Be Vewy Vewy Quiet, I'm Hunting Nocturnal Lemurs

After my island time, I hit the road once again, going by ferry, bus, and taxi-brousse to get to Andasibe. That's a few hours east of the capital.

While there, I wanted to see the indri, the largest lemur anywhere. They get up early and hard to find by afternoon, so I planned to get up early and be at the park by 7:30 or so. Alas, it was not to be. My hotel room must have been especially dark, because I woke up certain that it couldn't be dawn yet, when it was really 7:45. I still managed to get to the park at a reasonable time, but it was the same time all the other tourists were getting there. I found a guide and we started hiking, he was clearly annoyed by the crowds too and was trying to edge past any other groups in our path. We found a family of common brown lemurs and then hit the jackpot. Indri!! They are way bigger then I could have imagined , especially considering the thinness of the tree they were sitting in. One of the notable things about the indri is their eerie song, which I'd heard on my walk there, but they only sing for about 5 minutes each per day, only in the mornings. Another guide had a recording of it on his phone and was playing it, trying to get them to join in. They were attentive, and at one point the phone skipped to a song track, completely freaking out the indri. They started jumping around, converging on the same central trunk as if prepared for whatever made that noise to attack. After a few more rounds of recorded indri, they joined in. What was eerie from a distance was, to me, like nail on a blackboard in the middle of it. Everyone else seemed to enjoy it, but it was a bit much and very, VERY loud for me.

After that, we left the trail. The guide said we were taking the "old trail" to get away from the crowds, and it worked since we didn't really see anyone else the rest of the hike. We did see some interesting birds and reptiles. And a clumps of sleeping nocturnal lemurs.

That night I did a night hike with a local community conservation group, Mitsinjo. We were looking for nocturnal lemurs, but I was far less lucky than I was that morning. We wandered around in the dark for over an hour, only managing to locate a sleepy indri (what's he doing up so late anyway?) and an owl doing a lemur impression. You look for lemurs at night by walking around and shining your flashlight in the trees; if there's a lemur there, he'll probably look at you to see where the light is coming from and his eyes will glow back at you, like a cat's. We saw a pair of eyes across a clearing, and the guide said it was a mouse lemur, the smallest species. I asked how he could possibly tell from that distance. We got right under the tree and he says something like, "Well, there it is." I ask if he's sure, because it kind of looks like it could be a bird. He looks again and says that maybe it is a bird. Then it flew away, which definitely answered that question! I think he was afraid I'd be angry not to find anything, but I told him that I paid to look for lemurs, if I want to pay to see lemurs, I'll go to the zoo. No worries.

And that, friends and loyal readers, was my final Madagascan/African adventure. For now. I get on a plane in a few hours to start my journey back home. Thanks for sticking with me. And Africa, stay classy.

Allison