| Page Views: 718 Last Visit to Madagascar: January, 2004 | Madagascar by janiebaxter - last update: Oct 14, 2007 |
Madagascar broke away from mainland Africa 165 million years ago and drifted out into the Mozambique Channel. It has 3 climate zones – the east has rainforest, the west is temperate and the south is arid. Mammals, reptiles and invertebrates developed into the unique wildlife that Madagascar has today.
Madagascar is paradise for wildlife lovers. There are said to be 200,000 species here, of which over 80% are endemic - Lemurs are the most famous animals but there are also chameleons, frogs, butterflies, birds, snakes, bats and much more - as well as incredible landscapes, Indian Ocean beaches, tropical islands and pristine reefs full of fish.
Outside the rainforest you can see colonial towns, hilltop villages, rice paddies being ploughed by oxen and villages of coloured houses with tin roofs.
After seeing Gorillas, Chimpanzees and Orang Utangs I wanted to travel here to see Lemurs and I wasn't disappointed! We saw 14 different types of Lemur varying in size from the Indrie to the Mouse Lemur. I have seen some lovely animals in my years of travelling but none so cute as the Lemurs. My favourites were the Sifakas, and I just loved to watch them cross the paths, jumping with their arms in the air.
As well as the Lemurs we saw many amazing reptiles - snakes, lizards and frogs and many beautiful birds. In places the wildlife was surprisingly easy to see. November is a good month to visit Madagascar if you want to see Lemurs as babies have been born. It is also very pretty in Antananarivo with the Jacaranda trees in flower.
Berenty Spiny Forest
Berenty is the best place to see Ringtail Lemurs and Verreaux Sifakas, as well as many other species of Lemurs, birds and reptiles. The paths through the reserve are easy to follow without getting lost and you can walk around on your own safely without any worry. Berenty is a very busy reserve and can get quite crowded, so to make sure you see everything you need to spend a minimum of 3 days here. The area surrounding Berenty is taken up by Sisal Plantations. Once you are in the reserve you can't see them. You can visit the sisal plantation and factory as well as the small museum and village.
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|  | Perinet or Mantadia-Andasibe Perinet is the old French name for Analamazaotra, which is part of Mantadia-Andasibe National Park. It has well-maintained, trails and is only 145km east of Antananarivo. It is the most accessible and one of the most visited reserves in Madagascar.
Périnet is a rainforest reserve and the forest canopy is around 30m.
Visitors come here to see two habituated groups of the endangered Indri, the largest surviving lemur – almost everybody sees them. The Indri is about a metre in height and stays high up in the trees leapng 10m from tree to tree. The calls can be heard throughout the rainforest in the early mornings.Indri are monogamous and live in small family groups of up to 6.
There are nine species of lemur in the reserve and you may see Common brown lemur and the Eastern grey bamboo lemur as well as Indrie. On a night walk, you could see Eastern woolly lemur, mouse lemur and dwarf lemur. An aye-aye was also seen here.
The brightly coloured Golden mantella frog, is found here as well as plenty of Tenrecs and Birds. |
Anjajavy
Anjajavy is on a remote peninsula in northwest Madagascar, an area of natural beauty with an unspoilt and beautiful coastline.
There is only one hotel here which is set in tropical gardens facing the Mozambique chanel with a long sandy beach, and is next to a dry deciduous forest.
You can see and hear Madagascar lovebirds flying between the palm trees along with red fodys and yellow Madagascar wagtails as well as groups of common brown lemurs and sifakas in the trees and forest around the hotel.
There are empty beaches and deserted coves, magnificent forest of ebonies, baobabs, palissandre and mangroves, small fishing villages with pirogues on the beaches, lemurs, rare birds, amazing reptiles and the tsingy limestone formations.
You can walk through the mangrove at low tide to the Sakalava fishing villages of Ambondro Ampassy or Anjajavy, or explore the many small private coves with a picnic lunch. There is a marina for watersports - snorkelling, boat trips and windsurfing and the game fishing is superb There are no roads to Anjajavy so you have to fly by small plane.
More about Anjajavy Here
We travelled to Madagascar with UK company and experts on this area Rainbow Tours | | | Coquerel's Sifaka, Anjajavy |
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| Pros: | "Lemurs, Reptiles, Birds in abundance and easy to see" | | Cons: | "Not much English spoken" | | In A Nutshell: | "A Wildlife Paradise" |
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 Comments for janiebaxter about Madagascar | | | | |
SLLiew Mon May 4, 2009 04:56 UTC
Great photos and descriptions of lemurs. Fascinating unique species. Oh...the mozzies. | iris2002 Sat Apr 11, 2009 12:42 UTC
Ohhh my dream destination - cool pics, and I can imagine your love for Africa... ! Easter Greetings ! | Helga67 Wed Jan 14, 2009 09:00 UTC
Wonderful photos of the wildlife. I can't wait to see it myself later this year. Thanks for sharing. | anisah23 Mon Nov 12, 2007 10:12 UTC
GREETINGS FROM MADAGASCAR |
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