| Madagascar Afremail Part 3 - Perint Reserve | |
| To unsubscribe from Afremails, request by email |  |
| HOME | Exits | Canaria | SIT | A2K | Morocco | Madagascar | |
1. Perinet (or the new PC name Andisabe-Mantadia National Park) is a day trip from the capitol, Antananarivo. This park blew us away. There is probably more biodiversity in this park than in all of Texas, if not the US. It was amazing. It was an evolutionary extravaganza. Insects, Orchids, Amphibians, Reptiles, Palms, Lemurs, etc... We left Tana in late morning, arrive in the afternoon, enjoyed a siesta at a wonderful hotel that we paid only $12 for total. Then, our odyssey began with a nocturnal walk with an English speaking guide. We basically walked along the road and around a pond and saw so much awesome stuff.
(Rob's Photo)
2. The view from our hotel into the forest.
(Rob's Photo)
3. This is the second smallest chameleon species. They were just hanging out along the road on a vine and our flashlights caught their eyes, much like the rest of the animals that we found.
4.
5. The orchids were truly amazing; there were several species in flower although this was not the flowering season. Mostly they were epiphyte orchids, but there were also many free living as well.
6
7
8. Just hangin' out.
9
10.
11. The ferns and fern trees were awesome. I am not sure, but I think this is some sort of stag horn fern. Some of the fern trees we came across were around 30 ft high.
12. Parson's cameleon
13.
14.
(Rob's Photo)
15.
16. This little day gecko was just keeping our room free of mosquitoes. Thanks! That marked the end of our nocturnal walk, but the best part, the real biodiversity came in the morning when we woke up at 5AM for a morning walk to find the INDRI, the biggest (I think) lemur.
17.
18.
19.
(Rob's Photo)
20. The call of the indri was like ghosts wailing to each other. It made our skin crawl and even though the family of 4 was around 25 ft above our heads, I had to cover my ears when they started calling because it was so loud. They called to another family in the forest, who in turn would call to another. A single family call would go on for about 20 minutes. Each family called in turn, some far away, and some near, so it seemed like an eerie echo of banshees wailing in the early morning, that and the mysterious fern trees and fog really added to an ethereal walk for us in the forest.
(Rob's Photo)
21.
(Rob's Photo)
22.
(Rob's Photo)
23.
(Rob's Photo)
24.
25.
26.
(Rob's Photo)
27.
28.
(Rob's Photo)
29. Trachelophorus giraffa here for all you ento heads out there. The eyes of this beetle are at the end of the neck-like stalk.
(Rob's Photo)
30.
31. Of the snakes of a larger persuasion, there are only Boas in Madagascar, interesting considering that there are no Boas in Africa; meaning that an old link between Madagascar and South America (the current home of most boas) existed long before Madagascar broke off from Africa, its final link to the rest of the world. The evolutionary links in Madagascar are mesmerizing in that they connect to every continent, flora and fauna wise. Sitting down and trying to map out the evolutionary connection of Madagascar to the rest of the world makes my head spin, but it is awesome!
(Rob's Photo)
32.
(Rob's Photo)
33./99
