampshire, and likes to spend most of his time in the outdoors. Kyler came to Madagascar to adventure through the rainforest while learning how to conduct research. On every hike taken by the study abroad group in Madagascar, one could always find Kyler at the front, admiring the foreign landscapes on the other side of the world.
A primate researcher from Santa Fe, New Mexico, Laura Marsh was a professor to the Study Abroad students in Madagascar. Travelling since she was young, Laura has always been fascinated by primates which led to a career as a primate researcher mainly centered in Central and South America. In 2017, Laura had done a boating expedition on the Amazon River to rediscover a species of monkey that had not been seen since the 1930’s which ended in success. As a friend of Patricia Wright who runs the study abroad program, Laura was invited to teach the students how to conduct research. Having never been to Madagascar, Laura was enamored by the lemurs and calls them the most photogenic primates.
The Weasel Sportive Lemur, or Lepilemur mustelinus, got its name from the action of boxing with their fists when captured or cornered by researchers. It’s a feisty, little, nocturnal lemur who can be found living solitarily in the Northern rainforests of Madagascar. This individual was frozen by the bright lights of a headlamp as it was feeding on a leaf in the middle of the night.
The Mongoose lemur, or Eulemur mongoz, is a medium, brown lemur that looks strikingly more like a dog or other small mammal than a primate. These lemurs walk on all fours and make grunting noises resembling the sound made my small pigs. Despite that their hands and feet are undoubtedly primate-like and the way they grasp and climb quickly reminds any observing them that they are indeed a primate, and a relative of humans. This individual stopped to watch as the study abroad students made their way along the trail.
The Indri indri is the largest living lemur left in Madagascar but their size is not the only thing that makes them unique. The Indri have small, stubby tails unlike any other lemur but its most memorable feature is its voice. The Indri is the loudest lemur with a beautiful, wailing song that can be heard as far as three miles. They like to sing in the morning in harmony with each other. The Indri are traditionally thought to be the ancestors’ spirits in Malagasy culture and have been protected by the local people for this belief. This individual is feeding after performing for the study abroad students on their first week in Madagascar.
Propithecus coquereli, also known as Coquerel’s Sifaka, is a large lemur with simple but striking colorations. The chestnut brown that decorates their shoulders and chest is paired with the simple off-white of the rest of their fur. This lemur shows off their brilliant color and size to the tourists who visit them in the North-Eastern Rainforests of Madagascar. This individual poses quite close to the humans, maybe hoping to be fed by the guides they are familiar with.
The Diademed Sifaka, or Propithecus diadema, is the most colorful Sifaka and has a large body compared to other lemurs. They live in the Northern forests of Madagascar and display their beautiful colors as they bask in the sun to warm up from the cool, mountain air. Sifaka’s are known for their leaping ability and this lemur looks like a flash of color as it darts through the trees at fast speeds in mountainous terrain. This mother and infant are resting on a cold morning in a mountainous rainforest.
Propithecus edwardsi, also known as Milne-Edward’s Sifaka, is the native sifaka of Ranomafana National Park. Many tourists are excited to see this lemur as it flies through the air, leaping quickly through the trees. They are a large lemur and live together in family groups around a matriarch. This lemur has a particularly large territory that they tend to explore making them difficult for researchers and tourists to follow. This specific individual is a juvenile female who is very interested in catching the attention of tourists and her family members.
Eulemur rufifrons, or the Red-Fronted Lemur, is a very numerous lemur in Ranomafana National Park. The males wear the signature “red front” on their foreheads with a grey color coat on the rest of their body. This lemur can be found almost anywhere in the park, even right outside Centre ValBio putting on a show in large family groups for the researchers and students in the research center. These individuals are part of a large family group that was curiously watching the humans outside of Centre ValBio who came out to observe them.
The Red-Bellied Lemur, or Eulemur rubriventer, is a mischievous lemur, whose males carry a beautiful red color on their stomachs. This lemur walks on all fours and runs across branches, above pathways in Ranomafana National Park dropping whatever they may onto the people below. This individual has chosen to rest on a nice, wide tree as they tend to nap during the day when they are not looking for food.
The Iconic Ring-Tailed Lemur, or Lemur catta, is a beautifully unique primate in Madagascar. Their decorative tails sway back-and-forth as they walk along the floor of the dry, Southern forests, ignoring any and all visitors that come to the Anja Reserve, the most popular area in Madagascar to record lemurs in the wild. This mother carries her infant in search of more fruits to eat, as the infant curiously studies the strange students who came to observe them.
Verreaux’s Sifaka, or Propithecus verreauxi, is an incredibly popular lemur known for the way it hops on two legs in between trees of the much more sparse, dry, Southern forests they live in. This lemur is medium sized and adapted to living in dry, harsh environments covered in spiny plants. This individual is curiously observing the study abroad students as they were studying this lemur in its natural environment.
