Land of Lemurs

The great allure of Madagascar is the uniqueness of its wildlife, first and foremost the spectacular variety of the endemic lemurs (see Herrera 2017 for a discussion of their adaptive radiation). On a journey in August 2019, I finally had a chance to encounter these wonderful animals in the wild, in the distressingly few remaining areas of forest.

At one end of the scale is Indri indri, the largest extant lemur (the gorilla sized Archaeoindris being now extinct). At the miniature end of the scale are the charming and tiny mouse lemurs, including the smallest primates on the planet. And then, there are the different styles of locomotion to observe and enjoy, from the ballet-like leaps of the sifakas to the all-fours scampering of the Eulemurs and the scurrying of the mouse lemurs. There is also a prize for weirdness, which goes to the nocturnal aye-aye.

Eight families of lemurs have been recognized, three of which are extinct. Cheirogaleids are the dwarf lemurs, including the smallest known primates. Daubentoniidae is represented by the Aye-aye, the largest nocturnal primate. Indriidae includes the large Indri, the woolly lemurs and the sifakas. The Lemurids include the true lemurs (such as the browns), bamboo lemurs, mongoose lemurs, ruffed lemurs and the famous ring-tails. Family Lepilemuridae comprises the charming sportive lemurs. 

We encountered 21 species on the journey with representatives from each of the extant families.

The main areas visited during the journey are shown below. Long drives between forests on some truly appalling roads were memorable.


Here below is a selection of photographs of lemurs from the journey to illustrate their diversity. Let's start with some mouse lemurs at Berenty and Ankarafantsika.


At night, in a spiky tree, the beautiful grey mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus), Berenty, 10th August 2019


Golden brown mouse lemur (Microcebus ravelobensis), Ankarafantsika, 17th August 2019. What big eyes!


Golden brown mouse lemur, Ankarafantsika


Golden brown mouse lemur, Ankarafantsika



And now, the strangest of all, the nocturnal aye-aye, here on a protected island in the Pangalanes on the east coast of Madagascar. Notice the dramatic long middle finger used to pull grubs out. This is the world's largest nocturnal primate.


Aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis), Pangalanes, 7th August 2019


With those, we've seen the smallest and the strangest of the lemurs. Now here's the largest, the vocal indri.


Here's the largest of the lemurs, Indri indri, caught in the act of singing, an astonishingly intense sound, at Andasibe, 6th August 2019.

Looking up at an indri, at Andasibe, 6th August 2019




Here's an eastern woolly lemur (Avahi laniger) at Andasibe, 6th August 2019


The sifakas with their upright stance on the ground are a delight to watch. Most spectacular are the Verreaux's sifakas at Berenty in the south.


Sifaka ballet, mother and child Verreaux's sifaka (Propithecus verrauxi), at Berenty in the south, 10th August 2019

another Verreaux's sifaka mid air at Berenty, 10th August 2019



The lemurids are very different from the sifakas, running on all fours when they are on the ground.

The all fours gait of brown lemurs on the ground contrasts with the upright sifakas, here seen at Berenty, 10th August 2019


Probably the most well known of the lemurs, the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta), here seen at Berenty in the south, 10th August 2019



Rarely seen mongoose lemurs (Eulemur mongoz), at Ankarafantsika, 18th August 2019


Grey bamboo lemur (Hapalemur griseus) at Andasibe-Mantadia, 6th August 2019



And finally, here's a sportive lemur to represent the lepilemuridae.


Milne-Edwards sportive lemur (Lepilemur edwardsi), at Ankarafantsika, 18th August 2019



Madagascar's natural landscape is being degraded at a very high rate and I recommend a visit sooner rather than later to enjoy these unique animals in the wild.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stone axes from the highlands of Papua New Guinea

Image
The story of first contact in 1933 with the peoples of the central Wahgi Valley in the Papuan highlands is a remarkable one. An unsuspected group of thriving stone-age cultures came to the attention of the outside world when the Leahy brothers first flew over the area and later reached it on foot. Tribal men carried elaborate stone axes and this contact with extant stone-age cultures provided fascinating insights on how their stone tools, such as axes and adzes were hafted. The available evidence was collated in Burton's (1984) Thesis at the Australia National University, on "AXE MAKERS OF THE WAHGI: Pre-colonial industrialists of the Papua New Guinea highlands." I saw a number of these old axes during a visit to the highlands near Mount Hagen in October 2018 (see the Paiya chief photograph below). The area of that journey is shown in the google Earth image shown below. The upper Wahgi River valley with locations of Paiya Village, Mount Giluwe and Mount Hagen t...
Read more

A Merovingian Croix Ancrée Tremissis, Sutton Hoo, and Declining Gold Content in the 7th Century Coinage

Image
In the recent Netflix film "The Dig" there is a scene in which Basil Brown's character shows a small gold coin, known as a tremissis, to Edith Pretty, confirming that the ship burial at Sutton Hoo is of Anglo Saxon age as he had previously suspected. A Merovingian tremissis found in Kent, 10 mm across 37 such coins, all from Merovingian Francia, were found at Sutton Hoo, associated with the remains of an elaborate purse. These coins have commanded a great deal of attention as a potential means to constrain the date of the burial. This is a highly imprecise process (the coins are not datable to within a range shorter than 16 years), relying on recognising issues associated with known rulers, identifying the youngest of these, speculating from there as to how much younger the undated coins may be, and then how much later the assembled group was deposited in the ship burial. The absence of locally minted coins in the group (the earliest were the East Anglian "trophy...
Read more

Horseshoe Crabs Past and Present: a NW Borneo Journey

Image
Horseshoe crabs figured strongly in my week. Last Saturday (April 1st 2017), I spoke with Kevin Laurie, a Hong Kong-based expert on horseshoe crab behaviour and conservation. He mentioned the existence of a wall decorated with horseshoe crabs in Kampung Ayer, the water village of Bandar, Brunei, in northwest Borneo. Armed with this tip, I visited Kampung Ayer on the evening of the following Thursday (April 6th), guided by two very knowledgeable locals, Wann and Mark Putera Delima. Kampung Ayer is an interesting place in itself, with Antonio Pigafetta describing the place as he found it when the surviving Victoria and Trinidad of Ferdinand Magellan's fleet visited in July 1521 (shortly after Magellan's death in the Philippines). His description of "Burne" was as follows: " that city is entirely built in salt water, except the houses of the king and certain chiefs. It contains twenty-five thousand hearths. The houses are all constructed of wood and built up fr...
Read more