Photographing Madagascar Lemurs

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Sunday, May 15, 2022 - The plane was 2 hours late arriving, so I did not get to the hotel until 0100 in the morning - up at 0600 to start a day of touring.

The first day in Madagascar was spent in the capital Antananarivo (Tana) - I had arranged to spend the day with a local guide practicing photographing lemurs at a park just 30 minutes out of town appropriately named Lemur Park.

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We started early to avoid the traffic - too early - so we stopped to hike in the rice fields. These are bricks made from mud in the rice fields.
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A woman was performing a curious activity in the rice fields - collecting fish - these small fish are farmed in the same fields as the rice. This was very interesting - as we would have the little fish for dinner that night.
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The Lemur Park opened and we continued on to the lemurs. It was fun as the lemurs are not in cages but are rescues (mainly confiscated or returned pets) who live on a 10 acre park.

This is a Crowned Sifaka lemur - critically endangered. Their group size is between two and eight individuals and contains a balanced number of females and males in each group
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Another Crowned Sifaka hanging on to bamboo and watching people.

The very restricted range and fragmented populations of the Crowned Sifaka are major concerns for the continuation of this species.
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Coquerel's Sifaka lemurs jumping from tree to tree - rather low.
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Then a jump way up - lemurs like to stay in the trees - only a few move on the ground. The Sifaka is one of the few that move about on the ground.

This particular lemur can leap from tree to tree up to 35 feet.
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Coquerel's Sifaka in the trees - I discovered that shooting them in the high branches was challenging as you are looking almost straight up into the bright sky which is, well too bright. I had to maneuver to get a longer range side shot.
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Another discovery - the tails. Lemurs do not use their tails as an arm - just for balance - so often they hang straight down. This makes the picture more difficult if you want to include the tail.
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A Black Lemur family - the male is black and in the back of the group shot. The females are brown - in the front is the mom and younger female.

The black lemur lives in groups of 2 to 15 members, including approximately equal numbers of males and females. The average group size is about 10 lemurs.
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The small female Black Lemur sitting by a tree - I could have watched them all day.
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I was hoping to see chameleons during the visit but Ravo (local guide) said it was getting colder and they would not be out for photographs.

As we were walking along, the park guide spotted this guy - about 50 feet away. There was no easy way to get to him so I had to zoom in - but I was excited to see my first chameleon!!!!
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The Common Brown Lemur is very cute and was a real poser.
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A closeup of the Common Brown Lemur - the fur looks so luscious.
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Cute little brown feet.
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We then ran into a troupe designated as the national symbol of Madagascar - the Ring Tailed Lemur. This one of the species spends a large amount of time on the ground - we would see them in trees down south.
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The Ring-Tailed lemur's trademark - a long, bushy tail - is ringed in alternating black and white transverse bands, numbering 12 or 13 white rings and 13 or 14 black rings, and always ending in a black tip.
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This is another cute trait of the Ring Tailed Lemur - they like to sunbathe - just sitting in the sun like little Zen Masters.
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Ring Tailed jumping along on the ground - this time hopping onto a rock.

It is the most terrestrial of lemur species, spending as much as one-third of its time on the ground.
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Yet another cute fashion habit is to wrap their tail over their shoulder.
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A parting shot at a Coquerel's Sifaka Lemur on the way to the park entrance.
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At the park entrance was a huge Madagascar Golden Orb Weaver spider and even larger spiderweb. Very nice in the light.
madagascar2022 After the Lemur Park we headed to Andasibe. The drive was only 90 miles but the road was terrible taking 4 hours. This was National Highway 2 from the main port of Madagascar to the capital. It was very busy with truck traffic, however, the road was so bad that in places there was no longer asphalt - just a very bumpy dirt road.

The hotel was nice where every room was a bungalow and the beds had mosquito nets - which would be a common feature in the hotels away from the capital.

Here the moon is rising while the sun is still setting so there is some setting sun color in the clouds surrounding the moon.

We had dinner at the hotel - there were only two rooms at the hotel occupied - the owner asked what I wanted for dinner - my guide suggested pork, rice, and the little fish from the rice fields. It was delicious.
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