I have the feeling that when it comes down to animals we are always lucky. Even here in Madagascar, where luck was lost on our route, we get to see nature at its best. Freddy has found us a guide for the Ranomafana National Park. Guides are compulsory in every park in Madagascar and Emile will be ours for the visit. You can not be luckier than with Emile: he is very knowledgeable as he has been a guide for many years and more so, he works with research teams. Emile was even present when they discovered that the very rare golden bamboo lemur had its home here. This lemur and the greater bamboo lemur were the reason why the national park came into being in 1986.
With Emile, showing us the frog species he discovered, the
Anodonthyla Emilei, that was named after him
As assistant-guide Emile ‘s son William spots animals ahead of us. I tell you, we were part of the winning team that day! We have not only seen the rare golden bamboo lemur but also the even more rare greater bamboo lemur. We actually barely stood one meter or so of it. In five to ten years time they believe that the greater bamboo lemur will be extinct. At the moment only ten of them remain in the park.
It was animal luck without ending that day. Loads of different kinds of lemur showed us their cute faces, we saw two kinds of leaf tail geckos, the tiniest chameleon of the forest and frogs. Now you might think that a gecko is a gecko, but no, these are super special and mega hard to spot. Kosta and I tried to spot one of the geckos but even with knowing where it should be, we couldn’t see it! William found the camouflage animal, and even Emile had to look very closely before he saw it. Nature surely is amazing! To show you how lucky we were: Kosta asked Emile about the smallest chameleon ever he had seen on a national geographic documentary. And yes they live here confirms Emile, but unfortunately they are so hard to find, just because they are so tiny. 5 minutes later we are staring at one!
Here some pics of our trip. Some of the animals are obvious, with others you might have to look twice. : )
In the category hard to spot we have:
Leaf tail gecko
Another kind of leaf tail gecko
A frog
The smallest chameleon
Spider killed by another one that spitted venom over it
and sucked all the fluids out. Nice. LOL
And then the bit more obvious:
Cuddly lemurs
Another kind : )
No idea of the name of this lemur : )
The very rare greater bamboo lemur eating… bamboo
The rare golden bamboo lemur
The rare great bamboo lemur
And the very rare red chested Belgian blondy
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