The Analamazaotra Special Reserve which we visited on this day is a part of the Andasibe-Mantadia National Park. This reserve is located practically right next to the main road in the east part of Madagascar (RN2) and it covers the surface area of 8 square kilometres. The other part, the Mantadia National Park, is located some 20 km farther and it covers the surface area of 155 square kilometres, but for my friend Sneža and I the visit to the Analamazaotra Special Reserve was more than enough and quite satisfactory.
Following Selena, our guide, we walked around the rainforest of this reserve for around four hours primarily looking for lemurs.
After we had first heard the lemurs called the indri and after we had seen the diademed sifakas, we finally managed to get to a group of indris.
A couple of indris in the treetops
The indri lemurs (Indri indri) are the biggest living lemurs on Madagascar. Moreover, they are endemic right in this region (east of the capital Antananarivo). They can grow up to around 70 cm in height and can weigh up to 10 kg. Also, they are the noisiest and in the last sequel of my story about the travel to Madagascar I also posted a video in which one can hear the indri’s call more than clearly.
Indri
As opposed to other lemurs, indris do not have a tail, but rather only a small stump. This can be seen quite well in the following two photos.
Indri and its tail
Indri and its tail
Nevertheless, they are very skilful and fast climbers and also with a jump they can cover distances of up to 10 m while catching the branch they are landing on quite well and safely.
Indri holding on to a tree
Indris are the only monogamous lemur species: if one partner dies, the other one will remain single until the rest of its days taking care of the issue. Like all the lemurs, indris are also very social.
A couple of indris foraging in the treetop
I would only like to add that when they straighten, i.e., with legs fully extended, indris can be up to 120 cm long.
Here is a short video about our “encounter” with indris.
We went for this walk around the rainforest of the Analamazaotra Special Reserve alone with our guide. Unfortunately, right at the time when we found these indris, a large group of tourists appeared. Oh, how I missed those numerous moments when we visited different places, especially nature, all by ourselves.
In this group there were a lot of idiots who simply preferred to speak all the time, often chatting loudly as if they were having coffee and hanging around with friends, rather than being aware they were in a rainforest where they came to watch some rare animals in their natural habitat. Also, some of them liked to “imitate” the sounds they heard in the nature, while others laughed at such a “fantastic” feat... In other words, they preferred to do all the things that disturbed the nature, its beauty and harmony. In my experience, this is not a rare phenomenon. Unfortunately. I wrote about such examples when I was visiting Machu Picchu and when most of the visitors who came there at dawn waited in peace and quiet for the Sun to rise, while others did not. I’m also sure that this is a regular occurrence in other places as well where the very place, the moment or the situation crave for peace, silence and the taking in of the impressions. I honestly do not understand at all why such people travel, most often very far, when they do not have the basic awareness of how to behave appropriately and they obviously do not care at all about what they have allegedly come there to see. Awful!
In any case, we soon went further on our way with Selena. By the way, the guides who work here are in constant contact amongst themselves by using mobile phones, so they inform one another in which part of the forest they came across animals and then everybody can take their group to the right place in order to see the animals.
After a while, Selena again found for us diademed sifakas (Propithecus diadema) in the forest. In the following photo it can be seen nicely why these sifakas got their name. Specifically, they have a black patch on the top of their head which is reminiscent of a diadem.
Diademed sifakas
Diademed sifaka
Here I also made a short video recording, but unfortunately in the meantime the infamous group of tourists had caught up with us, so the recording shows their continuous buzz and chatting.
Then we separated again from these highly annoying visitors and continued with our walk around the rainforest. As I’ve already mentioned, along the way one can notice a whole multitude of different plant and animal species and I will show again a picture of one gigantic snail – its length was around 9cm.
At least with the snail it’s not a problem that it moves too fast
Then we came to the Green Lake (Lac Vert) where we could see a couple of bird species as well.
Green Lake
Common moorhen (Gallinula chloropus), an adult with little chicks
Madagascan grebe (Tachybaptus pelzelnii)
We also passed by lush bushes of some beautifully smelling flowers and there I took photo of a lined day gecko (Phelsuma lineata).
Lined day gecko
And thus, the four hours of our walking around the rainforest were over and it was all truly very interesting and educational. Selena brought us back to the information centre in order to have a look at an exhibit there, but before entering, I noticed a little higher up, close to the door, a beam and there a nest and a small bird in it. It made some sounds and thanks to that I actually noticed it. I stopped there to take a few photos, but at that moment the loud group of visitors came. They also noticed the bird which was somehow jumping over its nest and then the guide of that group took a chair, climbed up, caught the bird, which first shocked me incredibly, but then I saw what it was about. Namely, one of the bird’s legs was tied to the nest by a short piece of thread and it could actually not fly away from there, it just kept attempting to do that. That was the real utter shock for me! Then that guide took off that thread/thin rope and released the bird (finally I can say something nice related to that entire group).
Regardless of all the praises I can say about the national parks, the work and the efforts to save the plants and animals, primarily those that are endangered, to stabilise their numbers and increase them over time, I’m afraid that the local business seems to be the most important one. This bird certainly did not tie itself to the nest. What I can presume is that the management or at least some of the guides tied it there like that in order for the visitors to be more content because they have this opportunity to take photos of animals all over the place. And, when the visitors are satisfied, then the tipping will be smoother. (Giving tips to guides is practically mandatory here, while the amount of the tip is the matter of personal affinity.)
This whole scene just spoiled the entire experience for me, but ... that’s also life and reality.
In line with that, we went to a restaurant for visitors not too far away where we had lunch. As the restaurant is located right next to the rainforest, even during lunch we could hear different birds, as well as the sounds of other dwellers of the rainforest, while for a while we were kept company by yet another lined day gecko.
Lined day gecko
For the afternoon, our plan was to visit a local private reserve that was said to be rather good, but as it turned out it was closed for renovation at the time of our visit. For this reason, Rija recommended that we went to the Association Mitsinjo, a local organisation that was founded in village Andasibe in 1999. Namely, tourism is the main source of income here and for this reason a lot of local residents, including women, work as guides and this association has in fact been founded by local guides. The association manages the Mitsinjo Park which is across the road from the Analamazaotra Special Reserve. Our guide was again Selena.
Thus, she first took us to see the common brown lemur (Eulemur fulvus). We got off a narrow, treaded path and went a little deeper into the forest and there Selena started to produce very specific sounds. She told us this was an imitation of the sounds produced by lemurs when they want to get together and be social, and she also told us it had taken her some ten years to perfect those sounds. Be as it may, the lemurs did gather in our vicinity.
Common brown lemur
Common brown lemur
Common brown lemur
Common brown lemur
Of course, I made a video recording here as well and there it is possible to hear Selena standing to my side and calling the lemurs.
At some point during the video, it is possible to hear the distant horn of a train. There is a railway network on Madagascar, but the train transportation is recommended just as a good fun – in terms that it could be tried if one has nothing better to do, since the time table is practically non-existent, while the times of the departure, the duration of the journey and the arrival are completely unreliable. On the other hand, I spoke with Rija about the problem related to the burdening of the road with cargo trucks since RN2 connects the capital of Madagascar and their biggest port – city Toamasina. However, as Rija told me, the problem is that unreliability linked to the times and the duration of the transport, on top of which the railroads are very old, so I presume it is also not too safe since trains may easily derail. Be as it may, during our stay on Madagascar we did see the railroads and even heard the trains, but we never saw them.
After some time spent in the company of common brown lemurs, Selena took us to a tucked-away clearing where we searched for half an hour, eventually unsuccessfully, for a local chameleon which apparently has a habit of spending its days there. Despite this failure, I did not mind the experience at all – it was very interesting trying to discern something small and green in the rainforest with so many green hues. A good exercise in patience and eye concentration.
Since I’m mentioning rainforest, let me say that I did not notice a lot of old, i.e., thick trees, but there were very interesting details – for instance, relatively often we saw what is shown in the photo below: a liana that creates very peculiar shapes.
Liana
And then we came to a part of the forest where there were some older trees, too. At some point, Selena drew our attention to yet another resident of this forest. It took me a while to see it because it was rather far, but when I finally did I also managed to take a photo. This was a Madagascar buzzard.
Madagascar buzzard
Soon we also came to a section where we left the walking path again and entered deeper into the forest, while also climbing uphill between trees. Thus we came to a place from which we could see a couple of gray bamboo lemurs (Hapalemur griseus). They are certainly smaller than the lemurs we had seen earlier that day, so it was equally more difficult to pinpoint them within dense treetops.
Gray bamboo lemur
While we were going along and outside the formal paths following Selena as our guide, from time to time we kept coming across a local man whom Selena regularly greeted and every time they exchanged a few words in Malagasy. And then we saw him coming from the direction of a smaller clearing, so when we got there, Selena saw a chameleon on a large shrub. I must admit that this all seemed quite fishy to me – to this very day I am convinced that the man we met occasionally in the middle of the rainforest actually brought the chameleon and put it there right on the spot where we could approach it and see it.
Such uncommon suspiciousness of mine was caused by the fact that in the end we managed to find a tiny little chameleon in an almost perfect spot in the middle of a large rainforest. I remembered the tied little bird, as well as Selena’s skill in imitating the voices of lemurs and I wondered whether the guides here feed them when there are no visitors in order to attract them additionally and get them accustomed to human presence. On the other hand, with the exception of the situation about the little bird, which keeps horrifying me, I must admit that I did not particularly mind the rest of it; I just find it a little dodgy. After all, I did go there in order to see and take photos of the animals.
In line with that, here are a few photos of that lonely chameleon:
Chameleon
Chameleon
Chameleon
Chameleon
Chameleon
After this we continued with our walk and Selena was mostly looking towards the treetops trying to spot some more lemurs. I was looking a little up, a little sideways, a little down and then at one moment, literally right next to the narrow path we were following, I saw a coiled – boa! I was delighted. Perhaps all that staring around the rainforest earlier that day in an attempt to discern something in the multitude of branches and leaves led to the sharpening of my explorer’s sight.
Boa by the path
Regardless of the diversity of the living beings that call Madagascar their only home, it is interesting that among over 80 species of snakes, there are no poisonous ones, at least not overtly poisonous and dangerous for humans.
As for the snakes from the Boidae family, there are three species living on Madagascar and they are all endemic, but I have no clue which species this one was. Needless to say, we did not touch this boa and I only slowly put my foot next to it in order to take a photo so that I would have a reference object in relation to the size of the snake.
The reference foot and the boa
Although we managed to see very briefly and not too well a couple of indris and we also heard and saw some local parrots high up in the treetops, with this our visiting of the rainforests in eastern Madagascar was over. I was exceptionally content both with what I had seen and with the fact that despite the forecasts we did not have a single drop of rain during our rainforest walks.
In this way, as he was taking us back to the hotel, I had the material to joke with Rija, our driver, again, saying that there is no rain where Sneža and I tread. During this short drive, there was a van in front of us which served as public transportation. Yes, I was indeed very content both with our entire day, as well as with our overall journey and our selection of the means of transportation for that journey.
Public transportation on Madagascar can be like this as well