Madagascar is an island off the coast of Africa best known for its pristine forest and extreme biodiversity. In fact, a large portion of the animals on the island are endemic - meaning that they can’t be found anywhere else. Because of this, Madagascar has become a research and conservation hotspot. Scientists flood to research stations here, and work together to save what they can of the forest.

I’ve been here for a month, living with the researchers working here, learning about their projects, and starting my own small side projects.

Ranomafana National Park is currently home to several very interesting projects. Rachel Jacobs is studying color vision in red bellied lemurs. Several researchers are studying parasites in mouse lemurs. Soon a team will be visiting to start a mouse lemur genome project.

This is about a small project I conducted in the outskirts of the forest, and how I did it on a day to day basis.

Anne Driscoll is a member of the Youth Travel Blogging Mentorship Program

Photo courtesy and copyright Anne Driscoll