Breakfast Male Lemur
Research Scientists at Berenty
HOMEPAGE of the Berenty Website The Berenty Reserve Tourism Website The Ako Project



 
To see a resource list of RESEARCHERS at Berenty, with their research interests & contact details, click here.
 
To apply either as a research scientist or a student, contact Dr. Hantanirina Rasamimanana, rasamiratovo@gmail.com. She tracks the research and suggests Malagasy student field assistants for visiting scientists and students. Also write a one page letter in French to Mme Claire Foulon.


Link to The Berenty Researchers Collaborative Portal

Berenty Researchers:
    Click here
to visit
The Berenty Researchers Collaborative Portal
.


  
  
  
  
Visit the website(fr) for GERP - 'Groupe d'Etude et de Recherche Sur Les Primates de Madagascar'

GERP Logo


to find out more about the study and research group on Madagascar primates.

Scientists and Research at Berenty

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Berenty researcher measuring flood levels © photo by A Jolly


Research at Berenty has overwhelmingly concentrated on lemurs. The reserve has been protected for seventy years so animals are not afraid of humans. This makes it an ideal site for the study of lemur social behaviour. The five-fold gradient in population density from front to gallery forest to dry scrub offers fascinating comparisons of behaviour in differing environments. The rise of the introduced population of brown lemurs raises both theoretical and ethical dilemmas: what to do when an alien invader is a lemur? Berenty is a forest fragment, and always was, because gallery forests grow naturally as fragments on favourable river bends. It presumably has always been a source population in a sparser landscape, for instance for the colony of fruit bats. Over the decades its plant communities have become dryer, with invasion of alien species. We do not know how much change is due to natural succession, to overgrazing, or to drying of the river itself from deforestation in the headwaters.

The de Heaulme family have welcomed scientists ever since the 1960's. To apply for research at Berenty, you should contact one of the senior scientists who already work there. New projects are welcome. However, accommodation is very limited, often booked months in advance. Senior scientists who wish tourist accommodation are now expected to pay at tourist prices and to book via the website www.madagascar-resorts.com. Make sure you get an answer specifying the room and dates—scientists are sometimes asked to move to make room for "real" clients. There are seven places in the three-house complex called Naturaliste where scientists and students can cook their own meals on minimal budgets, with free lodging and transport provided by the de Heaulmes.

To apply either as a research scientist or as a student, write a one page letter in French to Mme Claire FOULON, clairefoulon1@gmail.com, with a copy to Claire Foulon, Berenty Reserve, Hotel le Dauphin, BP 54, Fort Dauphin. In this letter outline your research project, whom, if anyone, you are working with, and the dates of your proposed stay at Berenty. The dates should be as precise as possible, and if they change, let Mme Foulon know.

When you arrive in Fort Dauphin, go to the Hotel le Dauphin, and from there to the de Heaulme offices. When Mme Foulon or another person gives you authorization, you may be lucky to have a free ride in a tourist buses for the 70 km out to the reserve. More often you need to arrange and pay for a car, especially if on a tight schedule.


Scientists - Research Interests & Contact Details

Scientists who have recently worked in the reserve include:

Kathryn Blumenfeld-Jones
Plant communities
Graham Crawford Veterinary: leucaena toxicity and 'Bald lemur syndrome'
Francine Dolins
Ringtailed lemur ranging decisions
Giuseppe Donati Brown lemur ecology, cathemerality
Iris Dröscher Behavioural and feeding ecology of a small nocturnal folivorous primate (Lepilemur leucopus)
Claudia Fichtel
Vocal flexibility in Verreaux's sifakas
Fabien Génin
Eco-ethology of mouse lemurs
Leucaena (.pdf)
Claire de Heaulme Foulon
(clairefoulon1@gmail.com)
Berenty Reserve Manager
Lisa Gould
Ringtailed lemur social behaviour
http://web.uvic.ca/~lgould
Annette Hladik
(hladik@mnhn.fr)
Botany and secondary plant compounds; plant identification lists and lemur feeding in gallery and spiny forests
Shinichiro Ichino Ringtailed lemur social behaviour and molecular genetics
Alison Jolly
* in memoriam
Ringtailed lemur social behavior, demography and ecology
Naoki Koyama
Ringtailed lemur social behaviour
Anne Mertl Millhollen
Ringtailed lemur relation to tamarind trees
Ivan Norscia
Sifaka census and behavior, scent-marking by ringtailed lemurs
Ryszard Oleksy
The role of the Pteropus rufus in seed dispersal and forest regeneration
Elisabetta Palagi
Scent-marking by ring-tailed lemurs, sifaka census
Susan Pinkus
(spinkus@ecojustice.ca)
Brown lemur ecology and demography
Ethan Pride
(ethan.pride@hotmail.com)
Ringtailed lemur behaviour, stress and cortisol secretion
Hajarimanitra Rambeloarivony
Reproduction in grey mouselemurs and red-and-grey mouselemurs
Hantanirina Rasamimanana
Ringtailed lemur feeding, locomotion, energetics
Lemur Census (.pdf)
Josia Razafindramanana
Brown and ringtailed lemur demography and ecology
Lemur Census (.pdf)
Anna Schnöll
Social learning in brown and ringtailed lemurs
Bruno Simmen
Ringtailed and brown lemur and sifaka taste sensitivity and secondary plant compounds; plant lists, feeding of sifaka and brown lemurs
Takayo Soma Ringtailed lemur feeding ecology and introduced trees, eviction
Amber Walker-Bolton
Ringtailed lemur scent communication
George Williams
(gww@silcom.com)
GPS based mapping programs
Vanessa Winchester
Forest Health Studies