Thoughts From A Lemur Park

As I write this blog I am starting a new chapter in my Madagascan journey and the last one has come to a magnificent close. I am currently writing from a children’s residential centre called Akany Avoko in Antananarivo, I will write the next blog all about them and what they do so for now just know that this is where I will be volunteering for the next two months while we wait for our paperwork to come through. The organisation has a mandate which includes the extension of help and support to other children’s charities and for them that means doing everything they can to help me acclimatise to Madagascar, pick up my French, get experience with the legal system and shadow the social workers- they couldn’t have been more helpful.

But this also means that I am flying solo again in Tana. Antoine left tonight and I am so sad about it, he has been a huge support to me at this transition period of my life and has not only made the work progress and boosted my confidence but he has made these three weeks some of the most fun I can remember. We flew back from Diego Suarez on Friday (no, I don’t regret the taxi brousse but I am also not in a hurry to repeat the process) and got to Tana in the early evening, once again taking refuge in Sakamanga (who, by the way, are putting in a pool). We went for dinner at a tres tres posh restaurant called ‘Le Bee’ (probably not spelled correctly) which was very good but like the price of some monthly salaries here. Then we made an expensive decision that turned out to be so so worth it- we hired a taxi for the whole of the next day. The cost of this was 100,000 Ariary (35 Euros) plus gas. We would never have done this had it not been for the fact that we were visiting out friend Lalasoa at her home (roughly 45mins outside Tana)  for a meeting and for Antoine to say goodbye, I was moving to Akany Avoko (about an hour out) and Antoine was going to the airport (another hour or so out) so all this together would have cost more and been a bigger hassle than hiring it out for the day… but this meant they were at our disposal for the afternoon and that meant… LEMUR PARK!

The lemur park is about an hour outside Tana (with traffic) and just past Lalasoa’s house so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to visit and for Antoine and I to have a nice goodbye. Those of you who know me will know my love of animals but zoos and I have always had a rocky relationship, depending on their set up and species they can make me sad, so I was a little trepidatious about this visit, but I needn’t have been.

All of the lemurs in the park are rehabilitated, mostly from being pets or side-shows, and they are kept in a large enclosure called the ‘rehabilitation area’ for a few weeks before being released into the park and allowed to socialise or find territory. The park is simple bordered by water on one side and a low wall on the other so sometimes the lemurs leave the park but the always come back of their own accord to be fed and find their group. The only exception to this are the two nocturnal species, who are kept in indoor enclosures for their own comfort. The park is also home to chameleons and iguanas as well as acting as a botanical garden and boasting hundreds of species of indigenous and endemic plant species. The entry to the park was Ar20,000 (7 euros) and we got an English speaking guide to show us around on a tour which took just over an hour.

Our guide at the park!

The decent into the park was magical as we baby baobabs lined the pathways and the mini-baobab sprung like choral from the black rock. The sound of running water echoed in the distance and the cicadas serenaded our arrival. The plants were certainly not what I came for but it is impossible not to be impressed by the outstretched fronds of the Madagascar Palm, the perfect water receptacles that are the ‘Napoleon’s hats’ or the flawless formation of ‘angel wings’. So engrossed was I in the flora that I had to be called back twice to look at our first encounter with the local fauna- a bright green chameleon, female and about the size of my palm her white flanks blinked out at me from the branches. She considered us carefully, raising each hand out cautiously, testing the air and then suddenly her mind was made up and she demonstrated her speed but climbing high out of the reach of our cameras and into the canopy above. Our decent then continued on toward the rumbling of water until its source was revealed.

The Chameleon

A deep red river traversed the land, severing the brilliant green with its rusty progression. The banks are swollen with amber clay and the rains have heightened the vibrancy of the hue. On the banks of this mighty river grow bamboo border where the next protagonist in our journey was to be found. The Coquerel Lemur is a large rusty-black and white Sifaka that, when navigating the land, has to negotiate its disproportionately long limbs by doing a kind of sideways gallop, resulting in a kind of balletic progression which gives them their nickname ‘the dancing lemur’. These, like many other lemurs, mate for life and give birth to single live young once a year who stay with them for the first two years of life. The family group we came across were kind enough not only to pose for pictures but also to give us a display of this remarkable phenomenon by bounding up and down the paths between the bamboo.

Coquerel Lemur

My heaven continued as we passed the Black and White Ruffed lemur; these are also large lemurs with a black and white pattern and distinctive tufts of fur around the face. This older pair had multiple young, a quirk typical of this species that leads them to nest for safety and comfort in twig-based structures in the trees. They paid little attention to us and went about their business amongst the leaves, only pausing for the occasional glance in our direction.

 The Black and White Ruffed Lemur: a glance in our direction

Next came a glimpse of a Mongoose Lemur who was dozing when we arrived at his patch of bamboo but was gracious enough to stretch and rouse himself for a snack soon after we set up camp. This smaller grey lemur has a remarkably long tail that it uses for balance, like all species, but also to store fat for lean times or hibernation periods. Unlike monkeys lemurs do not use their tails as a fifth limb and never use is to hold on to branches and the like.

Mongoose Lemur and his fat storing tail

Moving on we spotted another Sifaka pair and were busy oohing and ahhing over them when the star of the show emerged from the undergrowth. Yes, that’s right the one and only Ring-Tailed Lemur, the image of King Julian who brings smiles to the faces of people around the globe plonked itself right in front of us and prompted squeals of delight from me and made Antoine start sprouting limes about professional whistling and gecko crowns (although he will deny this later). This older male moved smoothly through the trees, however when it moved along the ground it seemed to drag its right side, reminding us that the lemurs here have been rescued from a variety of situations and some of them still bare the scars of they previous lives in this idyllic new one.

The King

By this point I was so excited I was babbling incessantly, calling to mind facts and anecdotes from documentaries and books about Madagascar and it endemic primates. So intensely was I staring into the trees that I almost stepped on this beautiful, petit iguana, which was sunning itself on the path. Aptly named after its who most definitive features this creature goes by either ‘Horny Tailed Iguana’ or ‘Collared Iguana’, this one being a male as it possessed only one stripe on its collar.

Horny Tailed/ Collared Iguana

 The next lemur we were lucky enough to spot is quite rare, even for the park. It was a Lesser Bamboo Lemur with a rusty coat and grey facial markings that give it a permanent look of surprise. Small and cute this character jumps straight off the pages of a book and is shy and retiring,

Lesser Bamboo Lemur

Next came the tortoise pen where rescued tortoises come from near and far. The pen houses three species; the large and indigenous Radiated Tortoise, the smaller Spider Tortoise and the introduced Hinge-Backed species. This was followed by the ‘rehabilitation area’, where another pair of Sifakas were waiting to be allowed to join the parklands. They were being kept company on the other side of the fence by a pair of Common Brown Lemurs in a tree and another Mongoose Lemur who was wandering around on the ground below.

Tortoises

Common Brown Lemur

Our final stop was the nocturnal house where the tiny Grey Mouse Lemur is kept. One individual here was awake and feeding from a bowl of fruit, he looked unsatisfied however and kept glancing up at the roof of the enclosure. That is when I notices a coke bottle with holes in full of crickets sitting on top of the netting; “treats for feeding time” explained the guide, so I promptly turned away tot he next enclosure. This one housed the Fat-Tailed Dwarf Lemurs who were cuddled up into a hollow section of bamboo like cannel cream in a shell, all peering out at me with their curious, searching eyes, designed for spotting prey in the dark.

Grey Mouse Lemur

Fat-Tailed Dwarf Lemurs (there are 3 of them in there)

On our way back to the café and gift shop the last of the 9 species who live here made his appearance. A lone female Black Lemur, maltreated by her owners and aggressive towards humans this stunning loner was being followed by her own keeper who is trying to acclimatise her to the footfall around her territory as well as keeping all visitors at a safe and appropriate distance.

Black lemur, from a distance

This experience was one of my favourite so far and while Antoine bought souvenirs for his nephews and nieces I bought one for myself- a lovely little treat to remind myself of this wonderful experience with Antoine, our guide and the lemurs of the Antananarivo Lemur Park and rehabilitation centre.

NB. All facts given here are from things the guide said and I managed to scribble down into my book so if you happen to be a lemur expert and I am all wrong please leave a comment at the bottom of this post :D