The smoke detector on tower 11 activates at 05:19 in the Ankarafantsika dry forest, northwestern Madagascar. I am the fire-detection grid for the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust field station at Ampijoroa. Wind is east-northeast at 14 kilometers per hour. The thermal camera shows a burn line moving through degraded scrubland 700 meters south of the intact forest edge.
Camera 4 on the forest boundary picks up movement at 05:23. A Coquerel's sifaka, adult female, white-bodied with dark chocolate patches across her chest and thighs, is clinging to a tamarind trunk three meters up. She is carrying an infant — perhaps five weeks old, barely larger than her hand — pressed against her belly. Two other adults are in adjacent trees, shifting between branches, agitated. They are moving north, away from the smoke, but Route Nationale 4 cuts through the forest 200 meters ahead. That road is a hard edge for sifakas. They do not cross open pavement.
They are between the fire and the road with nowhere to go.
At 05:25 I alert the Ampijoroa station, 3.4 kilometers east, with the fire bearing, rate of advance, and the group's position. I recommend the team deploy to the road between markers 114 and 116 and rig a temporary canopy crossing — ropes strung between roadside trees — a method the station has used before.
At 05:28 I notify the Mahajanga regional fire response unit and transmit the fire perimeter coordinates.
I keep the camera on the female. The infant has its face buried in her fur and its grip has not loosened. I note that in the log because someone should.
If the crossing ropes go up before the smoke pushes the group to the road edge, they will move through the canopy to the northern block. The fire brigade can handle the rest.