Day 330 - Lemurs Galore

Ring-tailed lemurs at nature reserve east of Antananarivo

The animals that most people know come from Madagascar are lemurs. But until I arrived in Madagascar, the only lemur species I knew about was the ring-tailed lemur. They look like thin cousins of racoons, but with much longer tails. But there are so many more types of lemurs that are as different from one another as Chihuahuas are from Great Danes.

My first weekend, the assistant public affairs officer, Paul, and the community liaison officer, Kathy, offered to take me out of town to see some of the sights, including lemurs in a nearby nature reserve. We set off into the countryside where the hills were covered with terraced rice paddies. Even in Antananarivo there were rice paddies along the road between our houses and the embassy. Also in the fields were the local cattle, the zebu, which looked as much like buffalos as they did like cattle. The zebu are just one more connection between Madagascar and south Asia as the animals are native to that region. 

by  peach flavour 

Along the side of the road, we saw charcoal sellers, evidence of the forests being cut down for both this purpose and to make room for more rice paddies. What I hadn't expected, however, was that so much of Madagascar was covered by evergreen trees. I knew about the centuries old baobab trees that look like they are growing upside down with their roots in the sky  in the western areas of the island. Those trees once stood towering over dense tropical forests but now stand alone as the other vegetation in those forests have been cut down. The baobab is considered sacred, resulting it their being spared. An area between Morondava and Belon'i Tsiribihina in western Madagascar is the home of the Avenue or Alley of the Baobabs and is the center of local conservation efforts. In 2007, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests granted it temporary protected status, the first step towards it becoming Madagascar's first natural monument. Ecotourism is an important aspect of Madagascar's economy and visitors to the island frequently make their way to the Alley of the Baobabs. As I was not there for tourism, I missed seeing these magnificent plants.

black-and-white ruff lemur But the highlight of this first trip into the countryside, and every other trip thereafter, was the appearance of the lemurs. Lemurs are not to be confused with monkeys. Lemurs are prosimian primates, a line that did not evolve from the same common ancestor as monkeys, apes, and humans but rather evolved at the same time developing similar morphological characteristics. Lemurs have opposable thumbs, for example, but they do not have prehensile tails. They use their long tails for balance, but they cannot hang from them as monkeys can.

brown lemur

We arrived at a small nature reserve that Paul had visited before and were disappointed to find it closed. But there wasn't anything or anyone to keep us out, so we hopped over the bamboo fence that did little more than mark the outline of the park and headed down the paths that were lined by bamboo trees, many with platforms high above where the lemurs rested. There were no ring-tailed lemurs in this reserve. Instead, there were brown lemurs which look like pudgy cats with short ears and long tails, and black-and-white ruff lemurs which resemble monkeys dressed in tuxedos, and sifakas or dancing lemurs which do not walk or run but rather leap into the air and move sideways while throwing their arms in the air. Paul had just begun to describe the sifakas' unusual motions when a line of them headed towards us from the other direction. They probably were expecting to be fed, although there were bunches of bananas on all the platforms, making them easy pickings for hungry lemurs.  I chose to believe they were either curious or had danced our way in welcome. Here's a link to a video that shows first a black-and-white ruff lemur coming down from a tree as we approached in our canoe and then a sifaka will appear almost like a ghost dancing through the middle of the screen. An assortment of brown lemurs join them.

sifaka lemur, resting

Those three lemur types, the brown, black-and-white ruff, and sifaka lemurs, along with thr ring-tailed lemurs were what I saw most of during my stay. But there nearly a hundred different lemur types and new varieties are still being discovered. Hunting endangered species of lemurs for food and keeping lemurs as pets are both illegal in Madagascar, although both activities continue. An Italian couple I met in Antananarivo had a mouse lemur, a nocturnal variety, as a pet. The name was most appropriate as this lemur was no bigger than a mouse.  In addition, there are monkey lemurs, hair-eared dwarf lemurs, dwarf lemurs, giant mouse lemurs, fork-marked lemurs, aye-ayes, woolly lemurs, true lemurs, bamboo lemurs, greater bamboo lemurs, red ruffed lemurs, sportive lemurs, koala lemurs, and sloth lemurs. Many live in remote areas and only come out at night. A stay of many years would be necessary to be able to see them all.

Indri by  Daniel Rubio :)  Today, the largest lemur is the indri which is about the size of a baboon although a variety as large as an ape once roamed the island. The indri does not have a prominent tail like other lemurs, and they are monogamous, living in family groups of the mated pair and their developing offspring. An adult indri will not take a new mate until after the death of his or her partner. They live and sleep in trees, only coming out of the trees early in the morning which is also when they can be heard singing their distinctive songs. There are many myths about the origin of the indri which most Malagasy consider sacred, perhaps because of all the lemurs, the indri seems the most like humans. The indri is a protected species as the slash and burn agricultural methods have reduced their habitat, even in protected reserves. While Alex was in Madagascar, we spent Christmas in an area where colonies or indri were known to frequent, but we did not get there early enough to see them. We did hear them and I will never forget the sound. Here is a link for you to check out why.