John S. Sparks, curator of ichthyology at the American Museum of Natural History, writes from Madagascar, where he is studying native freshwater fish.
Sunday, June 19
After we separate into two groups, the team trying to reach Lake Tseny heads east from Port-Bergé, a hot, dusty town with an end-of-the-road vibe, to the west bank of the Bemarivo River. Lake Tseny, a remote and relatively large floodplain lake, was recently reported to harbor three species of damba, including a relict population of Paretroplus menarambo, a species previously considered extinct in the wild. At one time, a four-wheel-drive vehicle could cross the muddy Bemarivo River by ferry and reach Lake Tseny after a long drive over a rough road. When the team members arrive at the crossing, however, the only evidence they find of the old ferry is a ragged, rusty cable spanning the channel. They are forced to leave their vehicle behind, transporting themselves and their supplies across the river in small boats. Once on the far bank, they try to hire an oxcart to take them to Lake Tseny.
By midday, in blistering heat, they have finally crossed the Bemarivo River and begin their lengthy negotiations for an oxcart. Thinking they face a mere four-hour oxcart journey to the lake, group members try to persuade several drivers to begin the trip immediately. Inexplicably, everyone insists that the carts and zebus are “booked,” and will not be available for departure until around 4 p.m. Some in the group (who, incidentally, have no previous experience with oxcart travel) assume that an oxcart on a rough road moves at a comfortable human walking pace, and decide that a pleasant walk next to the cart will be revitalizing. So when they set out on foot a little after 4 p.m. next to the cart carrying the equipment, little attention is given to the comments of some laughing villagers that the group will be lucky to arrive at Lake Tseny by 3 the next morning.
When the team finally trudges into the village of Tsaratanana, on the north bank of Lake Tseny, at 11:30 p.m., dusty and exhausted, having walked for more than seven hours, its members have gained a number of important insights. First is that a villager’s estimate of 40 kilometers for the journey, which they had thought to be a gross overstatement, may well have been accurate. Second, although zebus pulling a cart appear lethargic in the hottest part of the day, they are capable of surprising liveliness after dark. Thus, reminded of the old line about “mad dogs and Englishmen,” the team members now fully comprehend the reluctance of oxcart drivers to begin this journey at high noon. Chastened, the group somewhat sheepishly arranges to hire a second oxcart for the return journey, and soon thereafter its members collapse in their tents in the front yard of the oxcart driver’s relatives.
After receiving the permission of the local chief early the next morning to fish, the team gets its first taste of Lake Tseny as the members cross from Tsaratanana to the village of Ambario in narrow wooden pirogues. The lake is particularly beautiful, nestled in a landscape of grassy rolling hills and scattered forest patches, with a complex shoreline of numerous coves, and dotted throughout with small islands covered in three-meter-high grasses and the occasional palm tree.
It is a landscape of seasonal transformation; fishermen inform them that the lake’s depth fluctuates from three meters in the dry season to 12 meters at the height of the monsoon. Fishing gets under way slowly after the team’s arrival in Ambario, but by midafternoon some fishermen begin deploying long gill-nets and slamming their noise-making sticks (dobokas) down on the water to flush fish out of the submerged grasses and fallen trees.
When darkness falls, the group is delighted to have collected small series of all three species of damba reported from the lake (Paretroplus kieneri, P. menarambo and P. lamenabe). Although several native species are reported to persist in this remote lake, the group regrettably observes that introduced species like tilapines, bony-tongues (Heterotis niloticus) and carp (Cyprinus carpio) are most abundant, here as elsewhere in Madagascar.
Lake Tseny has definitely been a worthwhile stop – despite the oxcart difficulties and the aching bodies of the team members. Satisfied with the day’s efforts, the group goes to bed early, hoping to cover much of tomorrow’s oxcart journey in the early morning, before it gets excruciatingly hot.