Many of the fascinating and endemic creatures of Madagascar are nocturnal. Frogs, geckos, chameleons and lemurs all include some species that prefer the cover of darkness. So to see them you have to get out at night too, of course.
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There are a lot of reasons to visit Madagascar, but for most people the biggest draw is lemurs. These cute animals are endemic to the country, having evolved there separately to apes and monkeys, their closest relatives. And of all the lemurs the one I most wanted to see, and hear, was the Indri.
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I photographed this black and white ruffed lemur on Lemur Island, a private reserve in the grounds of one of the Andisibe lodges.
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These tiny creatures are Brookesia Minima chameleons. Our guide found them for us on a walk in the Montaigne d'Ambre national park, by rifling through leaf litter at the base of a tree.
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This is a tenrec, specifically I believe a lowland streaked tenrec. We saw him on a night walk in the Andasibe-Mantadia National Park area. Tenrecs are endemic to Madagascar and this particular species lives in the eastern part of the country.
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Given that few of us are blessed with the language skills of Doctor Dolittle, probably the best way to ‘listen’ to animals is to observe them. And for many of us that often means a visit to a (hopefully) ethically-run wildlife sanctuary. There we can really take our time to watch animal behaviour, and listen to the experts who’ve made it their job to get to know and understand the needs of these creatures.
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I’ve been fortunate to travel and photograph wildlife in many wonderful places. The Galápagos Islands, Botswana, Costa Rica, to name just three. But it’s easy to forget that we have some fantastic wildlife here at home too. That’s due in part to the animals’ relative small size and the consequent challenges in finding them.
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Looking back I see that I have already in the past, several times, shared photos of animals’ eyes. I hate to duplicate but but I believe I’ve managed to dig out some new, and some not-yet-shared, images for this collection.
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Last February we travelled to Costa Rica, hoping (among other things) to see sloths. And we did. But it never occurred to me to hope to see them in one of Colombia's biggest cities.
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Some years ago on my birthday we were in Ranthambore National Park, in Rajasthan, and I hoped to see a tiger; we found one! Now here we were in Nepal and I was hoping for a birthday rhino; we found five! But I am getting ahead of myself...
