Wild Tobago

Faraaz Abdool tells us about female hmmingbirds dressed as male, and another bird where some males dress as female. All photos by Faraaz Abdool   In this age of polarising perspectives and the politicising of even the most benign things, nature proceeds as she always has - not according to our self-imposed rigid rules. After all, our understanding of nature is premised on observation, and if we observe more, we understand more. Problems arise when we take what we already know and assert that that is all that needs to be known. Nature is fluid, academic categorisation isn't - and so we need to remain open and willing to learn. Prime example is the rewriting of astronomy textbooks after analysing observations from the James Webb telescope in 2024. Without this willingness to accept that we still don’t understand the full gamut of existence, we are destined to stagnate in ignorance. In the world of birds, we constantly learn via observation. Species we acknowle...

Dr Anjani Ganase learns to dive, and falls into the splendour of life in the ocean. This is the third instalment of the series in which she recounts her journey to becoming a coral reef ecologist.  All photos courtesy Anjani Ganase   I decided that I needed to learn to scuba dive when I went to university. I signed up for an undergraduate degree in Marine Biology but I had no idea what the marine world looked like. Like most freshmen, I expected that being a marine biologist meant working with dolphins, whales and turtles or any megafauna. But an unseen world was being revealed through courses in microbiology, chemistry, oceanography and invertebrate zoology. The ocean systems are built on the microbes that regulate ocean food, and they drift on currents that regulate the climate. It was about time that I saw what the ocean looked like. During my summer vacation, I signed up to for an open water certificate in Trinidad. The lessons started in a classro...

On her journey to monitoring and conserving coral reefs, Dr Anjani Ganase works with a sea turtle study in Tobago, and visits Grande Riviere to see the nesting leatherback turtles. Life for a marine biologist begins on a beach. One big reason I turned to studying the ocean were the bugs. Endless biting insects – sand flies and mosquitoes – enjoyed my sweet blood on every visit to the bush or the beach. Even worse, I would swell up like a jelly bean wherever I got stung. As an adult, I have learned to be prepared as I still seek out nature on hikes and chasing waterfalls. Last weekend I covered up for an extra special visit to Grande Riviere, the most densely populated leatherback turtle nesting beach on the island, and some say, the world.   The first time I was taken to see leatherback turtles, it was with my parents on Matura Beach. I was still in primary school. My parents were reporting for the Guardian at the time, covering a story about the use of satel...

  Dr Anjani Ganase, marine biologist and coral reef scientist, begins a series on her early adventures by the sea. In this episode, she gets tumbled by the waves and learns the rhythm of the water. Children should spend time at the beach over the long vacation, with adults who love the sea.   Anjani vs the waves. Photo by Ranji Ganase Wild waves of Blanchisseuse. Photo by Pat Ganase. My first barrel roll I remember my first tumble by a wave, feet flying overhead, water up the nose, eyes are burning. Of course, this was Maracas, our beautiful North Coast beach known for its wild water. I was jumping over the surf but every now and then a big wave comes through. You can either retreat to the shore to be taken out in the attempt, or swim up its face only to be barrelled either way. Timing was everything, but I could never be faster than the big wave.   The tumbles underwater seem endless before a hand from above grabs me and pulls me out of the wave by my leg. I am dan...