May 30, 2004
"Trip to Andasibe"
by Haley Houghton

Before heading up to Ankarafantsika to begin the field season, Jodie, Jenny, Katie, and I decided to see a little bit of the Island. Our first stop was Andasibe (Perinet). It's located only two short hours from Tana but it feels like another world. For Katie and I, it was our first time our of Tana, our first time seeing the Malagasy countryside. The landscape dramatically transformed from a bustling city to small villages with rice paddies to the dense rainforest. We stopped at a hotel called Feon'ny Ala onthe edge of the rainforest and rented a bungalow. At the park headquarters, we arranged for a guide. In Madagascar one is always required to be accompanied by a guide when going into protected areas. When we arrived at the park, it was too late in the afternoon to see very many diurnal species and too early to see any nocturnal species, so we hoped to arrange for a night hike through the rainforest. We were lucky to find an English speaking guide who was willing to take us out that night. Once it got dark we grabbed our headlamps, rain jackets, and cameras and headed out with our guide. It's pretty easy to located nocturnal animals because their eyes reflect the light from a headlamp. In three hours we saw multiple mouse lemurs, a pygmy kingfisher, an unidentified chameleon, and a troop of sportive lemurs. The next morning we went out to see what diurnal species we could find. Andasibe is home to the largest of lemurs: the Indri. After a short hike, our expert guide spotted a family of Indris sleeping only 25 meters away. Indris are known for their song-a territorial call they let out every morning. Unfortunately, on this morning they sang for only seconds before settling into their feeding trees, but their song lived up to its reputation. We followed them until we were only about 6 meters way from one. They don't seem to fear humans at all. If they had any reaction it was that of curiosity or annoyance. On the way to finding the second indri family, we saw a parsonni chameleon, many different species of geckos, red-bellied lemurs, and brown lemurs. When we found the second indri family living in the park, we were in for a treat: one the females had a baby in her arms. We could stay there watching them for only a short time before the hotel's check out time beckoned us out of the rainforest. Sulking back to our truck, none of us wanted to leave this pristine forest. We knew we had more adventures in our future though-we were heading on to Tamatave that night and then we were off to Mahambo.