Land of the Lost

While descending to the forest floor of the limestone gorges of Gorongosa, the opening scene from the film Arachnophobia in the jungle of Venezuela, or the arrival to the lush rainforest of Jurassic Park came to mind. Our South African pilot, Mike Pingo steered us in like a dragonfly coming to land on a favorite blade of grass.  The scene was even more cinematic as the doors had been removed to lessen the load on the helicopter for later ascending out of the narrow gorge.  This allowed me to lean out over the landing struts and take in more of the scene as we lowered in next to the towering trees of this lush forest. 

This region is one of the more unique and remote habitats of Gorongosa National Park. In planning out the expedition to this site we expected to find species that had been isolated from the surrounding region and yielding some new finds for Gorongosa and Mozambique. The focus was on ants and collecting with Gary Alpert and bringing in samples to Ed for a rapid field ID.  Additionally we planned to collect many bags of leaf litter to locate the small cryptic species of ants living on the forest floor and below the surface.  It has been shown this is the habitat to locate undescribed species.  The vast majority of large species scurrying across the surface have all been collected and well documented.  However, there are still large animals such as mammals that are being found.  Last summer a team from the Field Museum in Chicago located a previously undescribed species of shrew up on Mt. Gorongosa.

Another aspect of this remote site in the limestone gorges is that it is prime leopard habitat.  To find out if this is really the case, a remote camera was placed deep in the gorge on a game trail to survey large animals moving about in the region. As I explored low on the ground for insects, I wondered if I was moving bait for a leopard.  Fortunately, the tropical flora and great diversity of insects made these thoughts disappear.

I observed my first weaver ant (genus Oecophylla) nest in the gorge.  These industrious ants weave leaves together with larval silk to make an enclosed nest.  The workers initially form chains together to draw in leaves to initiate the nest building.  Then workers hold larval ants in their mandibles in such a way to make them release their silk.  Sounds like exploitation of youth, no?

Weaver nest perched above the forest floor.

The diversity of butterflies, spiders, damselflies, and dragonflies was amazing.  After collecting leaf litter and isolated ants with Gary, I began roaming the basin of the gorge to locate unique insects in the dense undergrowth and along the streambed. The only disappoint came when it was time to pack up our gear and head back to the helicopter.  Hope we can return to this wild site.

The lowland rainforest of the gorge made a wonderful outdoor lab (photo by James Byrne). 

The first bush baby has cried out into the night.  This means it is getting late.  The other evening a loud bush baby cry sounded off very close to where I write this blog.  The primal sound was followed by an owl swooping low across the grass and then landing 40 feet from me.  It appeared to be ripping apart something on the ground, but it was hard to see in the dark of the night.  I guess one doesn’t need to take a helicopter ride across the Park to observe wildlife in action.