Dzaoudzi, Mayotte to Mahajanga, Madagascar 5 - 7 Apr 08

Ankarafantsika National Park

7 April. Another early morning walk, this time to Ankarokaroka Canyon. On the way we saw a rare bird called the rufous vanga, a colourful sunbird and 2 snakes: a hognose and another dromicodrias.

After breakfast, Angela looked in vain for the Coquerel's sifakas that frequent the trees near the restaurant before heading back to our room. Meanwhile, Flemming saw them in great numbers jumping from tree to tree. Angela thought she had missed her chance of seeing them so was delighted when they came back again while we sipped our afternoon tea.

On our late afternoon walk, the brown lemurs were alarmed by a buzzard and made a hell of a din with their alarm calls. Up to then we had thought them quite silent creatures. We also saw a sparrow hawk and 3 black parrots.

The night walk was excellent today. Tina took us to a different spot beyond the lake and we saw a fat-tailed dwarf lemur, 3 golden brown mouse lemurs, a grey mouse lemur, a woolly lemur’s eyes shining in the torch light, a Madagascarophus colibrinus chameleon, and 2 broocesia decari chameleons (small and rare).
Altogether the park was great for its wildlife, but the food was rather plain and boring.