One Cubic Foot Madagascar project - Paulina Chamely BP8

One cubic foot is a project that is currently underway in Madagascar at the Seneca Park Zoo Society. Their team has been hiking hundreds of miles of trails looking for the perfect habitat to find a One Cubic Foot space that is representative of the most biodiversity found within the National Park boundary. The executive Director Pamela Reed of Seneca Park Zoo Society commented that what they want to do is "... to connect people with nature so that they want to behave differently," and that "This project makes it all come together." What a challenging venture to do this in such a vast space! In finding this Habitat, they are looking for certain characteristcis as follows:

• Shelter – A good shelter will give wildlife a place to hide and sleep, safety from predators, and an area out of the weather.
• Food and water – Just like humans, all animals need food and water for survival.
• Space – Space is needed to obtain food, water, and attract mates.
• Access to sunlight – This has been a larger problem than we anticipated on this trip. With only one day of party cloudy weather, the rest of the time has been filled with rain, cold weather, and climate that is much more suitable for couches, comforters, and movies.

(taken form the web page)

They are actually keeping a log of this entire venture. On their first day they were lucky enough to find a microhabitat that is thriving with all of the above criteria. They placed the cube -- to block off the one cubic region -- and they will be monitoring, collecting, and identifying animals from it. Stay tuned on Twitter for further updates now that we have found our spot.

Here's a link to their page if anyone is interested: http://senecaparkzoo.org/news/

How do chameleons change color? - Paulina Chamely BP7

My first presentation for this quarter was on the Chameleons of Madagascar and the most striking thing that I learned from doing research on these animals was the mechanism by which they change color.

In trying to discover what gave chameleon their green color, they analyzed the pigments in their skin and to their surprise, they noticed that there was in fact no green pigments. In their skin, however chameleons have cells containing yellow, red and some dark melanin pigments. Beneath the yellow pigment cells, there are cells containing tiny 130 nm crystals regularly arranged in a lattice.

Light refracts off of these crystals and due to the spacing, blue light constructively interferes and is therefore strongly reflected while the other colors aren't. So the chameleon looks green due to the combination of the yellow light of the pigment plus the blue light being reflected off the Crystal structure beneath it.

They used this new structural analysis to help understand how they change color. The crystals underneath change and by increasing the spacing of the crystals, the chameleon can choose which color are selectively reflected. Bigger gaps between crystals are better at reflecting longer wavelength so as the spacing increasing, the color changes from blue to green to yellow and then orange and red. They discovered this by comparing the skin of both calm an excited chameleons and compared the differences. In the excited chameleon the crystal spacing was much further apart (as seen below)

As light reflect off of these crystals they begin to move. The more spread out the crystals the different wave lengths they will reflect. This changes the color to which we see on the skin of the chameleon.

 

Interestingly enough they found that this color changing mechanism is not only used as a means of camouflage for the chameleons but is also used as a mechanism of communication among individuals of the species. For example, when female chameleons become pregnant they change amor their usual dull colors to become colorful to inform the males that they are not available to mate with. Another example as displayed in the picture above, a rival male will become more yellow orange and red when excited so that it stands out more to its competitor.

The fruits of Madagascar and Trinidad - Paulina Chamely BP6

Fruits are one of my favorite things and I always love try out new and exotic fruits that are found in different countries. In looking up Madagascar's fruit to my surprise, many of their exotic fruits. It should have clicked to me that both Trinidad and Madagascar are tropical Islands with similar whether patterns were both have a rainy and a dry season and so must have a lot of the same fruit there. It was also super interesting to see some of these familiar fruits being called different things -

Here are some examples:
         
Madagascar: Carambola              This is fresh Tamarind, one of        Mada: Makoba
Trinidad: Fivefinger                     my favorite things                           Trinidad: pomerac

Sugar Apple!!!                                                          and of course, fresh Coconut water.

                                              

This got me super excited because I am actually not getting the change to go home this summer. So, having the change to have and see these fruits that I grew up eating will definitely be a taste of home for me for my summer holidays!

Learning Malagasy: A resource - Paulina Chamely BP5

Hey Everyone! A lot of us have expressed that we want to learn a little bit of Malagasy so that we can interact with the local people more directly. I found this really great comprehensive source to use, in conjunction to what is on the spreadsheet for us to learn, and I found it on the peace corps webpage that is an "Introduction to the Malagasy language." Hope this helps with anyone who is interested in learning more about the Language.


Link:

http://files.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/audio/languagelessons/madagascar/MG_Malagasy_Language_Lessons.pdf

The Danger of Social Media in Madagascar (Ashley)

The Danger of Social Media in Madagascar(Ashley)

This article describes the absolutely tragic story of young “Jenny”, a 17 year old young girl from Antananarivo who was talking to at 28 year old man on Facebook. She met him in person for consolation after being told by her teacher that she had to pay her teacher for failing an exam; once “Jenny” and her Facebook friend met, he kidnapped her, raped her, and held her hostage for 2 months. “Jenny” escaped after two months after such a traumatic experience. 

This article speaks to the fact that although Madagascar is on the other side of the world, people there are still at risk for tremendous amoutnsof abuse, especially through an online platform. -

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3628817/He-raped-two-months-not-believe-man-spoke-Facebook-Girl-17-relives-horror-man-met-online-kidnapped-sex-slave.html

Malagasy Poetry (Ashley)

This article titled "The Poetry Of Madagascar" gave an overview of Malagasy Poetry! Because of the tremendous diversity of its inhabitants, there is a variety of different poetry throughout the nation.
One of the leaders, Andrianampoinimerina, collected traditional Malagasy poetry hundreds of years ago!

The poems I read were beautiful, many of them incorporating love. I have included one snippet of poetry below
. 
http://www.disa.ukzn.ac.za/webpages/dc/asjan60.20/asjan60.20.pdf

Madagascar's Increasing Hunt for Sharks: The Influence of Climate Change on Peoples (Ashley)

This article describes how in recent years, the fishing industry in Madagascar has been collapsing. Natural disasters has led to people being displaced from their homes across the globe, and in Madagascar, many fishermen have been traveling to the remote Western portion o the country (in inhumane conditions) to try and attempt to catch sharks. Many fishermen who have been fishing for decades are only recently beginning to struggle due to a changing environment. Blue Ventures is an example of a Marine Conservation Group that is working with community groups and the government to create community managed marine areas in order to help the people remain resilient in such times of intense change. 
Source:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2016/06/madagascar-hunt-sharks-160608054336332.html