It was with a twinge of sadness that I read recently that Satish Bhaskar, one of the pioneers of sea turtle work in India, had retired from the sea turtle scene. He was a field researcher extraordinaire - his daring exploits and his ability to take on and survive the toughest field conditions in the remotest areas just to collect more data on his sea turtles gave much to admire about the man. I don’t think any photo sums him up better than this one - here he is, the daredevil, happy as a lark, in the Andaman Islands, with live, highly venomous sea snakes, Laticauda colubrina, wrapped around his neck. Satish just wanted to prove that these amphibious sea snakes are quite sluggish and reluctant to bite when they emerge on land!

Posted by Manjula Tiwari at 04:00 PM | Permalink

We had just spent five busy days learning about freshwater turtles, tortoises, and marine turtles at the recent Congress on Chelonian Conservation at Saly, Senegal, and we were ready to stretch our legs, get away from the south-of-France feel of the hotel, and breathe the air and dust of the real Senegal. We weren’t actively searching for carapaces, but we always seemed to spot one at the coastal areas we visited. We found this olive ridley carapace on top of Gorée Island. At first it appeared part of a fetish which we did not want to touch, but when we realized that it was only a local artist’s art ensemble, an opportunity to collect data could not be missed! Angela immediately produced a sterilized blade and a bottle of buffer solution to collect a tissue sample and Jack Frazier gallantly loaned us his leather belt to take a length measurement.

Coming down from the top of Gorée we visited the Musée de la Mer which has one of the largest Caretta skulls (one on the left) any of us had ever seen; a size apparently attributed to Deraniyagala’s Caretta gigas. It may possibly be, we were told, one of the largest chelonian skulls in the world!

Posted by Manjula Tiwari at 08:25 PM | Permalink

McDonald's adapts itself to Morocco...

Given that Morocco has such rich and delicious traditional cuisine, I found it quite hilarious that McDonald's was advertising itself as "an oasis of flavor" in Casablanca!

Posted by Manjula Tiwari at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Recently I was telling an African turtler about another researcher who was all annoyed that other people were starting turtle work in the same region even though the projects did not overlap and had different objectives. Quite baffled by the attitude of this researcher, his wonderfully succinct and colorful response was, “Mais la tortue n’est pas sa femme!” (= But the turtle is not his wife!).

PS - He did add later that the philosophy, “Mais la tortue n’est pas son mari” (= but the turtle is not her husband!) is just as applicable!

Posted by Manjula Tiwari at 08:08 PM | Permalink

Finally back at my Gainesville desk after two weeks of turtling in Africa - will write more about it later, but in the meantime, here's something that caught my attention at Tangier airport...

After foolishly making the decision to fly from Casablanca to Tangier (we were trying to save time, but it took just as long as, if not longer than a cheaper trip by train!), we were waiting at midnight at the one and only baggage carousel at Tangier airport when this green package went by on the carousel - was it really what I thought it was?? Yes, it was indeed a packet of Pampers (brand of diapers) cleverly fitted with a check in tag!

Not one package, but three went round!! My comment (which according to my French colleague is the most commonly used phrase by girls from the USA) was "how cute!" I took these photos while the solemn locals probably muttered "more silly tourists." I was really curious to see who would claim them, but they were still circling around when our luggage came through...

Posted by Manjula Tiwari at 11:58 PM | Permalink