by Katie Blackburn
July 16, 2006
Katie with a
chameleon (Rhampholeon spectrum)
found clinging
to small vines just above a stream.
At about 3 PM today, Sunday, we rolled
back into Yaoundé after a successful
first field trip. In biology, we like to
talk about “field work.” What
does that mean? Doing field work means that
you go out into the world, you leave your
desk and library behind, and experience
the creatures you study in their natural
habitats. For this trip, we drove for about
five hours across southern Cameroon to reach
a small city called Mango (“mahn-joe”).
There we stopped for a plate of rice before
heading up the rocky, muddy road to a small
village called Nsoung (“n-soong”)
on the southern face of Mount Manengouba
in the Southwest Province.
As a first-time expedition member, this
was a very exciting trip for me. I was pretty
nervous when we pulled into town about 5
PM last Tuesday. Dave had explained that
before doing anything else, we had to get
the village leader or chief to approve of
our work. The chief of Nsoung was away,
so we met with his representative instead.
We sat around the light of a flickering
lamp to explain the reason for our trip
and to get the village’s blessing.
Nsoung is located near the top of an isolated
mountain, Mt. Manengouba. It has some species
that are unique to Mt. Manengouba and others
that are found only on other nearby mountains
in Cameroon. The chief’s representative
gave us a formal blessing to visit the forests
and share the natural wealth of Nsoung with
the world
.
Hiking along
the face of Mt. Manengouba, up the mountain
from the village of Nsoung. The team hiked
through humid
grasslands and forests in search of frogs
along mountain streams.
As you might imagine, I was nervous about
many things as we walked away from our meeting.
Now that we had approval to work, what would
we eat? Where would we sleep? Where was
the bathroom? Could I manage to keep up
with Dave and the other scientists? We had
actually taken care of the first question
ourselves. Before leaving Yaoundé,
we stopped at markets to buy rice, spaghetti,
and vegetables. Our driver, mechanic, and
chef Divine Fotibu, made our meals from
these ingredients. Unlike in American cities,
the water in Cameroonian villages isn’t
always safe to drink, so we made sure to
bring plenty of bottled water. For cooking,
we used water from a nearby stream, and
for washing we collected rain water in a
bucket.
The chief’s representative gave us
a great gift by offering us an empty village
house to sleep and cook in. The house had
a big empty front room, so we pitched our
tents inside (this was really great because
it rained A LOT) and used our small gas
stove to cook. The bathroom was really different
from at home. Nsoung had a latrine about
2 football fields away from our house. Basically,
this means that to go to the bathroom, you
have to walk down to the latrine and do
your business outside. It takes a little
getting used to!!
A small chameleon
(Rhampholeon spectrum) that lives
in
the leaf litter throughout the forests of
Cameroon.
After waking early the first morning, we
headed into the forest. My stomach had some
butterflies as we set out from the village,
but it turned out to be an exciting experience.
We had only walked a short distance from
the village when our guide, Jules, turned
off the path toward a small stream. We climbed
up through the stream to another path, looking
for frogs and tadpoles the whole time. After
a bit, we came out of the forest into a
grassy path that led up to the mountain’s
top. The stream at the top was a great frog
habitat. We caught several frogs, lots of
tadpoles, and even a chameleon (we let him
go). Although I found it difficult to climb
through the streams and often got frustrated,
I was glad I stuck with it.
Over the next two days, Dave and the rest
of the team found many more frogs in the
forests and streams around Nsoung. It was
sucessful because we found many frog species
unique to Manengouba and other Cameroonian
mountains. We also collected many tadpoles
that we can identify by matching up their
DNA sequences with sequences from adult
frogs. It was a successful first piece of
the expedition and will hopefully be just
the start of a great trip to Cameroon!
Cardioglossa
melanogaster
is only known from the tops
of several mountains in Cameroon and neighboring
Nigeria.
DNA sequences from this species will help
to determine the
relationship of this species to the widespread
lowland.
forest species Cardioglossa leucomystax.
Our next trip will be to the other side
of Mt. Manengouba where we will work in
the volcanic crater. We will focus on the
forests and grasslands at the very top of
the mountain. We hope to find more frogs
of what may be a new species found only
on the top of Mt. Manengouba.
Dave and Marcel
preparing specimens in Nsoung in front
of the small building that the team slept
in.
Photo K. Blackburn |
