Dispatches From The Field

25 August, 2003 -- Shaun Dunn

Holiday to Andasibe

The end of our trapping season has come and gone, and now starts the grunt work of radio-tracking the animals we collared (all five of them), training an Ecological Monitoring Team, etc. But first we decided to take a short holiday to the Special Reserve of Andasibe on the East coast of Madagascar. There are two things about Andasibe that have made me want to visit there for many years now; 1: Andasibe is a rainforest; 2: Andasibe is home to the Indri (Indri indri), the largest of the remaining lemurs that are known for their ‘song.’

Our trip consisted of 3 full days in the rainforest and as I had never been to a rainforest before my head was full things I had seen on TV or in books. My expectations were blown away by what I saw, pictures in books and video you see on television don’t do a rainforest justice. Yes, it’s wet, it’s green, and it is indescribably beautiful. We saw so many new plants, lemurs, and birds that we don’t see in our dry deciduous forest that 3 days was definitely not enough!

I will briefly try to describe what it was like hearing the ‘song’ of the indri for the first time: Amazing! I have read about it, heard it on video, and so I thought I would be prepared for the first time I actually heard it. We had been watching a group of 5 Indri for about 45 minutes before they started calling. A great chill came over me, a chill of pure excitement and energy. I could type out 2 pages of what I felt and it wouldn’t do my feelings justice. The calls filled the air and I was amazed at how loud they were; I had not expected the call to be so loud, but at one point I almost felt the need to cover my ears! It was absolutely incredible, something I will never, ever forget.