How
we met...
I
have to be grateful to the military service! Yes,
since I was lucky enough to carry it out in the "Terres
Australes et Antarctiques Françaises" on
the archipelago of Crozet, more exactly on the
island of "La Possession". A natural
zoo, the ornithologist's dream ... more on the
following sites ::
http://meekmeek.free.fr/accueil.html :
Crozet 38th mission
http://suivi-animal.u-strasbg.fr/alba.htm :
My scientific research on the Great Albatross
http://www.amapof.com/ :
Animals from the "Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises"
http://crozetvv.free.fr/ :
A virtual tour of Crozet
http://www.taaf.fr/index.htm :
Official website of the "TAAF" (Terres Australes
et Antarctiques Françaises)
A
work in collaboration with the CNRS of Lyon and
the CNRS lab of Chizé, on the thermoregulation
of the king penguin and the metabolism of the great
albatross, occupied me during nearly one year.
And then... after 11 months spent in such a particular
place, the summer campaign starts. It is the moment
when scientists arrive in mass, and the population
of the island doubles and goes over 50 people...
What a crowd ! During transfers of supply from
boat to land, my role was to take down the big
supply cases brought by the helicotper from the
boat (no dock!), and to help the passengers out
of the helicopter... I ended up opening the helicopter
door to Amanda! I was so far from knowing how my
life was going to change with this young lady...
Amanda's
version !
The beginning
of my Ph.D. thesis (http://meekmeek.free.Frscienceacous.HTML:
research theme) was not only the start of enthralling
experiments on acoustic communication in penguins...
It brought me on this lost island of Crozet, where
I found something esle than just birds !
Things happened a little like as in a fairy tale. I left the boat which had
brought us from La Reunion island, to join the base of Crozet by helicopter...
(there is no harbour !) At the landing, the whole base (that actually makes
only one score of people) was there to greet us, since it had been four months
since they last had visitors! Thus the helicopter landed in front of this
line of "polar heroes", all dressed with the same green and black
coat... and the door opened on a young man with troubling eyes... What followed...
we'll keep it to ourselves !
