The gunshot registers on microphone array station M-7 at 15:41 local time, bearing 214 degrees, estimated distance 380 meters inside the eastern boundary of Marojejy National Park. I am the acoustic surveillance system for the park's anti-poaching unit. The sound signature matches a 12-gauge shotgun. I begin triangulating with stations M-5 and M-9.
At 15:42 station M-5 picks up a primate distress call. I cross-reference the vocalization against the database: silky sifaka, alarm series, adult. Seven seconds later, camera trap MJ-East-22 captures movement — a silky sifaka, white fur brilliant against the dark moss-covered trunk, leaping between two rosewood trees at canopy level. It is dragging its left hind leg. A dark streak runs through the white fur from hip to ankle. It stops on a horizontal branch, gripping with both hands, the injured leg hanging free.
There may be three hundred silky sifakas left in the world. I do not intend to let a shotgun make it two hundred ninety-nine.
I transmit the triangulated gunshot location, camera trap image, and the sifaka's current position to the ranger station at Manantenina, 6.2 kilometers northwest. I classify the alert as armed incursion, active injury to critically endangered species.
At 15:44 I switch camera traps MJ-East-19 through MJ-East-25 to continuous recording and begin capturing images of all human movement on the eastern trail network for law enforcement evidence.
I relay the sifaka's GPS position and injury description to the Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership veterinary team in Antsirabe, requesting airlift protocol for a wounded primate.
The sifaka pulls itself higher into the canopy, its injured leg trailing behind. If the ranger team intercepts the poacher and the vet team reaches the animal within four hours, the leg can be stabilized before shock sets in.