This morning’s walk increased my wildlife tally even further, starting with the red-fronted brown lemur:
Swiftly followed by more verreaux sifakas:
And my fave photo of the day:
Numbers of this beautiful species are dwindling. They’re slower than their smaller cousins, so make easier hunting for the fossa. So adapted are they to life in the trees, that when they do venture down to the ground they have to gallop along. This characteristic “dance” is very slow and makes them easy prey.
Tourists drive away the fossa. When we arrived, the sifakas were making a distinctive sound, warning their party that fossa were near so not to go low in the trees. About ten minutes later, the sound stopped – with the arrival of the tourists, the fossa was no longer a threat.
Marcel, our rather excellent guide, told a story about a group of researchers who requested that guides not take tourists to see one particular sifaka family that they were researching, as it was changing their behaviour and so disrupting their study. The guides agreed. Unfortunately, with no tourists, the fossa invaded and the whole sifaka family were killed. No more subjects 🙁
Other notable sightings today included this iguana:
A paradise flycatcher:
A souimanga sunbird and a coquere’s coua:
The crested drongo can imitate other birds’ calls. But it uses it for good, not evil. It protects the eggs of other, smaller birds and will fight larger birds that prey on them. It also provides its weaker cousins with food. By all accounts, it’s a good bird to have around.
Every now and again, we’d stumble across an enormous shell, some wedged within a tree – they’re apparently everywhere during rainy season:
And I was introduced to “Mr Baobab”:
But why do they call it “Mr Baobab”, I hear you ask. I’m not sure, but the bottom of the tree looked like this:
Avenue of the Baobabs is one of the must-sees of Madagascar. Must-sees can sometimes not live up to their hype, especially when it’s simply a line of trees and every photo of it we’d see was the same scene. Happily, it was an unexpectedly magical experience (having low expectations is sometimes a blessing!). Here are the money shots:
Part of the reason it was enjoyable was the lack of crowds:
But judging by the new ticket office being built at one end of the avenue, it won’t be that way for long. And neither will it stay free.
On the journey from Kirindy we’d also stopped at the “sacred” baobab (sacred because it’s apparently over 1,000 years old… even though my reliable guidebook said the oldest baobab had been dated at 900 years!):
And the “lovers’ baobab” (which we saw later had spawned a whole industry dedicated to reproducing it in various materials, mostly to sell to tourists):
We bowled up to the restaurant for a nice, relaxing meal hoping to enjoy the local seafood and calm view of the ocean… just as the karaoke was starting up. The singing was so awful, we politely asked if we could eat in our room. But full marks for dedication and effort (one had even learnt the harmonies to some popular Malagsy ballads).
And, finally, BOTD:
Followed by my bug fascination captured on film:
