MAFIA ISLAND MARINE PARK
 
OTHER WILDLIFE:

Some years ago I put my right hand down beside a chair I was sitting on and quite accidentally grasped a fruit but that had taken sanctuary in the dark confines of the cushion. I don't know who was more startled for I had been brought up on the misplaced western belief that all bats are malignant.

The bat fled and , like a trapped bird, flapped noisily around the room until it found a window to escape. My reaction to this chance encounter was how amazingly soft it felt. Since then I have been fascinated by these animals, although I must confess that ingrained fear still inhibits me during inadvertent encounters.

Those who deliberately handle bats grow to appreciate their cleanliness and the intricateness of the ears that allows many species to locate and capture their prey in total darkness. The bats' clicks or bleeps bounce off the intended victim like radar allowing them to home in on the victim.

The bat is both the transmitter of impulses and the receiver. The outer ears are the amplifiers, the inner ears the receiver and booster. The brain acts like a computer transmitting the information to the body.

The call of bats is frequently above the range of human hearing. Most people hear at about 20 vibrations a second; bats can emit sounds at 230,000 vibrations a second shortening their calls when nearing their prey while making adjustments for the intended victim's evasive tactics.

Bats obtain different information through different calls. A steady call allows them to estimate the victim's speed and direction. They may use frequency modulation or change of pitch with the brain interpreting the heading and range; they may use harmonic calls or raise the pitch of the call thereby sacrificing their range of 10 metres on the intended prey.

I had heard from a friend in northern Tanzania about the Pemba Island Flying Fox. For some time I was mystified: a fox that could fly? It was only after my visit to Chole Island just off Mafia that I realised that the Pemba Island Flying Fox was in fact a bat related to Mafia's Comores Lesser Flying Fox!

Both species like moist tropical islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. They are vegetarians, eating fruits and flowers(not humans as I had been told) and are endangered because of habitat loss. They weigh 400 to 650 grams and are identifiable by their large dark wings, yellowish and red heads and fox-like pointed faces.

During the day, some of the Chole bats fall to the ground from their perches. They make short daytime flights around four or five tall trees where they roost, hanging upside down with wings folded. Those in trees emit quarrelsome screams and harsh sounds as the arrivals flop somewhat clumsily onto branches.

The bats roost in large trees, usually in vast colonies restricted to oceanic islands. Chole Island is the best place to witness as many as 1,200 Comores Lesser Flying Foxes leaving their roost at dusk to fly across Chole Bay for their nightly feed on Mafia Island.

Through sight and smell they locate ripe fruit. Then, rather like monkeys, they consume only the juice of the fruit and the seeds before discarding the remainder. Such consumption of bananas, mangoes and oranges made them unpopular locally. But their role in pollination, distributing seeds and as a tourist lure has now been recognised.

Today the only danger to the Comores Lesser Flying Fox comes from the fish angle, snakes, disease and the weather, although on Pemba the flying foxes are also consumed by local people.

Up to 40 hippopotamus live in the freshwater ponds at Chunguruma, Kirongwe and Baleni. They are thought to have been swept across from the Rufiji delta during a storm and are today causing conflict with local communities. 

Duiker, monkeys, bush-pigs, mongooses and elephant shrews also exist as does an endemic toad.

Mafia has the largest, shiny-black millipedes (colloquially known as "Tanganyika Trains") that I can recall seeing. They are harmless scavengers that gather around buildings at night, and are like large caterpillars. They curl up into tight rings when disturbed .

Mafia rains, as do those elsewhere in Africa, brings a number of butterflies. Among these is the citrus swallowtail that is tail-less. It is blackish in colour, heavily spotted and dusted with yellow with orange and blue eyespots on the rear wing.

More than the 116 species of birds have been seen and identified at Mafia Island. Among these not shown as having been sighted at Mafia is the African pygmy goose that I saw.

PARK REGULATIONS:

The list of permitted and prohibited activities in Mafia Island Marine Park covers the extraction of living and no-living resources, construction, tourist activity, net sport and octopus fishing, coral mining, mangrove and other forest harvesting, brick and salt making, construction and research. Fuller details are contained in the parks general management plan. 

* Sports fishing is prohibited in core and specified-use zones
* Sport fishing licenses are necessary
* Sports fishers are required to release all fish not exceeding specified weights to ensure reproduction of the species
* Octopus fishing in core zones is prohibited
* The warden of the park may require sport fishers to accommodate a marine park observer on their boats and cover the costs of this person
* Spear-guns and harpoons are prohibited
* Jet-skiing is prohibited
* Sea-planes are prohibited
* Trawling is prohibited
* The use of specified nets is prohibited
* The killing of dugong or turtles, whether accidental or deliberate, and removal of turtle egg is prohibited
* The dumping of solid waste, untreated wastewater, sewage or chemically polluted water or liquid is prohibited
* The use of SCUBA to collect marine organisms except for research is prohibited
* Scientific research is regulated by a permit issued by the warden 

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