Madagascar; Day 5 - Anya Community Reserve

  Today involved a lot of driving, as we moved from Isalo towards Ranomafana, one of the most famous of all Madagascars national parks, due to its extensive intact rainforest tracts. Before then though we had to cover eight hours of driving and a short stop at another reserve on the way. As we set off we quickly checked an area of grassland just outside Isalo National Park to search for Madagascar Partridge, but we failed to find any. 

  We left Isalo at around 06:30 and arrived at our next stop, the Anya community reserve, at around 10:15. This reserve is a small patch of forest around a large inselberg, which is famous for its large population of Ring-tailed Lemurs. The reserve was founded to protect the lemurs from poaching and since then population has exploded. We had brilliant views of many individuals, with at least four different babies. Families were abundant perched atop trees, but also feeding on the ground. They were grooming each other, with babies playing at extremely close quarters. While it did feel a little artificial, there is no denying that seeing wild animals at such close quarters is a very special experience.

  Also at the reserve we had a few more Chameleons, all Oustalet's Giant Chameleon. The guides we were with even fed one of the larger Chameleons a large insect, so we could watch it shoot out its tongue. Absolutely brilliant to see! There were also our first frogs of our time in Madagascar, but as we move into the wetter habitats it will be the first of many. Bird-wise however it was generally quite quiet, and we saw very little. We eventually left the reserve at 11:30, and after a short lunch we continued on our way.

  We reached the borders of the Ranomafana National Park at around 16:00 and almost immediately spotted a few new birds from the drive. We had a few Madagascar Wagtails on the sides of the road, and a Madagascar Cuckooshrike dropped out of the canopy and flew alongside us for a short while. We pulled over and got a few more views, but it quickly vanished into the trees. But this stop was fortunate as in the trees next to the road we found a small group of Red-bellied Lemur. They were very annoyed at our presence calling aggressively, but providing us with brilliant views of them.

  After that short stop we moved onto our hotel in the town of Ranomafana itself, where we were shown yet another Chameleon in the garden, our first Parsons Chameleon. We settled down to have a beer and a chat with our guide for the next day in the evening, preparing ourselves for one of the most important sites on our itinerary. 

-Malagasy Palm Swift

-Ring-tailed Lemur

-Oustalet's Giant Chameleon

-Oustalet's Giant Chameleon

-Oustalet's Giant Chameleon

-Red-bellied Lemur

-Parsons Chameleon

Species List:
Anja Community Reserve: Malagasy Coucal, Yellow-billed Kite, Madagascar Hoopoe, Olive Bee-eater, Malagasy Kestrel, Pied Crow, Common Jery,