Every animal has a distance that it will allow people to approach before it gets uncomfortable, and it’s both good etiquette and better for wildlife viewing when that limit isn’t exceeded. The first lemurs today were the uber-pretty sifakas, and based on our experience they require about four feet of personal space. Maybe less. While moving slowly to photograph one from thirty feet away, two more climbed down the tree next to me and started eating leaves; I am going to like Madagascar a lot.
The good karma on this trip continues. The haunting call of the indri lemur (best comparison: imagine a humpback whale’s song, but in a forest) was echoing through the trees when we picked up our park entry permit, and we then embarked on a bone-rattling drive into Mantadia National Park. The drive was followed by a hike, which began with a significant amount of time walking around while the animals hid, but then the long dry spell was abruptly ended with a magical moment. The sifakas suddenly appeared right next to the trail, with a black-and-white ruffed lemur above, and a group of indris leaping through the trees a short time later. Audrey was spellbound as the tiny beasts sprang thirty feet through the air from tree to tree to tree – given the dense brush and uneven ground, had they wanted to they could have left us completely in about five jumps, but instead they chose to munch leaves next to us. Happiness was abounding.
All told we found five species of lemur today during a morning hike in Mantadia and an afternoon hike in Andasibe (bamboo, black-and-white ruffed, sifaka, indri, wooly). Not bad for the first full day in Madagascar – 27 more to go.
