While most of our group went to see one of the last places in the world where you can see Golden Mantella frogs in the wild (a species I kept in captivity many years ago), my nephew Scott and I headed back to Mitsinjo to see the largest of all living lemurs while we were in the only region of Madagascar where they exist in the wild today. We heard their loud eerie calls the day before, but they were far away deep in the forest. It was on the list of creatures Scott was hoping to see. It is critically endangered and neither of us can be sure if we’ll make it back to this part of the country.
So we met our skilled guide and spotter early in the morning and headed off to see a group of habituated, but wild, Indri. We heard them again, and in a rush, we headed in the direction of their calls. Though some of the trail was good, when we got close, we had to make our way through thick undergrowth, and steep, slippery terrain. Oh, one other thing, the trails were full of terrestrial leeches. Not to be deterred, we pressed on and before long we could see them. They were high in the canopy and difficult to photograph even with my super-telephoto lens. But, eventually things got better. So good, I started using my GoPro and though I have not looked through any of the footage, I just might have gotten the baby in the group reaching down like he was going to take it out of my hand. It was an amazing moment and even if I didn’t get it on video, seeing my nephew’s eyes light up when it happened was priceless.
Not surprisingly, I wound up feeding at least six leeches, but it was worth it.
We also saw Brown Lemurs and a bunch of other things….
To see more photos from Andasibe, click here