Madagascar II: Lemuriformes

Here it is!

Note: please do not be daunted by the scientific names, it's not as bad as it looks. It is fine to ignore all of them.

So I stayed in a hut out of my backpack for 8 months. I used a mosquito net the entire time against the mosquitoes that came over from the village behind us (interestingly, the mosquitoes were far more numerous closer to human habitation than the primary forest, which I think says a lot). The huts were on stilts so everything didn't flood every spring tide. This meant that chickens annoyingly came running under the hut in the morning, and sometimes cats fighting under them at night. At the beginning of the wet season (winter/spring in the northern hemisphere, only two seasons because of the proximity to the equator), the frogs behind camp were calling at a deafening level, you'd wake up at night and be confused at what was so loud. Sometimes the village had three day long parties with extremely loud music accompanied by generators, thankfully these were not too often. All this was occasionally accompanied by the screams of lemurs from the forest, especially on full moon nights.

Lemurs are a group of prosimians (before primates) endemic to Madagascar named for their ghostly screams. There are over 108 species of lemur and all of them are very localised in their ranges and habitat types. There are also 19 discovered species of extinct lemurs that were probably hunted to extinction or ran out of forest, all of them bigger than the extant lemurs. There are a few main groups of lemurs, each quite unique: the "normal" widely known lemurs including the Ring-tailed Lemur (Lemur catta), ruffed lemurs (genus Varecia), "true" lemurs (genus Eulemur) and the bamboo lemurs (genera Hapalemur and Prolemur) that feed almost only on bamboo; the (really) tiny mouse lemurs (genus Microcebus); the devilish nocturnal sportive lemurs (genus Lepilemur); the hopping sifakas (genus Propithecus); the large Indri (Indri indri) with a stub-like tails; and the very curious nocturnal Aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) which fills the role of the woodpecker with their highly unusual middle finger; among others. Lemurs are predated upon by the Fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox), certain mongooses and civet-like animals, and some birds of prey. All lemurs are in high danger of extinction because of deforestation, only around 90% of Madagascar's original forest remains for these highly forest dependent animals.

There are three species of lemurs on Nosy Be, all of them restricted to Lokobe and the areas surrounding it. The Claire's Mouse Lemur (Microcebus mamiratra), the Hawks' Sportive Lemur (Lepilemur tymerlachsoni), and the Black Lemur (Eulemur macaco). The Black Lemur is the only one active during the day as well, which means they are cathemeral. Black Lemurs are also found in the forest near the coast on the mainland.

Two females with a male infant

Only male Black Lemurs are black, the females are red-brown with white ear tufts, they form groups and move through the trees looking for fruit. During the time I was there, it was their birthing season, so I got to see the tiny baby lemurs clinging to their mothers bellies and grow out to scampering through the branches themselves.We got used to spotting and counting them during a project on their group composition by Nicky Stegenga, one of the staff members. It was fun trying to identify whether the infants were male or female from the white tufts of their tiny heads poking out, Nicky was great at this (she'd had earlier practice in Madagascar).They loved the mangoes and jackfruit, among the native fruit growing there. Their home ranges were being heavily constricted by the deforestation near the village and were usually much higher in primary forest. Due to the tourism near the larger village Ampasipohy, the lemurs in the forest near there came much lower to the ground than they normally would, which is not good. Black Lemurs are sometimes quite active at night as well (on brightly moonlit ones), which is unusual for the larger lemurs.

Troop with a female infant

Digging in to jackfruit

On the move

Poor guy was caught out during the day

The sportive lemurs are very screechy, sounding like birds in the forest. They have a very obvious eye-shine when you shine a torch at them. They aren't too shy, probably because they can't go higher in degraded forest, where we saw them more often. In the day they sleep in tree holes, of which there is a shortage away from primary forest. We saw a few low to the ground in the day nearer to camp because of this. They have strong stomachs and mainly eat leaves.

There's the eye shine

Peeking out from his tree hole

Those are the small, palm-sized banana

Mouse lemurs are very cute. They are tiny and have huge eyes, which also shone in torchlight. They were quite a bit rarer than the sportives, and we saw them in degraded more too. Usually they were very skittish and scampered away after a quick look but other times they just stayed in one place for a while, which was great. They eat small animals and plant parts as well, including nectar.

I presume he was there for the nectar, or the insects coming to it

He's got eye-shine too! And really cool feet

On the nearby island of Tanikely, a marine reserve with beautiful coral reefs, there were also Common Brown Lemurs (Eulemur fulvus). Introduced in other locations as well, there was one troop on the tiny island. They are normally residents of both coasts of Northern Madagascar. They are frugivorous, like the Black Lemurs.

Just sitting in a mango tree, very used to humans

This is a Common Indian Civet (Viverricula indica), an unintentionally introduced small carnivore that has adapted very well all across Madagascar. Animals like these are not good, because they take prey opportunities away from other animals and also prey on the endangered species themselves. I know it isn't a good photo, but I've put it up for the sake of showing it was there. I saw this one in primary forest, away from habitation, which is a bad sign.

That's it for now, I'll get another one up soon!

Crossing the quite gross mangrove river that rises with the tide on the way back from Lokobe in the distance

Madagascar I: Setting

So!

A lovely sunset from the bench just outside camp, those are the village boats

I'm finally doing something with these photos I have. Organising them was a chore, but I got it done. As you may know, I spent Sep. 2014 - Apr. 2015 in the village of Ambalahonko, Nosy Be, Madagascar. It is right outside the buffer zone (not reserve but still semi-protected) of the Lokobe Special Reserve. It is comparatively a tiny reserve, a little over 740 hectares, on the southeastern tip of the island, and the only remaining protected area of Sambirano rainforest. Our village was inaccessible by road, so people who wanted to go into town for snacks and internet took the village boat into town. The camp was literally on the beach, our floor being sand. On really high spring tides, we had to wade through knee high water, our huts were on stilts so no worries there.

My home for the last three months of my stay

Lokobe - untouched

During my first 20 weeks I was a volunteer and helped the staff members with collecting data (reptiles, birds, butterflies, lemurs, and sometimes amphibians) and their personal projects. The days we went close to the edge of Lokobe were usually the most interesting, especially at night. The level of forest degradation was painfully visible as we came back to camp. Reptiles were the main attraction, although I had a special fascination with invertebrates, and especially caterpillars, moths, and spiders. I made it a point to go on (almost)  all the walks, and being tired was worth it. After those 20 weeks I applied to be a staff member and got the position. I could then lead walks and was collecting data myself. I also conducted a personal project on the diversity of soil invertebrates. Some of those tiny things were really interesting, especially the pseudoscorpions (pretty much scorpions without tails). It was great knowing the forest so well after a while, and I became quite good at spotting things. I also assisted in the capture of the first Pseudoxyrhopus quinquelineatus specimen from Nosy Be, and captured an unidentified species of Madascincus skink.

Didn't cut my hair so I looked like a crazy beach bum, not that I mind. Yes, I will be using scientific names for reptiles and amphibians, because I don't know the common names. Not for the birds and lemurs though. 

My last Madagascar sunrise, that is mainland Madagascar in the distance

More to come!