August 4, 2004
"A Race to the Fossa"
by Lynda Warrington

We had just finished checking our trap line up in a fragment of the forest and were walking back across the savannah when the radio crackled to life. Another team had found something in one of their traps. We waited with bated breath. The call came: “Fossa, we have a fossa”, and the race was on! We were about an hour’s walk away from camp. Once the fossa had been darted and anaesthetized it would be taken to camp for about half an hour while it was weighed and measured. If we were going to see it we would have to be quick. I think we set a new record. But we made it, arriving back at camp a few minutes before the fossa was carried in. And never have I rushed for a better reason. I am now among the privileged few that have seen and touched one of these magnificent animals!