Day 9: Palmarium

It was a rainy morning so we had a leisurely breakfast and looked at photos to try for a new perspective with the same subjects.  It cleared enough to get in the boat and head across the lake to where three new black lemurs had been found.  They were more shy, but we got some photos of two of them.  Not as pretty as our family of four had been yesterday. The light was sunny and dappled in the forest so it was tougher to get an even exposure.  However, I may gave one of my best pictures with sun rays falling through the forest and a lovely black lemur hanging with his giant hand swinging freely.   Back in the boat, we made our way to the marsh where the carnivorous plants live.  Whatever the rains have been this year, there were so many of them (two species) and the colors varied from canary yellow to deep mauve.  We walked into the forest and were joined by our family of four Indi indri.  Only two of them came down to see us though.  We did a lot more wide angle shooting to put a forest feel into the photos.

Back for a late lunch and rest before tonight’s Aye Aye hunt. Across the lake and into the forest, but this time with Sally and Lynn, no rain and no wind.  There were six Aye Aye eating the coconuts.  They were all over the place, cracking through the shells like they were made of paper.  The claws were flying in and out of the openings made by their incredibly strong teeth.  The fourth finger is like 8 inches long and is built to reach in and scoop out the white coconut.   We shot for an hour.  My favorite shots included the malevolent face, the teeth and the incredible claws.  Tonight we pack for tomorrow’s trip to Antananarivo.