2010 Madagascar Trip

sounds good, I know there are people out there w/ tons of cash willing to support our expedition. WE just need to find them! I'll keep on it and if we can get $10,000.00 US then we are in business. You and I can both go and come back w/ tons of information for rich person who funds us. :)
 
There's no way in heck I can go. I have to much other things I have to do. But I was wondering if there will be any collecting allowed? I tried to go to the link, but for some reason it's not loading.

I've seen things like this for going to South America to see plecos and other amazonian species of fish, and the promise of keep what you catch, was always one of the main motivators for increasing participation. But from what I remember at least one person has to have an import license to get them in the country. Might be a little more complicated with chams.
 
I'd be down for the trip. I just have to find out what month my spring show for work lands on in 2010. If there is no conflict, it would be a green light for me. Just have to train a cham babysitter, or distribute my chams to my wonderful network on chameleon keeping friends.
 
I'd be down for the trip. I just have to find out what month my spring show for work lands on in 2010. If there is no conflict, it would be a green light for me. Just have to train a cham babysitter, or distribute my chams to my wonderful network on chameleon keeping friends.

But what if they want to go too? :eek:
 
Benny - Its a lot of money but to be honest, it seems to be fairly reasonable and less expensive then many similar tours.

Yeah, I didn't doubt it, but there are also some more costs, like flight, food & drinking, some other stuff which is necessary for the tour... Maybe you can ask for the date when we have to say a clear yes or no
 
I'd be down for the trip. I just have to find out what month my spring show for work lands on in 2010. If there is no conflict, it would be a green light for me. Just have to train a cham babysitter, or distribute my chams to my wonderful network on chameleon keeping friends.

i was gunna say steve you have the best of mada in your back yard anyways?!?!?!, yeah i was wondering how you could leave your clan behind, have you have them babysat before?
 
Yeah, I didn't doubt it, but there are also some more costs, like flight, food & drinking, some other stuff which is necessary for the tour... Maybe you can ask for the date when we have to say a clear yes or no

Benny, I like how you put "drinking" as a mandatory concern when going on safari . :D Just think you are a lot closer than I am. I shudder at the thought of how many planes I would have to take to get there. As for food, I am sure there will be fruit and such along the hike ;) , but drinking, drinking, could be a grave concern. :p I really don't have the funds to go either, however, if I don't go now, when I will be able too? :cool:
 
I'm complete addicted to Coke and other softdrinks ... so this is a very important point for me
low sugar level = pissed off Benny ;)
 
But what if they want to go too? :eek:
Let me rephase; those who don't go.
i was gunna say steve you have the best of mada in your back yard anyways?!?!?!, yeah i was wondering how you could leave your clan behind, have you have them babysat before?
I have people who help out, but who have little to no interest in the chameleons I keep. My son being one of them. He's into girls and video games at age 16.
I'm complete addicted to Coke and other softdrinks ... so this is a very important point for me
low sugar level = pissed off Benny ;)
I have been know to go up to three days without a soda while on vacation. Coke and Pepsi are my coffee. I take my caffeine cold.
 
You guys are too funny....:)

Yes, Chris, please keep updating the information as it becomes available. I would love to go and have been wanting to do it for a long time, but the funding is always the issue (plus my daughter would be incredibly jealous and make me want to take her with...).

Chad, if you pay for part of my trip, you can rest assured that Darci would be safe with me.... :p
 
There was a lot of discussion about a year ago about getting a group of people together to go on a trip to Madagascar. ...

.with Thorsten Negro of Tanalahorizon He has also mentioned that he's interested in getting a group together with a bunch of English speaking chameleon enthusiasts.

Chris

I got to thinking poor Thorstan may regret taking this group with him... :D

Let's see, Benny and SSimsswiSS having caffine withdrawls and going through migranes; yelling at the jungle to be quiet... Julie, Darcy and the other Amazonians setting up camp and making the guys nervous...Chris and crew stuffing chameleons down their shorts to take home ...everyone on their cell phones every hour to check in on their cham-sitters.... :p


oops, I think I just voted myself off the invitation list..:rolleyes:
 
I'm glad there seems to be as much interest in this as there is. It'd be great to have a tour full of chameleon enthusiasts.

Kent - Thorsten said that if we did Masoala first that he thinks there would be enough time to do Ranomafana too and that we should be able to get to Ranomafana in about 6 hrs from Tana. He said that we'd of course stop for lunch on the trip and for photos along the way.

Chris, do you happen to know exact dates yet? I see on the website it just says april 2010 also...Just let us know details as you get them and also when we'd have to pay by. Also, do you know what we'd have to bring? I see that we camp part of the time...is all of that equipment provided?

Thorsten told me that the trip would start the last week of March and go for 3 weeks. He doesn't have a deadline to sign up for the trip but he could only get a deal for us on flights from Paris to Tana and back until the end of November he thinks. As for camping, from the site it looks like everything except a sleeping bag is provided but I can ask him about that as well.

Any idea if he will be doing a chameleon tour in 2010? That one looks like you cover a lot more area.

I'm not sure. The issue with the chameleon tour is that while you visit more of the country, a lot of the area you are visiting does not have the diversity of chameleon species as the places you don't go such as the Masoala area and the forest of the East coast. That is where a lot of the coolest species live.

There's no way in heck I can go. I have to much other things I have to do. But I was wondering if there will be any collecting allowed?

No, no collecting. Because of CITES and the way exports work in Madagascar with quotas, etc., it would not be possible to collect your own animals as we would not be issued an export quota or the CITES paperwork to ship them internationally.

i was gunna say steve you have the best of mada in your back yard anyways?!?!?!

Little can compare to seeing these guys in the wild. As cool as they are to work with every day, there is just something different about them in the wild that you can't beat. That and all the diversity of species in these places is incredible and most people have no idea.

I got to thinking poor Thorstan may regret taking this group with him... :D

Let's see, Benny and SSimsswiSS having caffine withdrawls and going through migranes; yelling at the jungle to be quiet... Julie, Darcy and the other Amazonians setting up camp and making the guys nervous...Chris and crew stuffing chameleons down their shorts to take home ...everyone on their cell phones every hour to check in on their cham-sitters.... :p


oops, I think I just voted myself off the invitation list..:rolleyes:

Haha. I'm good about not stuffing them down my shorts to take home but I'm insane about getting photos. I'll take a hundred photos of a single animal, just to make sure I get some great shots. It'll be even worse if I manage to talk my advisor into letting me bring the high speed camera for feeding videos of some of these species.

Thorsten mentioned that if anyone wants to get in touch with him about anything or specific questions for him, you can email him at [email protected] He's leaving for Madagascar on August 3rd and won't be back till Sept 20th (lucky b@$t@rd) but if you contact him before (or after), he'd be glad to answer any questions. Of course, I'll try to help with anything I know also.

Chris
 
would it be plausible to collect the (legal) animals and hand them off to someone that is able to handle all the paperwork?
 
Normally not. You need an exporteur who will send you exact what you've collected, you must get the permits before you collect the animals. You must apply for the import permits some weeks before at your authorities....
 
The other problem is these exporters have to make money sending these animals out. They have a limited quota every year for CITES species. Once that quota is up, they have to wait till the next year. In order to make enough money, they require you to purchase a certain amount of non-CITES animals in order for them to send you the CITES animals you want. There is no incentive for them to send you part of their CITES animal quota if you aren't going to buy anything else from them. Other people will buy additional animals in order to get CITES animals from them.

Chris
 
I highly doubt that it is possible when you don't know the exporteur personally. As Chris said, they want to make $$$. Always remember that is their job, for us it's a hobby (or a bit more ;) )
 
I would LOVE to go

I would absolutely love to go however the best chance I have wouldn't be until mid september as my honeymoon, next best shot at going wouldn't be until at least the same time the next year, which if the time of year is chosen specifically then it would be 2012 before i could go....woe is me...
 
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