A Very Lemur Birthday

Rooftop of Centre Valbio

Just like I promised, I have decided to do a post more dedicated to the biodiversity aspect of Madagascar. As of the twenty-second, I'm feeling 22! To celebrate, I spent my birthday how any reasonable biologist would: trekking through the rainforest! Entrance to Ranomafana Park can get expensive for someone without a forest research permit, but my teammate Katie and I decided to splurge for the occasion.
Dauphin, our friendly local guide, walked with us to the entrance of the park where our "lemur spotter" was waiting. The high volume of tourist traffic in the park means that large groups often scare off the animals, so lemur spotters are sent ahead to find them before we get there.

Male Red-bellied lemur

We first headed to Belleview, an overlook high on the hillside from which the rooftop of Centre Valbio is visible. I often sit on the roof to read or do laundry, so it was disconcerting to realize how many tourists probably watch me every day! Dauphin was on the phone with his lemur spotter while we took some pictures, and we quickly moved on to watch a small group of Red-bellied lemurs (Eulemur reubriventor). Red-bellied lemurs are fairly easy to watch, as they are not easily startled, and often stay in one place to eat fruit. These lemurs in particular seemed particularly habituated, and didn't bat any metaphorical eyelashes at the twenty French tourists shouting, pointing and snapping flash photos. 

Golden bamboo lemur

Female chewing on a fruit

One of the other guides spotted a Golden bamboo lemur (Haplalemur aureus) up the path. These lemurs are much smaller than their fruit eating cousins, and significantly more shy. As the name would suggest, Golden bamboo lemurs feed almost exclusively on bamboo. According to Dauphin, the bamboo contains trace amounts of cyanide that would kill most mammals their size, but they have evolved to eat dirt and small mushrooms to neutralize the poison. The lemur quickly became uneasy, and bounded through the trees away from the main trail. We took a small (and slightly slippery) path to follow it, and were able to get a much better look. The Red-bellies showed up as well, and one of the males (easily recognizable by white facial markings) came to the ground about ten feet in front of us to eat some dirt. It turns out that Red-bellied lemurs also use dirt to neutralize some substances in their food, although Dauphin wasn't sure what. 

Lounging sifaka

We returned to the main trail, and moved along quickly to meet our lemur spotter, who had found a group of Milne-Edwards' sifaka (Propithecus edwardsi). This group had a baby, still so small that it clung to its mother stomach rather than moving around. I couldn't really get a good look at the infant, but we watched as the four adults huddled together and groomed in the beginnings of a light rain. 

U. phantasticus

Our luck was still with us, and as we turned back down the trail to head more toward the bamboo forest, another guide pointed out our first non-primate organism of the day. I should clarify: the guide pointed to a tree, and we stared at it in confusion until we finally recognized the sleeping gecko sitting at eye level about three feet in front of us. Dauphin told us it was a Uroplatus phantasticus, commonly known as the Satanic Leaf Tailed Gecko. These geckos are nocturnal, but quite common: they sleep in plain sight during the day, and hunt insects by night.

The luck stones

We continued on to the bamboo forest which, aside from being absolutely beautiful, held one last group of surprises. We walked past a group of stones, which Dauphin said were put up by Malagasy people in times of trouble in order to bring luck. Each stone was given a separate ceremony, which would have gone on for several days, depending on the relative wealth of the family. As if to confirm the effectiveness of the stones, the lemurs were waiting for us just a a little further down the path.
 The Greater bamboo lemur (Prolemur simus) is one of the rarest primates in the world, with only about 500 remaining throughout Madagascar. In Ranomafana, there are only two, a father-daughter pair that represent the remainder of the sub-population. The guides watch them almost constantly, and as a result they have become so used to people that one of the two came within three feet of us: extremely unusual behavior for a lemur. We watched as they chowed down on (also cyanide-containing) bamboo stalks as large as their heads, and made cute, chirping vocalizations at each other.

Me and the lemurs

I think that's long enough for now! I'll do a part two with some of the creatures we've seen on other hikes. Mozotoa (Enjoy)!