Carte Blanche: Madagascar (Part 1 and Part 2)
Two short films examining illegal rosewood logging in Madagascar and the impact on the critically endangered silky sifaka. They were produced by Neil Shaw and commissioned and funded by Carte Blanche which is one of the most respected television news programs in the Southern Hemisphere. Aired on South African Television in April, 2010 and streams freely online here:
Carte Blanche: Madagascar Part 1:
http://beta.mnet.co.za/carteblanche/Article.aspx?Id=3919&ShowId=1
Carte Blanche: Madagascar Part 2:
http://beta.mnet.co.za/mnetvideo/browseVideo.aspx?vid=25570
Angels of the Forest Documentary Film
"Angels of the Forest" is a documentary film chronicling the science and conservation efforts surrounding the silky sifaka (Propithecus candidus), one of the world's rarest mammals. The film includes some of the first HD footage of wild silky sifakas and examines how research requires close collaboration with local malagasy collaborators. Sharon Pieczenik is the filmmaker behind this project. She spent six weeks with Erik documenting his work in Madagascar. Full malagasy and english versions of this film are being produced. So few natural history films are ever created in local languages.....
Watch here in a you-tube style format:
http://www.vimeo.com/5894853
Download the entire film from the Research Channel (who funded it):
http://www.researchchannel.org/prog/displayevent.aspx?rID=29678&fID=6251
To see more of Sharon's work, visit http://www.wyctl.com
Dan Rather Reports: Treasure Island. Episode 437.
A detailed investigation of the impact of the recent political crisis in Madagascar on the unique biodiversity of this island continent. Filmed in high-definition, active rosewood logging camps are shown. The impact of such habitat disturbance on the silky sifaka and the World Heritage Sites of Marojejy NP and Masoala NP are discussed. The debates surrounding the Ambatovy nickel mine adjacent to Andasibe-Mantadia NP are also discussed. The mine may be endangering one of the rarest animals on earth, the greater bamboo lemur (Prolemur simus) which is being protected there by the NGO Mitsinjo. Aired on HD-NET cable television November 2009. Purchasable and downloadable on I-Tunes in the United States.
DVDs can be purchased online: http://hdnet-store.stores.yahoo.net/danrare437.html
Sample Clip 1: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=600388589544
Sample Clip 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEi-yRlJ-mk
Terrestrial
Play Video
Marojejy National Park (Camp 2): 2003
Silky sifakas frequently engage in long play bouts which not
uncommonly take place on the ground (remarkable for an arboreal
animal that is hunted by ground-dwelling fossa!) and involve
adult males as full participants.
Aerial
Roar Video
Marojejy National Park (Camp 2): 2003
Silky sifakas routinely emit high amplitude (loud) broad-band
(noisy) roars with open mouths to overhead raptors and other
aerial disturbances such as falling trees and small birds.
Roars are also emitted spontaneously without apparent cause.
Callers do stare skyward, as in this video, while emitting
this call, but seldom drop vertically in the trees.
Often, all group members will roar together in an antiphonal
fashion. This is a remarkably frequent behavior pattern
since no raptors or any bird has ever been observed to attempt
predation on silky sifakas (this is true of most eastern sifakas).
The cat-like fossa is their only documented predator.
Male
Chest-Genital Scentmark Video
Marojejy National Park (Camp 2): 2003
Adult male and female silky sifakas deposit genital scentmarks
(see below), but only males mark trees with chest and the
combined chest-genital scentmarks, seen in this video. Notice
the gouging of the tree, in this video, performed by the male
immediately prior to the chest-genital scentmark which is
placed directly over the gouge. It is unknown why male sifakas
gouge trees (although we have some ideas why they do it …).
Eastern sifaka males are the only group of primates in the
world that routinely gouge trees exclusively for non-nutritive
reasons. Eastern sifakas do not gouge during any sort of extractive
foraging. They do not eat bark or gum.
Male
Scent Overmarking Female Video
Marojejy National Park (Camp 2): 2007
Overmarking is the deposition of a scentmark immediately on
top of the scentmark of another group member. Silky
sifakas, like other eastern sifakas, frequently overmark with
most overmarking performed by males overmarking the scentmarks
of females. The first male to overmark may obtain sole
access to female reproductive cues and prevent other males
from accessing her estrus cues by gouging her mark and placing
his own scentmark on top of hers, which may mask her scentmark.
Genital
Scent-Marking Video
Marojejy National Park (Camp 2): 2003
Both adult males and females perform genital scentmarking
in which their genitals are rubbed against tree trunks in
a rhythmic fashion. Urination often accompanies genital
scent-marking.
Bipedal
Hopping Video
Marojejy National Park (Camp 2): 2003
Although western sifakas, like Verreaux’s sifaka, are
reknown for occasional terrestrial bipedal locomotion, rainforest
sifakas do it too (though far less often)! In silky
sifakas, bipedal hopping occurs on the ground as well as when
they are forced to cross narrow substrates such as a log over
a gully as seen in this video.
Juvenile Terrestrial Foraging Video
Marojejy National Park (Camp 2): 2003
Although silky sifakas are arboreal (like all sifakas), occasionally they forage terrestrially for fallen fruit, as in this video, or to consume soil.
Juvenile
Scrounge Attempt Video
Marojejy National Park (Camp 2): 2003
An adult male named Pink Face (who was forced out of the group
in 2007 when a new male immigrated) feeds on a large fruit
while a juvenile attempts unsuccessfully to scrounge his fruit.
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