Since I needed for one of my book projects a few shots of the famous Gorongosa crocodiles, which rank among the largest in Africa, I asked for help from Bob Poole, a man with considerable crocodile experience. Bob is a legendary National Geographic cameraman who shot, among other NatGeo titles, “Africa’s Lost Eden” and “War…
Category: Gorongosa
Mozambique Diary: The Lizard Quest
Sitting on the dusty floor of a makeshift laboratory tent Harith Farooq carefully folded a piece of fine, steel mesh into a foot-long cylinder, then weaved in a stretch of a thick wire along its edge. Finally, he carefully attached a neck of an empty water bottle to one of the ends and looked at…
Mozambique Diary: Alipes
A couple of weeks ago I was ripping slabs of bark off an old fallen log, an activity that to me ranks among the most pleasurable things one can do, right up there with unwrapping Christmas presents. There is always a chance of finding something incredible – a beautiful cerambycid beetle, a colony of Pyramica,…
Mozambique Diary: I have fallen and I can’t get up
The best part of traveling with a group of biologists in a place like the Cheringoma Plateau is the impossibility of ever being bored. Not only can you witness hilarious and exotic injuries (where else do people get bitten by bats?), but every day brings new discoveries of things you never thought existed. At our…
Mozambique Diary: Heroes, and what bugs them
One early morning, while on the Cheringoma Plateau, an invited mammalogist came running into the camp. “We caught something really good in our traps!”, the mammalogist announced breathlessly, sending the media team that was filming our expedition into a state of frenzied excitement. Everybody rushed to see the mystery animal, whose identity the person refused…
Mozambique Diary: Golden bats
Tomorrow marks the first official day of the Gorongosa Biodiversity Survey on the Cheringoma Plateau. All participating scientists are arriving, and the following morning we will depart for the first, northernmost site. But even before we get to those remote and unexplored areas, some of us have been already collecting interesting data. Earlier today a…
The Smaller Majority 