The Fulani village at the top of Mt. Mbam that we used as our base for hikes to the forested streams very close to the village.

Fieldwork is not always easy and things don’t always go as planned. During the last two weeks, we had some frustrations and disappointments. We drove the long, but paved, road from Yaoundé to Foumban, spending the night in Bafoussam along the way. From Foumban, we took the dirt road to Banyo in the northern Adamawa Province. The road was very rough and clogged with large trucks headed to the far nothern city of Garoua. From Banyo, we drove several hours to the large village of Sambolabbo at the foothills of Tchabal Mbabo.

We had planned to drive up to the small Fulani village at the top of Mt. Tchabal Mbabo. But when we arrived in Sambolabbo, the chief informed us that the road up the mountain was impassable due to the recent heavy rains. One river that crossed the road was nearly chest high. It was simply not possible to drive up to Tchabal Mbabo. The hike from Sambolabbo up the mountain was about seven hours in the dry season and potentially longer, and maybe dangerous, in the rainy season. For both the safety of the team and our field equipment, we decided to cancel our current trip and save Tchabal Mbabo for a future trip during the dry season.

The chief's representative (in the white hat) at the Fulani village at
the top of Mt. Mbam discussing and overlooking a flock of goats.

So that the trip to Sambolabbo wasn’t a complete loss, we conducted a field survey in the savanna and woodlands near the village. At times the water that we hiked through was very deep! During our hike, we recorded the a species of the frog genus Petropedetes, a first for the area. While we didn’t find any adult frogs, we found many of the tadpoles that are very unique to Petropedetes. These tadpoles look like normal tadpoles with the exception that they have large well-developed legs. These tadpoles spend most of their time living out of the water, hopping along the wet surfaces of rocks, usually in streams with fast-moving water.

This Petropedetes tadpole was caught along a stream near Sambolabbo.
It was very unexpected to find these frogs in this area and we were quite
excited to find several of these tadpoles.

Instead of going up to Tchabal Mbabo, we decided to drive back to Foumban and then drive along another dirt road in a different direction to the foot of Mt. Mbam. This mountain is far away from the rest of the Cameroonian mountain chains but the few surveys conducted at Mt. Mbam have found interesting species similar to those in other Cameroonian mountains. The problem is that there is simply no road up Mt. Mbam! We hired a guide and a porter in order to help us carry our equipment up the mountain. In order to get to the top, we hiked two hours, nearly straight up, in the rain, which was sometimes a real downpour! By the time that we reached the small Fulani village at the top, we were cold and soaked. Luckily, we received a comforting, warm welcome by the chief’s representative and were able to warm up by the fire for a few hours.

There are many species of the frog genus Cardioglossa that are found only in the mountains of Cameroon and neighboring Nigeria. On Mt. Mbam, we collected males calling along forested streams. These frogs look very similar to Cardioglossa schioetzi which is only known from the Obudu Plateau in Nigeria and nearby Achie Tugi in Cameroon. The place nearest to Mt. Mbam where Cardioglossa schioetzi is known to occur is on mountains more than 60 miles away, which is a long way given that there are mountains in between where the species is not known.

Before the evening, the rain stopped and the clouds around the top of the mountain broke to reveal the absolutely stunning beauty of Mt. Mbam. Like at Mt. Manengouba, there are many cows grazing in the grassfields. Fulani boys travel around the mountain while herding the cows either on foot or horseback. In the valleys, there are many small streams with nice, dense forests. During our work along the forested streams, we found several very interesting species, all of which are also found on other Cameroonian mountains. One particularly interesting find was a species of Cardioglossa. The call of the male frogs seems very similar to Cardioglossa melanogaster which we found on Mt. Manengouba (see our field update from Nsoung), but the markings on the frog seem more similar to Cardioglossa schioetzi known from neighboring Nigeria and parts of Cameroon that are relatively far away from Mt. Mbam. Genetic data will help to shed light on the relationships of these populations of frog species found at the tops of different mountains and plateaus.

Fulani boys getting ready to head off to herd cattle near
the village at the top of Mt. Mbam.
Photo K. Blackburn

While our trip to Tchabal Mbabo was difficult, it turned out that we had an interesting, enjoyable, and productive stay on Mt. Mbam. This is often how fieldwork goes. There are times when it is very frustrating and disappointing but that there are also always great surprises and exciting discoveries. One of the lessons that is the hardest to learn when conducting fieldwork is to be willing to change plans, often on very short notice. It is usually difficult to have much advanced notice about conditions in a particular place. You just have to go ahead with your plan and then change direction if needed. In order to keep the team safe and healthy, as well as protect our equipment, you sometimes have to make difficult decisions. But there are always great surprises, wonderful people, and beautiful places that end up making all of the frustrations of fieldwork worthwhile!

We did not have quite such a wonderful stay at Hotel Sambolabo. We were very disappointed by not being able to safely climb Mt. Tchabal Mbabo. However, fieldwork does not always go as planned and there are often surprises. Sometimes there are funny surprises...who would have expected karate in Sambolabbo?!