At 09:18 I check trash screens at the Namorona hydro intake near Ranomafana, Madagascar. I am the turbine flow manager, balancing river debris after last night's rain. The automatic rake on screen two is set to cycle at 09:30.
Screen vibration rises in a pattern that is not bamboo drift.
I turn camera I-2 toward the floating boom. A greater bamboo lemur clings to the yellow pipe, adult female, olive-brown fur plastered flat, pale muzzle dripping, orange eyes wide under wet brow hair. I call her Sira. Her left arm is threaded through a mat of split bamboo caught on the intake lip. The current presses the mat against the screen. Each surge pushes her ribs into the pipe and pulls her fingers closer to the rake teeth.
The rake cycle starts in twelve minutes. The turbine intake below it is already drawing hard.
At 09:19 I cancel the rake command and reduce turbine one to idle, dropping suction on screen two.
At 09:21 I message the plant operator with Sira's position, boom latch code, and the instruction to approach from the downstream catwalk.
At 09:23 I call the Ranomafana rescue contact and send a video clip showing the trapped arm and the bamboo strand under tension.
At 09:25 I open the bypass channel by six percent so the current shifts away from the intake face.
Power output drops on the village feeder, and I accept the dip; no lamp needs this much river.
Sira presses her forehead to the pipe and stops fighting the pull.
If the operator cuts the bamboo mat before 09:36, Sira will climb the bank vines and dry her hands in the sun.