Return to Gorongosa

Chitengo Camp, Gorongosa

There is no place like home.  Coming back to Gorongosa with good friends waiting on the runway felt like coming home.  Good people, rich biodiversity, and beautiful scenery.  This is a biologist's dream.

In the morning we met up with Greg Carr in Johannesburg and headed to the airport to take his private plane north to Beira, Mozambique.  It was great to reconnect with Senhor Greg.  He is the vision and driving force behind the Gorongosa Restoration Project.  Along the way north over Kruger National Park and southern Mozambique we discussed the latest trials of massive ecosystem rebooting.  One ongoing issue is what to do with the zebras.  It is believed that the zebras of Gorongosa are genetically unique compared to other plains zebras.  They are thought to be a subspecies.  The numbers of the Gorongosa zebra may be 25 to 30 -- in the entire park.  They are just one of the many large mammals that was cut down to 1 to 5% of its pre-war population. 

The zebra dilemma is quite challenging.  It is possible that if they are left alone they will inbreed to their local extinction.  The alternative is to bring in some new genes from the outside.  This could be done with an arranged sexual pairing with individuals from outside the region (possibly Niassa).  However, such an arrangement could lead to the unique genetic make up of the Gorongosa zebras being lost.  We wait Ed Wilson’s word on this challenging conservation issue.  This is just one of the many challenging biology scenarios in this Park.   Every one is a teachable moment and something other biologists and biology students can learn from. 

Piotr Naskrecki inspects a newly collected grasshopper at the Beira Airport.

It was a tie:  7 orthoptera species to 7 ant species.

Landing in Beira, Mozambique gave me an idea of the good collecting expeditions ahead.  In our party are Gary Alpert and Piotr Naskrecki of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology.   Both are insect specialists.  Gary is a former grad student of EO Wilson and has collected ants around the globe.   This extreme myrmecologist collected ants in Mozambique during the civil war in 1992.  He has literally risked his life to collect new species of ants. 

Piotr is an expert in anything Ornithoptera – which include the katydids, crickets, and grasshoppers.  He is especially looking for new species of katydids in Gorongosa. The best sampling is after sunset until late into the night.  It will be interesting sharing evening forays with the other nocturnal predators in the region.

Gary Alpert scanning the Park for good collecting locations and glad the war is over.

After getting our passports stamped and our Mozambique visas processed we surveyed for ants and ornithoptera around the deserted Beira Airport. There were at least six or more genera of ants we located just in a short time along the tarmac:

Ocymyrmex  - speedsters of the ant world.  Probably the hardest ant to catch on the ground.

Odontomachus – this predatory ant has clasping mouth parts that clamp onto prey like a bear trap.

Pheidole – the genus of Ed Wilson, a favorite of sorts.

Tetramorium – a widely dispersed group, some of which have adapted to living out of pavement.

Campanotus – The genus in which we found a new species last year.  Gary’s photo of this specimen is shown below.

New species of Camponotus ant found at Gorongosa during last year's expedition.

We found these in 10-15 minutes.  If one looked around the entire city of San Diego for days, they would most likely find 1 or 2 species of native ants along with the highly invasive Argentine ant.

The warthogs are off the runway and we are all clear to land at Chitengo.

Now I only hear crickets.  Gone are the sounds of the urban jungle. We will begin our first formal collecting in Gorongosa tomorrow.  Bon nuit.