The Secret Garden
August 28, 2018 9:18 AM Subscribe
"The oral history of how a scientist found a rainforest on top of a mountain, then led a team of 28 scientists, logistics experts, climbers, and others to a place where humans had not set foot for a century or more."
Alternatively, I'm disappointed we didn't get to see the giant rat.
posted by Atreides at 11:27 AM on August 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Atreides at 11:27 AM on August 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
I was totally with them up until the "Spiders everywhere. Spiders, spiders, spiders. Lots of spiders" and now it sounds like absolutely the worst place on Earth.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 11:36 AM on August 28, 2018
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 11:36 AM on August 28, 2018
I can't help but think this story would have a better conclusion if it didn't end with people stepping where the Earth had previously been human-free for over a century. Granted that's not even a millisecond in geological timescale, but still -- I don't see it as a good thing for an invasive species to invade a place that had been well without them for so long.
posted by GoblinHoney at 11:46 AM on August 28, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by GoblinHoney at 11:46 AM on August 28, 2018 [5 favorites]
The Hidden World of Mozambique’s Sky Island Forests
Sky islands: exploring East Africa’s last frontier
What Do We Really Know About The Afromontane Archipelago?
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:58 AM on August 28, 2018 [6 favorites]
Sky islands: exploring East Africa’s last frontier
What Do We Really Know About The Afromontane Archipelago?
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:58 AM on August 28, 2018 [6 favorites]
Great post. Thanks!
Unrelated, getting another sockpuppet MeFi account with username Rhampholeon interests me.
posted by strelitzia at 1:36 PM on August 28, 2018
Unrelated, getting another sockpuppet MeFi account with username Rhampholeon interests me.
posted by strelitzia at 1:36 PM on August 28, 2018
Fascinating story, with more than usual frankness on the limits of academic funding.
They say there are so many spiders because there aren't any birds. But why aren't there any birds, since those would be the animals that would have the least trouble getting to the top of the mountain?
posted by cardboard at 1:38 PM on August 28, 2018 [2 favorites]
They say there are so many spiders because there aren't any birds. But why aren't there any birds, since those would be the animals that would have the least trouble getting to the top of the mountain?
posted by cardboard at 1:38 PM on August 28, 2018 [2 favorites]
An old friend from school was on this expedition! Such an amazing opportunity - can't be many places like this left.
posted by pharm at 1:40 PM on August 28, 2018
posted by pharm at 1:40 PM on August 28, 2018
In the article Ara Monadjem speculates "The lack of birds was maybe because the nestlings were being eaten by the ants. I don’t know. It is just a guess."
posted by fings at 1:45 PM on August 28, 2018
posted by fings at 1:45 PM on August 28, 2018
How on earth could that be big enough for a long-term self-sustaining population of antelope? Checking Lico on Google Maps, the forest is only 1 km across at the longer axis, it's substantially less than 200 acres in all. I've got to think they are relatively recent introductions, perhaps by the humans who were leaving pots and perhaps offerings at the top of the mountain.
Either that, or the local antelope are good climbers, which seems possible given what goats can climb. From the photos, it appears to have vegetation covering even the steep outer slopes, which could lure a mountain antelope up to the top.
posted by tavella at 2:44 PM on August 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
Either that, or the local antelope are good climbers, which seems possible given what goats can climb. From the photos, it appears to have vegetation covering even the steep outer slopes, which could lure a mountain antelope up to the top.
posted by tavella at 2:44 PM on August 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
How about we just leave it the fuck alone?
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 3:06 PM on August 28, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 3:06 PM on August 28, 2018 [4 favorites]
I admit, I wondered just how many spores of chytrid fungus they carried to the top on all that equipment, and just how many of those abundant frogs will still be alive a year from now.
posted by tavella at 3:13 PM on August 28, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by tavella at 3:13 PM on August 28, 2018 [3 favorites]
Personally, I don't have a problem with a small group of people who are all motivated to ensure they leave things as they were found to the greatest possible extent going in for a bit to document what is there and possibly expand our knowledge of the way ecosystems work.
What would be far worse is not doing that, since the chance of the area remaining unexploited in the long run is essentially nil. Sadly, we cannot at that point go back in time and see how things were before humans started messing with the area directly, so not exploring the area in as minimally invasive a way as possible is literally abandoning any the possibility of ever knowing the things that could have been learned and is, in a way, theft from future generations.
posted by wierdo at 5:35 PM on August 28, 2018
What would be far worse is not doing that, since the chance of the area remaining unexploited in the long run is essentially nil. Sadly, we cannot at that point go back in time and see how things were before humans started messing with the area directly, so not exploring the area in as minimally invasive a way as possible is literally abandoning any the possibility of ever knowing the things that could have been learned and is, in a way, theft from future generations.
posted by wierdo at 5:35 PM on August 28, 2018
Scientists often inadvertently lead the way for loggers, bioprospectors, and poachers. I've personally seen it happen. The effect of researchers arriving somewhere new is comparable to that of missionaries—good intentions, but still the tip of the spear of western civilization and all its rapacious ways. This was one of the last places on Earth that hadn't been basically ruined in this way. Now, it's probably too late.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 2:52 AM on August 29, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 2:52 AM on August 29, 2018 [2 favorites]
And +1 on the chytrid. If there's anywhere left in the world that's still chytrid-free, it should probably have a protective dome placed over it and be surrounded by armed guards charged with letting in absolutely nobody ever. Not even joking.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 2:58 AM on August 29, 2018
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 2:58 AM on August 29, 2018
I'd have gone with "tether thousands of helium balloons to my condemned home and fly off toward the mountaintop rainforest during my twilight years in fulfillment of my childhood dreams after a heartbreaking life-love-and-death montage" but sure, mountain-climbing, if that's your thing.
posted by duffell at 10:27 AM on August 30, 2018
posted by duffell at 10:27 AM on August 30, 2018
If we could realistically expect that there would be no further human incursion, I would object to even careful exploration. Given the near impossibility of that remaining the case, I'd prefer the first modern people in be those who care enough to have learned how to avoid cross contamination and best practices for minimally invasive data gathering.
Someday, if we're lucky, we'll have Star Trek sensors that can detect individual atoms and their arrangements from orbit. We don't yet, so getting useful data requires physical presence. I'm also fairly certain we lack robots that are capable of doing the job less destructively than humans using current best practice. (Though I'm sure most any useful robot would be less invasive than many "scientific" explorations even post WWII, much less the destruction and looting that was the standard before then!)
posted by wierdo at 6:08 AM on August 31, 2018
Someday, if we're lucky, we'll have Star Trek sensors that can detect individual atoms and their arrangements from orbit. We don't yet, so getting useful data requires physical presence. I'm also fairly certain we lack robots that are capable of doing the job less destructively than humans using current best practice. (Though I'm sure most any useful robot would be less invasive than many "scientific" explorations even post WWII, much less the destruction and looting that was the standard before then!)
posted by wierdo at 6:08 AM on August 31, 2018
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also glad they did not share pictures of all the spiders.
posted by supermedusa at 10:47 AM on August 28, 2018