Prove You Are A Tourist

Ross is under the impression that all of our remote bird expeditions look the same: take a bad road, show up in a village, coordinate, do a steep hike, see the bird. He’s mostly right, as the formula is standard and apparently effective; but no matter what there are unforeseen variables creating their own set of complications that require their own set of unique solutions in order for the formula to be successful.
Recently we tracked down an endemic subspecies of East Coast Akalat and were among the first, if not the very first people, outside of researchers, to see it. Next up, Rubeho Forest-partridge, currently a subspecies* of Udzungwa Forest-partridge that was accidentally discovered while researchers were in the Rubeho mountains studying the flora and fauna of the region. This discovery that there were more Forest-partridges in Africa was huge. Genetically, Udzungwa Forest-partridge’s closest relatives are in Asia, thousands of miles away. There’s nothing else quite like them on this continent. And no one, outside of the researchers who published their findings, has seen this subspecies. Anyone else out there love to read obscure research articles about new species’ discovery or is that just Ross? Just kidding — I know he’s not alone in reading those papers, it’s interesting stuff. But he’s certainly among a very small subset of people who would read a research paper and then go and see the bird despite not having much logistical information to go on. So Ross contacted Louis, one of the publishers of the paper, regarding what needs to be done in order to get access to the forest.
We first needed permission from the forestry department and would need to show a letter from this agency to the village chairman upon our arrival, so we set off to get permission. I’m not sure if we ever found the forestry department, but we did find the Natural Lands Division Office and proceeded to be paraded around the entire office and adjacent buildings, signing no less than three visitor logs, and saying hello to no less than 8 people in executive positions. The Vice President Chairman was out of office or else we would have met him as well. A highlight from this experience was showing up in the first office and informing the Natural Lands Officer that we were tourists wanting to see the native birds, to which he responded, “how do I know you are tourists? Do you have a letter from the tourism agency saying you are a tourist? Anyone could show up from another country and say they are a tourist.” We laughed, because that’s genuinely a hilarious thing to say, and informed him that tourists do not need a piece of paper saying they are a tourist to be a tourist. Being from one country and wanting to see another is enough to qualify. We also informed him that instead of making admissions complicated and overwhelming, it would be in Tanzania’s best interest to make visitation easier for tourists because they would see more revenue. He seemed to understand this and we were let on our way with a paper stating our permission to visit the forest in hand.
The road to get there was bad, sure, but not nearly as bad as it could have been. No one ever said accessing remote Tanzania was going to be easy. Thankfully we had a contact, Mopilio, in the small village of Lufusi, who both speaks English and had joined the researchers in the past. When we arrived, coordinating our expedition was easy and only took about an hour. We signed yet another visitor’s log, and did indeed show our permission slip to the village chairman. It was a night of sleeping in our rooftop tent in the village center with a full audience of no less than 35 school-aged children, before setting off on the hike at 5:30am the following morning.

We knew we needed to gain 1,000m in elevation, so we were expecting a steep, challenging hike, but the hike was 8 miles long with a gradual incline for the first 3-4 miles so it didn’t feel overwhelmingly steep. The trail was also very wide so it felt oddly easy, easier than the hike we did for Udzungwa Forest-partridge! We joked that this is where tour companies should bring clients to see the partridge to avoid the strenuous hike in the Udzungwas!
We also laughed because the porters we were paying to carry our supplies (food, tarps, tent, cookware, etc) for camping in the forest, outsourced the bags to two young men from a village we passed along the way for half the price. They were using their new money to pay someone else to do the job they were hired to do. Ingenuity like this is what keeps business alive! Might as well spread the wealth! (Although when we got back to the village at the end of our trip they expected us to give them the money for these porters and argued that as porters themselves, it was not their job to carry bags, just to accompany us. I’m still a little annoyed about that.)
It wouldn’t be right if the nice trail stayed nice the entire way. Soon we found ourselves trudging through 8″ thick mud before cutting off of the mule track and up into the forest. We were using the exact same campsite as the research team from 3 years ago, which required a complete overhaul to clear back the vines and small trees and various other forms of plant life that had taken back over. It’s remarkable what nature can do if left alone. It took us close to 4 hours to reach the campsite, and the exertion certainly enough to qualify as a workout, but overall the hike wasn’t bad.
Ross and I were told that the partridges were easy, so despite it being noon, we headed back out to the trail and set up next to a tree to see if we could call them in. Not 5 minutes later a group of three Rubeho Forest-partidges came marching by. They stayed mostly obscured, so Ross missed his photo op, and the dripping from the wet leaves prevented Ross from getting a recording of them as they called, but we had great views. Based on this experience, we assumed it wouldn’t be hard to find them again.

• 

• 

• 

• 

In addition to the partridge, we were on the hunt for a newly described species of sunbird that is restricted to the small margin where this forest meets the clearing. We had piles of Moreau’s and Malachite Sunbirds but no luck with our target. A deeper dive into the research paper showed that the Rubeho Double-collared Sunbird we were after was primarily collected in the southwest portion of the forest, where we were currently on the northern side. If we wanted to see it in that part of the forest we would need to hike back out, drive to a new location, and hike back in. So we paused this sunbird search and it was back to partridge searching to nail down some of the first photos of this species. Already our sighting, once we got signal to upload it, would be a first for eBird! If we could snag a photo, we would be able to leave early and hit up that other section of forest.
Unfortunately the rest of the afternoon and the entire following day we didn’t have a single partridge respond! Had we gotten extremely lucky on that first attempt? Was this a bad time of year for eliciting a response or was the rain working to our disadvantage? It was raining ALL day long, we assumed that must be it. So now we were soaking wet and had no photo to speak of, but we did see an Elephant Shrew in the process which was really cool!
The Rubeho Forest-partridges were supposed to be common but despite our first try where we had a group of three come in, we couldn’t seem to find any others! What I found to be common, however, were honeybees! I have a special affinity for honeybees being that my name literally translates to honeybee in Greek, and several times I looked down to find a honeybee flying beside me, occasionally landing on my leg or hand. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, no bees perched long enough for a selfie! It seemed insects in general were common in this forest. It was refreshing to see so many bugs as large numbers of insects seem to be eerily absent in many other areas. Birds such as Bar-throated Apalis, White-tailed Crested Flycatcher, Forest Batis and various greenbuls were also common.
It was unique that we were legitimately exploring an area that very few people visit! I joked with Ross that if there was one place to find a new species, something I’ve been wanting him to find for years now, this would be it! (Is it unrealistic for me to think that my husband can actually find a new species in this day and age? Maybe…)

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

On our third and final morning, the rain let up and we were able to bird without any hindrance from the weather. This change was enough to elicit five Rubeho Forest-partridges into coming out for a photo!
After another walk through the mud and into our favorite section of forest, we opted to pack up camp and start on the journey back to the village. Just as we finished packing everything away, the skies opened up and we got to start on our hike in the pouring down rain! Gotta love starting a 8 mile hike soaking wet!
I absolutely love exploring new areas and this certainly was an exploration where few foreigners have ever gone before. Despite the rain, our time in the forest was a success!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

*Perhaps I should exclusively use the term “subspecies” but based on the research paper, the scientists have already split it and the IOC has already accepted it. We currently follow Clements taxonomy and trust that eventually they will figure themselves out. With this in mind I use species and subspecies for this Forest-partridge interchangeably at this time. But seriously, it’s a species so I’m not sure why…