Madagascar Memories

I visited Madagascar a little over three years ago. Memories of this unique island in the Indian Ocean southeast of Africa have remained vivid. Why?  The unexpected and strangely beautiful forms of life that I saw there are impossible to forget. It was as if time had misplaced this island.

At 592,800 square kilometres, Madagascar is the world's fourth largest island. Over the eons, life here has evolved in its own unique way. About 90% of the flora and fauna found here are endemic - that is, they are found nowhere else. In my trip I sought out some of these.

The Giraffe-necked Weevil was an insect like no other. The size of a beetle, it has a neck thrice the length of its body. It stood still on a leaf, but when my fingers came too close, it flew away instantly.

In Madagascar I learned about locally endemic species. A bird I photographed, the Long-tailed Ground Roller, can only be found within a few square kilometres of the Spiny Forest of Madagascar – and nowhere else in the world.

Normally I am scared of snakes but in Madagascar I lost this fear. That's because all snakes there are non-venomous. I encountered two large boas. One was coiled up as I cautiously came close for a photograph. It did not react. Boas are found only in the Americas and, inexplicably, in Madagascar.

The lemurs of Madagascar were cuddly. They lacked the roughness and sharp nails of monkeys. In a park we played with Black and White Lemurs sporting long, puffy tails as they climbed on our shoulders before jumping off.

There were dozens of endemic birds new to me: not just individual species, but five entire families such as Vanga and Coua found nowhere else. Even familiar birds had a Madagascar twist to them. For example, the Madagascar Magpie-robin looks very much like our Oriental Magpie-robin (doel) except for one thing: it is about half the size. Birds were also fearless. I reached out to a Madagascar Paradise Flycatcher while it was incubating and a Madagascar Nightjar as it rested. They stayed still, unperturbed.

There were also colourful and exotic lizards, frogs and chameleons galore.

Primary forests in Andasibe and Mantadia National Parks were filled with towering green. I had seen photographs of Baobab trees, but I didn't know how cool and smooth the trunk of a centurion Baobab was until I touched one in the arid Spiny Forest. In the middle of the desert we found a peculiar, tiny wooden cabin made of narrow planks of wood. There was a tall skinny cactus plant standing in front like a guard. Our guide explained that the cabin had been constructed from the trunks of dozens of the cactus.

The number of species that have evolved in Madagascar is astonishing. For example, there are over 100 species of lemurs, 62 species of chameleons and 130 species of palm trees. I am not sure this makes evolutionary sense. Perhaps the varied terrain and climate in Madagascar played a role.

I would love to return to Madagascar to observe more diverse and quirky delights.

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