MADAGASCAR: A WORLD APART – The Natural Curiosities of the ‘Eighth Continent’

Photographic Highlights

• Ring-tailed Lemurs all around us in a shaded ravine in the lovely Isalo National Park
• Very close encounters with the fearsome Fosa, Madagascar’s largest predator at Kirindy, the only place in the world it can be seen on a regular basis
• Walking among the famous ‘Avenue of the Baobabs’ near Morondava at sunset
• Long-tailed Ground Rollers and the weird Subdesert Mesite in the other-worldly spiny forest at Ifaty
• Looking up at a group of majestic Indris, the largest of the extant lemurs, as they sing their extraordinary morning chorus to a neighbouring clan
• The extraordinary, endangered, nocturnal Aye-aye, the most famous and most bizarre lemur of them all
• Endemic birds as fancy as their French names such as Verreaux’s Coua and Lafresnaye’s Vanga in the thorny bushlands of the southwest
• The world’s most spectacular and largest chameleons Oustalet’s walks along a branch next to us in slow motion, changing colour as it enters the shader
• A wide variety of other photogenic wildlife including endemic frogs, leaf-tailed geckos, snakes and other herptiles
• Travelling through a strange landscape where 90% of all flora and fauna is endemic, so almost everything is different-looking!
• Photographing the fascinating sandstone rocky landscapes of Isalo National Park
• A delightful White-browed Owl peers down at us from its daytime roosting tree at Zombitse Forest
• The world’s most spectacular and largest chameleons Oustalet’s walks along a branch next to us in slow motion, changing colour as it enters the shade
• Sitting next to gorgeous Verreaux’s Sifakas Red-fronted Brown Lemurs as they tuck in to Ju Ju berries at a feeding station at Kirindy
• A huge Hog-nosed Snake searches for prey in the leaf litter of Kirindy Forest but we need not worry, there are no venomous snakes in Madagascar
• Meeting other spectacular rainforest lemurs including the critically endangered Black-and-white Ruffed Lemur and Diademed Sifaka in the Andasibe area
• Photograph a wide variety of other nocturnal critters on night walks, which could be yet another chameleon, a Leaf-tailed Gecko or a tiny leaf frog
• Gaze in amazement at the camouflage of a Collared Nightjar and then realise it is actually two birds, not just one, roosting side by side on the forest floor
• Figuring out the best macro angle to shoot the bizarre Giraffe-necked Weevil, another of Madagascar’s natural curiosities
• Al fresco dining on the west coast in the warm evening air listening to the calls of Madagascar Nightjars

PRICE INFORMATION

Wild Images Inclusions: Our tour prices include surface transportation, accommodations, meals and entrance fees.

Our tour prices also include these flights: Antananarivo-Tulear (Toliara)-Antananarivo and Antananarivo-Morondava-Antananarivo.

Our tour prices also include all tips for local guides, drivers and accommodation/restaurant staff. We also include payments for local people who are willing to be photographed.

Deposit: 20% of the total tour price. Our office will let you know what deposit amount is due, in order to confirm your booking, following receipt of your online booking form.

TO BOOK THIS TOUR: Click here (you will need the tour dates)

There may not be enough rooms for all those wanting single occupancy at Kirindy as accommodation is limited there. There is no supplement for singles at Kirindy, if available at the time.

If you are travelling alone, the single supplement will not apply if you are willing to share a room and there is a room-mate of the same sex available.

This tour is priced in US Dollars. Amounts shown in other currencies are indicative.

Air Travel To & From The Tour: Our in-house IATA ticket agency will be pleased to arrange your air travel on request, or you may arrange this yourself if you prefer.

MADAGASCAR WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY TOUR: DETAILED ITINERARY

Day 1:  Our Madagascar wildlife photography tour begins this evening in Antananarivo, the capital city of Madagascar, where we will spend the night. Often referred to simply as ‘Tana’, Antananarivo is a strange mixture of traditional Malagasy, French Colonial and modern architecture. Traditional Malagasy architecture has many Asian roots and the buildings look much closer to those one would see in parts of Nepal than anything found on the African mainland, reflecting the Asiatic origins of most of the Malagasy themselves.

Day 2:  From Antananarivo, situated on the high interior plateau of Madagascar, we travel first to the southwest coast of the island, taking a flight to Tulear (or Toliara), from where we continue by road to nearby Ifaty for a two nights stay. This afternoon we will begin our exploration of the Ifaty area.

Day 3:  In the strange and very photogenic ‘spiny forest’ of Southwest Madagascar, we can expect to encounter an array of endemic Madagascan wildlife.

We should enjoy close encounters with both the strange Subdesert Mesite and the even-stranger-looking Long-tailed Ground Roller, two of Madagascar’s most sought-after bird photography subjects. Other great birds include Running Coua, Madagascar Nightjar, Sickle-billed and Lafresnaye’s Vangas and with luck the rare Banded Kestrel.

Mammals found here will include our first lemurs, and we will be hoping for photographic encounters with Grey Mouse-Lemur, Grey-brown Mouse-Lemur and White-footed Sportive Lemur. Lesser Hedgehog Tenrec can also be found around Ifaty. Tenrecs are a hedgehog-like, African and Madagascan mammal family, sometimes known as Otter-Shrews, which have diversified like crazy in Madagascar. They are peculiar amongst placental mammals in possessing a single rear opening like a cloaca, more commonly found in birds and reptiles. Other inhabitants of the spiny forest include the reintroduced Ring-tailed Lemur.

Walking along the sandy trails through the spiny forest is a fantastic experience. Tall, many-branched Didierea trees with a potent armour of spines give the impression of being witches’ broomsticks planted in the ground. Set amongst the many different kinds of Didierea trees are strange euphorbias and many squat, bloated Fony Baobabs. The feel of this bizarre forest, especially as dusk approaches, is of something dreamed up by Tolkien.

Day 4:  After a final wildlife and forest landscape photography session at Ifaty, we will drive northeastwards to Isalo National Park in Madagascar’s Ihorombe region for a two nights stay.

Day 5:  We will spend the day exploring just a small part of the 815 square kilometres (about 315 square miles) that comprises Isalo National Park. Amongst its starkly impressive eroded sandstone ‘ruiniforms’, the main wildlife photography attraction is its Ring-tailed Lemurs. In leafy canyons we can expect to encounter some of these iconic primates, first made famous by the BBC’s TV programme ‘Animal Magic’ featuring Johnny Morris and ‘Dotty’ a Ring-tailed Lemur at Bristol Zoo. Once hunted in this area, these beautiful creatures have only become habituated and easy to see and photograph relatively recently. They also ought to be in better condition than the ringtails at the more-visited Berenty reserve in Southeast Madagascar, which eat the leaves of Leucaena leucocephala, an introduced tree containing toxic mimosine that has been linked to hair loss or ‘bald lemur syndrome’, first noticed there in the 1990s.

Red-fronted Brown Lemurs and gorgeous Verreaux’s Sifakas can also be found here. The latter, which is surely another of Madagascar’s most iconic wildlife photography subjects, is well known for its ‘dancing’ bipedal means of crossing the ground between one tree to another.

The quiet trails and canyons of Isalo are also home to other wonderful critters including several fantastic chameleons such as Oustalet’s (or Malagasy Giant) Chameleon, Warty (or Spiny/Crocodile) Chameleon and Bright-green Jeweled Chameleon. Madagascar is the world’s capital of chameleons, with over half of all the species found on earth, including both the largest and the smallest! In addition, the peculiar xerophytic Elephant’s Foot trees ought to be in flower now, adding splashes of yellow to the Isalo landscape of sharp-edged, almost karst-like, sandstone ridges. The outrageous and endangered Rainbow Burrowing Frog also occurs here, although this ‘explosive breeder’ will probably be dormant during the time of our visit (which is in the long dry season).

Day 6:  Today we will retrace our steps to Tulear, from where we will take a flight to Antananarivo for an overnight stay.

We will stop en route to Tulear at Zombitse-Vohibasia National Park. This relatively small wildlife sanctuary protects a relict of a once much more extensive forest that is still home to the extremely localized Appert’s Greenbul. This dull-looking bird is hardly a star creature for wildlife photography, but much more interesting subjects in this dry deciduous forest include Coquerel’s and Giant Couas, White-browed Hawk-Owl, Madagascan Hoopoe and Rufous Vanga (which has a repertoire of strange vocalizations). The forest is also a great place to see and photograph the bizarre Cuckoo Roller.

Zombitse also holds several species of lemurs. We may have another encounter here with Verreaux’s Sifaka and we may even find the endangered Hubbard’s Sportive Lemur at its daytime roost. Zombitsy is also a good place to see the beautiful Standing’s Day Gecko, which is endemic to southwest Madagascar, and en route to Tulear we may encounter Madagascar Sandgrouse.

Day 7: We will take a flight today from Antananarivo to Morondava, the capital of Madagascar’s Menabe region on its west coast. From Morondava we will drive to Kirindy Forest Reserve, around 40km (25 miles) away and our base for the next three nights. We should arrive in time for some initial exploration.

Days 8-9:  Kirindy is a 100 square kilometres (39 square miles) private wildlife reserve which was originally an experiment in sustainable timber harvesting. Although the reserve holds many of the special lowland forest creatures of western Madagascar, it is particularly well known as the best place in the country to see the usually shy and retiring Fosa (or Fossa, which is pronounced ‘foo-sa’), Madagascar’s largest carnivore. The Fosa resembles a small Puma and was once even thought to be a member of the cat family, but is now known to be more closely related to the mongoose family. Its classification has been debated over the years as it also shares some traits with cats, civets, and even hyaenas!

The other main carnivore here is the Northern Bokiboky (or Narrow-striped Mongoose). Kirindy is also the only place one can find the nocturnal and endangered Giant Jumping (or Malagasy Giant) Rat, a large rodent with a severely restricted range of only about 20 square kilometres! Like its rodent cousin in Africa, the Spring Hare, it can hop, but it can also run on all fours.

Lemurs are well represented at Kirindy and diurnal species include both Verreaux’s Sifaka and Red-fronted Brown Lemur which are habituated here. In addition, there is a host of nocturnal lemurs, including Madame Berthe’s Mouse-Lemur (the world’s smallest primate), Grey Mouse-Lemur, Red-tailed Sportive Lemur, Pale Fork-marked Lemur, Coquerel’s Giant Dwarf Lemur and Fat-tailed Dwarf Lemur. With persistence, we will see and photograph a number of these strange critters of the Madagascan night.

Several tenrecs can also be found here, including Common, Greater Hedgehog, Lesser Hedgehog and Large-eared Tenrecs.

Reptiles are also abundant and include Henkel’s Leaf-tailed Gecko, Big-headed Gecko, Giant Hog-nosed Snake, Spear-nosed Snake and Kapidolo (or Flat-backed Spider Tortoise), although we will need luck to see any of them during our visit. The eggs of the threatened Labord’s Chameleon will also be on view here at the time of our visit, but the young and adults live only for four or five months in total between November and March, the shortest lifespan of any vertebrate!

Photogenic birds at Kirindy include White-breasted Mesite, Crested and sometimes Coquerel’s Couas, Sickle-billed, White-headed, Rufous, Blue and Chabert’s Vangas, Cuckoo Roller, Madagascar Harrier-Hawk and Lesser and Greater Vasa Parrots.

All in all the potential for wildlife photography at Kirindy is awesome, so our three days visit is barely going to seem long enough!

Day 10:  After spending much of the day at Kirindy, we will drive back to Morondava for an overnight stay. We will visit the famous ‘Avenue of Baobabs’ this evening, arriving before sunset. Madagascar’s first National Monument, the baobabs are relics of an ancient forest, which was cleared by man, leaving only these 30m-tall (100ft-tall) isolated forest giants. Around 25 endemic Grandidier’s Baobabs (Adansonia grandidieri) line a 250m stretch of road and have become one of the most iconic scenes of rural Madagascar. Some 7 kilometres (43 miles) further to the northwest are the famous ‘Baobabs Amoureux’ – two Western Baobabs twisted together and said to signify the impossible love between two villagers already assigned to other partners. The baobabs make for some interesting wide-angle photography, especially in the soft light of dusk and dawn.

Day 11:  We will return to the Avenue of Baobabs early this morning, providing flight schedules permit. Afterwards, we will take a flight back to Antananarivo and then drive east to Andasibe, our base for the next three nights.

Days 12-13:  The Analamazaotra Special Reserve at Andasibe (formerly Perinet) protects some of the faunistically richest east coast rainforest in Madagascar. Nearby, the more recently created Mantadia National Park extends over a much larger area and is largely primary rainforest. We will spend our time in the Andasibe area exploring the rainforest in these two very fine wildlife reserves.

The main photography focus in this incredibly rich forest will be the spectacular black-and-white Indri, the largest of the extant lemurs. (Madagascar’s now extinct megafauna included Archaeoindris, a giant lemur the size of an adult male gorilla!). The Indri’s eerie, wailing call echoing through the forest at dawn is almost as impressive as the lemur itself. Some Indris in this area have become accustomed to visits by eco-tourists, including wildlife photographers, and we should enjoy some great photography opportunities with them.

The wonderful Indri is not, however, the only spectacular lemur that can be found in these forests. We will also be looking for the equally striking Black-and-white Ruffed Lemur and the stunningly beautiful Diademed Sifaka, surely a candidate for ‘Madagascar’s best-looking lemur’.

A host of smaller and mostly nocturnal lemurs in this area includes Goodman’s Mouse-Lemur and and Hairy-eared Dwarf Lemur.

With such mammalian diversity occurring in these forests, it is no surprise that there is also a spectacular array of forest birds here and we will spend some time searching for, and trying to photograph, the beautiful but secretive Pitta-like, Rufous-headed, Scaly and Short-legged Ground Rollers, the impressive Madagascar Owl and the attractive Collared Nightjar, although most of these are difficult to find.

The big chameleon of the eastern forests, Parson’s Chameleon, occurs here and we will hope for a close, slow-motion photography encounter with one of these fabulous creatures, which are also amongst the worst vertebrate parents going and take no care of their young whatsoever once their eggs are laid! At around half a metre (19 inches) long when fully grown, Parson’s vies with Oustalet’s Chameleon for the title of  ‘the world’s largest chameleon’.

The forests of the Andasibe region are also rich in invertebrates and a particular attraction is the bizarre Giraffe-necked Weevil, the male of which is very popular with wildlife photographers and happily fairly easy to find.

Day 14:  After a final photography session in the Andasibe region, we will head eastwards to Lac Ampitabe in the coastal lowlands. The final part of the journey to Le Palmarium, where we will stay for two nights, is by boat.

Day 15:  Le Palmarium protects one of the few remaining fragments of east coast littoral rainforest remaining in this region of Madagascar, just 50 hectares (about 124 acres) in total!

There are a mixture of lemur species here, some indigenous to the area like Black-and-white Ruffed Lemur and the huge Indri, while (rather unfortunately, but providing some wonderful additional photographic opportunities) there are introduced Red Ruffed Lemurs (from Northeast Madagascar), Crowned Lemurs (from North Madagascar) and Black Lemurs (from Northwest Madagascar), plus some hybrids!

By far the most exciting and important wildlife photography feature of Le Palmarium is the population of wild Aye-ayes that survives on an island in the lake, safe from local people for whom the Aye-aye is, tragically, ‘fady’ or taboo, so universally feared, hated and persecuted. We will go there both evenings to watch and photograph the Aye-ayes as they emerge from their nests. This is surely the best and ‘easiest’ place to photograph this charismatic and rather sinister-looking nocturnal species in the wild, as the animals here are less wary of humans than in most other localities. Even so, patience, persistence and care are needed.

Day 16:  After a final session at Le Palmarium, we will make our way back to Antananarivo, where our Madagascar wildlife photography tour comes to a close this evening.

Note: If you find you have time on your hands at Antananarivo, either before or after the tour, because of the infrequent international flight schedules, we can arrange for a sightseeing exploration of the city for you on request.