Sophie and Frédéric attended the 11th Oppenheimer Research Conference (ORC 2022) in Mirand (South Africa). Sophie presented a poster on her study of the gut microbiota of ant- and termite-eating mammals to understand convergent dietary adaptations. Frédéric's poster presented results from a shallow metagenomic approach on faecal samples for fine-scale diet characterization of myrmecophagous mammals in Tswalu Kalahari and Tussen die Riviere reserves. These studies are conducte

After a three-year hiatus caused by the global COVID pandemic, Sophie and Frédéric returned to Tswalu Kalahari Reserve (South Africa) to conduct a 12 day-long fieldwork session. The aim was to collect fresh hyaena fecal samples for metagenomic sequencing of the gut microbiome to compare with the myrmecophagous aardwolf. Again, Wendy Panaino's field expertise was instrumental to help us collect fresh fecal samples. Because of numerous load-sheddings related to South Africa's m

Frédéric, his wife Nathalie, Rémi and Aude Caizergues (CEFE) conducted a third 10 day-long fieldwork session at Tswalu Kalahari Reserve (South Africa). This year they were joined by collaborators Wendy Panaino and Jessica Briner from the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg) to help collect fresh and dried fecal samples from pangolins and aardvarks. Many thanks again to Duncan MacFadyen, Dylan Smith, and Gus van Dyk for supporting our work in the reserve through the

Frédéric and Rémi conducted a third fieldwork session at Tussen die Riviere Reserve in the Free State province of South Africa with Aude Caizergues (CEFE) and Tshediso Putsane from the Department of Mammalogy of the National Museum of Bloemfontein. This allowed collecting fresh fecal samples from aardwolf for the third year in a row, as well as ants and termites from the reserve to increase our reference database of available preys. #Fieldwork #SouthAfrica #Collaboration #Aar

Frédéric, Lionel, Rémi, Sérgio and Marie-Ka attended the annual meeting of the Center for the study of biodiversity in Amazonia (Labex CEBA) in Cayenne (French Guiana) together with Fabien Condamine and Pierre-Olivier Antoine (ISEM). Frédéric chaired a session on Neotropical Diversification. Before the conference, they spent five days at the Pasteur Institute dissecting roadkill armadillos and anteaters, as well as the giant anteater of the Cayenne Zoo that died earlier that

Frédéric, his wife Nathalie, and Lionel spent another 10 days of fieldwork in the amazing Tswalu Kalahari Reserve (South Africa). The guidance of Wendy Panaino made it possible to collect fresh fecal samples from pangolins, but also to gather an exhaustive collection of ant and termite species from the reserve. Frédéric also took the opportunity to present the ConvergeAnt project to the guides from the Reserve. Many thanks to Duncan MacFadyen, Dylan Smith, and Gus van Dyk for

Frédéric, Lionel and Rachid conducted a new fieldwork session at Tussen die Riviere Reserve in the Free State province of South Africa with Nico Avenant from the National Museum of Bloemfontein. This allowed collecting numerous fecal samples from aardwolf as well as ants and termites from the reserve to constitute a reference database. #Fieldwork #SouthAfrica #Collaboration #Aardwolf #Tussen #Roadkills #Termites #Ants

Frédéric and Marie-Ka attended the annual meeting of the Center for the study of biodiversity in Amazonia (Labex CEBA) in Cayenne (French Guiana) with Andrea Sanchez Meseguer (ISEM). Before the conference, they conducted a roadkill survey along the west part of RN1 towards Saint-Laurent du Maroni and up to Awala-Yalimapo and also collected some termites along the road. They finally had the opportunity to dissect a well conserved specimen of Tamandua tetradactyla at the Pasteu