5 different species of lemur during our forest hike yesterday and then an extra one at night. That’s pretty good we’re told to get five. For the record they were the Golden Bamboo, Red Fronted Brown, Red Bellied, Sportif and the Greater Golden Bamboo. Of course being high in the trees as they are the camera fails to match what the eye can see and the hike ends with 300 shots of dark shapes against sky spreckled through the forest canopy.
Then there’s geckos, chameleons, spiders and aye aye to fill your lens when the lemur shy away. Oh and the night species? That was a mouse lemur. Then down the road to another park to see the ring tailed lemurs, an abundance of them.
Very reminiscent of the forest walks to see gorillas in Rwanda or howler monkeys in the Amazon, you feel pretty privileged to be here and given the forests of Madagascar have taken such a beating as the burgeoning rural population tries to feed itself through cultivation, you do wonder how much longer the famed biodiversity of this island has to go. Certainly National Park fees are supposed to go in large part to sustain the forest tribes who used to inhabit these parts but no longer can because they’ve been so pared back. But as with many things with governments that are the product of coup d’etats, the poor are left to bite the dust. Until the next revolution that is.
You can check out the photo gallery here
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