Day 2: Mantadia National Park

Macro lenses this morning after a bumpy ride into the heart of Mantadia Rain Forest.  Our local guide and Solofo walked with us through the forest looking especially for the giraffe beetle.  Amazingly rare, they only eat the leaves of one species of tree and are only found in this tiny area of the park. However, we were so sidetracked by other insects including butterflies and gold metallic beetles that our guides went on their own to search.  After considerable effort on their part, they returned with a male giraffe beetle.  Blood red with a black, segmented neck, he walked around on the top of a leaf cluster as we took turns photographing him.  We each got great chances before he opened his wings and flew away.

We got home in time for a late lunch and a rest before going into the forest again in search of Madagascar tree boas.  Wait till you see the pictures of what we found.  The dark green boa was eight feet long; coiled at the top of a dead tree.   Then it was time for a quick trip to Lemur Island for some wide angle close ups of the habituated lemurs.  No rest….off to another night walk in the old growth forest where we found four new frog species, a great leaf-tailed gecko, and the coolest elephant-eared chameleon.  They were all very patient with our photography.  People are really getting the hang of macro photography at night!

Day 3: Indri Indri

Today we went to the Indri Indri forest.  Before we even got to the forest, William had a giant Parson’s chameleon for us.  A half-hour into the forest trek, we were surrounded by a troop of golden diadem sifaka lemurs.  The black faces surrounded by a white ring with a brilliant golden body; these are some of my favorite lemurs.  Having them feeding all around us before disappearing into the forest was a gift!  The haunting calls of the Indri Indri echoed through the valley.  There were at least five groups calling.  The family we found was really high in the trees.  They were feeding and in no mood to come down for photos.  Two tourist groups joined us as the word went out that a troop had been sighted.  They craned their necks, made their way around the trees, pointed to the lemurs, waiting for them to come down.  We gave them a couple of minutes and climbed out of the valley to the main path.  As soon as we got situated and ready to move along, all three Indri Indri came leaping through the trees and out into the clear for an amazing ten minutes of photography!  We were a bunch of happy photographers as we hiked back to the cars, went to lunch and drove  across the mountains to the coast.  Here we were picked by boat and whisked across the Twin Lakes to our next stop on the tour.