Lokobe Nature Special Reserve

We knew about Lokobe Special Nature Reserve because it is one of the spots in Madagascar where you can go to see black lemurs. Thus, we never planned on a third day of diving because visiting this Reserve was a requirement!

Breakdown number two

The cab driver taking us to the village near the Reserve showed up in his awesome, bright orange, Renault. It smelled like ylang-ylang - a lovely deeply floral scent - and was tricked out in lots of bling and dried flowers. The cab driver was the sweetest man ever, so when the cab broke down, and then broke down again, and then broke down again, he got extremely concerned about making a bad impression on us. But breakdowns are part of the game in places with old cars - we didn't mind at all and told him so (to his visible relief).

While we were waiting for our driver to fiddle with the Renault on breakdown number three, a couple that we befriended at our hotel whizzed past on their scooter and stopped to talk to us. Tom snapped this photo of us chillin' in the Renault. This is Madagascar after all - we weren't worried about missing the trip to Lokobe since we were traveling independently and not with a group that might leave without us.

At one point our cab driver was tinkering with the engine and he pulled out an engine part. He explained to Jay, in French, that he had recently replaced that part and now it clearly wasn't working. So with the part on the dashboard, he starts the engine and we took off again down the road. I couldn't help but wonder how the car was running properly with the part sitting on the dashboard rather than in the engine. Hmmmm.

Being stuck in a car waiting for a breakdown to solve itself also provides opportunities - like the chance to take this shot of a man working in his nearby fields.

You can't drive to Lokobe - which I think is simply lovely. Instead, you get out of the cab at a small village and get into a pirogue, paddle to Lokobe, hike around the Reserve, eat lunch, paddle back, and then cab it back the hotel. I was thrilled to be paddling in Madagascar!

The view of the forest made it obvious when we had paddled into the Reserve because this was clearly a wild forest covered with Travelers palms (Ravenala). The black lemurs eat the palm's fruit and poop out the seeds, dispersing the tree throughout the Reserve. Because the lemurs are readily not found outside the Reserve, the land outside the boundaries doesn't have a ton of this iconic tree.

Lokobe blew us away! We saw as much wildlife here in a few hours of hiking as we saw in three days at Marojejy! Needless to say, we were thrilled. Jay is checking out this big ol' boa here.

This Langaha snake must have been a truly awesome sighting because our guide took a photo of it. Considering he probably spends much of his life walking in this Reserve, you know you have a rare treat when the guide takes a photo! I was more amazed that he even saw this snake at all! See if you can find it in the photo to the left - the snake looks just like a tree branch.

Every guide we had in the parks in Madagascar were incredible and this man was no exception. He told us that he wasn't going to talk a lot in the park because he wanted us to experience the animals without the fear of scaring them away - he planned on educating us following the hike about everything we saw. Walking quietly through the forest is the only way to go! We watched as a man and his hired woman (see my last blog about sex tourism in Madagascar) walked by with their guide chatting loudly away. At the time, we were happily watching a nocturnal lemur hug a tree. These loud people were so interested in talking that they walked right by us and the lemur in the tree without even noticing the animal. Why bother going if you are not going to look? Our guide was quiet, respectful, knowledgeable, and passionate about the Reserve. Fantastic!

Find the two Brookesia (tiny chameleons) in this photo! We were so busy watching the first one that we didn't even realize there was a second right next to it. David Attenborough would have been proud - I'm the one that spotted the second!!

I look like a leaf.

This panther chameleon wasn't interested in blending into his/her surroundings.

Perhaps one of my favorite photos from the trip, even though it isn't my best. This sportive lemur, a noctournal species, was insanely irresistible looking out at us from this tree. Don't you just want to give it a hug and rub that little belly?

As biologists, we are happy to look at any form of flora or fauna, but we did (admittedly) come to this park with the hopes of seeing black lemurs. It took us a while to find them, but once we did they seemed to be everywhere! The males are black and the females are a lovely chestnut brown color - so here you can see a female lounging on a tree branch with her baby boy! Both sexes have seriously hilarious tufts of fur jutting out from their ears.

My very own welcoming committee wasn't so welcoming! Many species of primates are known to pee (or even throw poop) on other primates when they are unhappy, or marking their territory, or just saying "get the hell outta of here" to someone else. Thankfully, I knew enough about this primate peeing habit (I was peed on in Nepal by a monkey) to keep walking after I went under a branch above the trail that had two females chillin' on the branch. They were chuckling and making funny little grunting noises, so I turned around to snap a shot and she turned around and did this! Look at the expression on her face! Priceless. And then her friend joined in on the fun - so I had two females unsuccessfully trying to pee on me at once. I took the hint and left them alone.

Since I'm talking about bodily functions, I have to say that this male stretched out into this long, handsome pose for a photograph....which he promptly ruined by taking a dump while striking the pose. Ahhhh...wildlife. I did manage to get this shot of him before he decided to crap off the branch. Pretty cute eh? All cuteness aside, these charming mammals play a vital role in maintaining the health of the forest ecosystems in Madagascar. Forests and lemurs evolved together on the Red Island, without one the other will not thrive either. If you cut down all the trees, lemurs lose their habitat and food sources. If you poach or illegally sell live lemurs you are removing the animals that spread the tree's seeds and thus, you are limiting forest plant dispersal. With 94% of lemur species threatened, lemurs are now considered the most endangered group of large vertebrates in the world. A sobering article was just published in Science on how to avert lemur extinctions in Madagascar. They try to be positive, but I can't say I saw much reason for positivity. I'm so glad we went when we did.  You can read the full text through a PDF posted on Google Scholar (or just click on this sentence, I've linked it to the paper).

Link:
http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1057&context=anthropub&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fscholar.google.com%2Fscholar%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3Daverting%2Blemur%2Bextinctions%26btnG%3D%26as_sdt%3D1%252C48%26as_sdtp%3D#search=%22averting%20lemur%20extinctions%22

After hiking through the dry forest for several hours, we were starving so we headed back to the village for lunch. Talk about being spoiled rotten! This entire spread was just for the two of us and our guide! Insane! This lovely woman must have spent the entire day cooking for us and the food was, hands down, the best we had the entire trip. The entertainment wasn't that bad either! We watched village ducks chase each other around for a little "fun" that will eventually lead to more ducks.

Once we paddled back to the main village, our cab driver met us with his newly fixed Renault and we puttered our way back to the wonderful hotel. Our last full day in Madagascar could not have been more sweet. The next morning we took a short flight back to the capital, Tana, and rented a "day" room while we waited for our flight back to France which was leaving the airport at 1am. We took advantage of the time to buy a few souvenirs (think vanilla and peppercorns) and wander the city.

Tana is filled with many lovely sights - from city folks to people (like this strong woman) working on the outskirts of the city.

While zebu are often used to transport heavy goods by cart, it was equally common to see people playing the role of the zebu. I can't imagine how heavy this cart must be, you can tell this boy is working hard.

I'll leave you with one of my favorite photographs from Tana. I think it tells a lot about this country- I'll let you think about those ideas yourself based on what I've hopefully taught you throughout all these blogs. And if you are remotely interested in seeing Madagascar yourself, you should become seriously interested.....because I'm not sure how long many of the most amazing plants and animals will be around. The more responsible tourists that visit the better for conservation.

All our favorite photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/111221596171793333099/Madagascar2013?authkey=Gv1sRgCLq91drp6pOjyAE