Oct 23, 2017 At 5:30 am on the NE coast of Madagascar it is already daylight.

Oct 23, 2017 Above the never ending swoosh & splash of the sea, a sudden series of dry, smacking calls nearby.

Oct 23, 2017 The cabins of Masoala Forest Lodge are sturdy tents wrapped in a mosquito net and hoisted on top of two-storey wooden platforms.

Oct 23, 2017 If there is something to hear outside, you hear it but because of the net visibility isn’t that good.

Oct 23, 2017 Must be frogs, my sleepy mind reasons..

Oct 23, 2017 Must be big frogs. I raise my head from the pillow. Clinging vertically on a tree trunk, the shape of an animal.

Oct 23, 2017 Small round head, long narrow-ish tail. A lemur.

Oct 23, 2017 Between the trees, bare legs of a man, walking back and forth. On his right hand the man has a stick. He is chasing the lemur.

Oct 23, 2017 A small group of Eastern Lesser Bamboo Lemurs (Hapalemur griseus) is here. Smacking sounds are their alarm calls. Lemurs are in panic.

Oct 23, 2017 Lemurs try to escape from the open ground to the thicket. Jumps are long & horizontal, similar to those of the Indri or tarsiers.

Oct 23, 2017 I can imagine that it’s the garden and young bamboo shoots that bring the lemurs here.

Oct 23, 2017 Happy coexistence between primates is hard when rules are not mutually agreed on.

Oct 23, 2017 Here, two species got checked from my mental list of Animals I Still Want to See, Please: Helmet Vanga and Lowland Streaked Tenrec.

Oct 23, 2017 Dimensions in the Masoala NP are such that my 1st impression of Helmet Vanga was: not bigger? Yet the bird is almost 30 cm.

Oct 23, 2017 Spectacular blue bill, yellow eye-ring, elegantly black & rufous body & wings. You can admire the bird a long time, it’s not shy.

Oct 23, 2017 Sometimes wildlife comes w/ a bonus. Now it was a pair of Bernier’s Vanga that followed Helmet. Dark, slender, hasty, rare (they say).

Oct 23, 2017 4 pm. You & your cold beer sit in the bar and ponder what nature travelers do by this time: what might they prepare for dinner?

Oct 23, 2017 Was there movement? Your gaze wanders few meters away, towards the area where beach sand gives away to a cultivated patch of shrubs.

Oct 23, 2017 Although this is my first encounter with a tenrec, the animal feels immediately familiar.

Oct 23, 2017 It is an S size hedgehog (but not related) with a pointy, active nose.

Oct 23, 2017 Long black and white spikes on the body follow an irregular pattern, giving the tenrec a nicely bohemian finish.

Oct 23, 2017 The tenrec is not a super fast runner but it keeps moving, sniffing air with a twitching nose. Is it looking for food? Partner?

Oct 23, 2017 Next morning at breakfast time, another (or perhaps the same) tenrec appears on the beach.

Oct 23, 2017 On this stretch of the Masoala peninsula, the shoreline is scattered with black volcanic rocks, sculpted by the Indian Ocean.

Oct 23, 2017 The water level is packed with clams and seashells. Waves roll and unroll thick kelp with the color of Dijon mustard.

Oct 23, 2017 Here and there dead rock comes alive when mudskippers change places on its surface.

Oct 23, 2017 The tenrec crosses the beach, and heads towards the rocks. Climbs up, and down the seaside.

Oct 23, 2017 There it stops midway, turns around, climbs up, down to the beach, hurries over the sand, and vanishes among litter. Tenrecs ❤️

Oct 23, 2017 Short-legged Ground-Roller is the most filming-friendly bird on this planet except perhaps sleepy owls at daytime.

Oct 23, 2017 This handsome, bulky bird sits on a vine ~3 m from the ground. Now and then it turns its head to check if you are still there.

Oct 23, 2017 Scaly Ground-Roller on the other hand stays on the ground. ”Rarely flies”, like the book says.

Oct 23, 2017 The bird looks uniformly dark when it takes distance from you on the path. Only binoculars reveal its scaly, colorful plumage.

Oct 23, 2017 Back home we have an 1yo Miele washing machine.

Oct 23, 2017 When a program finishes, Miele starts to chirp a four-syllable “tee-woo-tee-woo”, almost identical to the call of Lesser Vasa Parrot.

Oct 23, 2017 Zürich Zoo supports the NP, but it also has ”Le Petit Masoala” of its own, a 90x120x30 m man-made tropical ecosystem, opened in 2003.

Oct 30, 2017 ”If a fossa, no tourists.” In 2008, a guide at Berenty Reserve was sure that Madagascar’s biggest carnivore would ruin the business.

Oct 30, 2017 Today at the Kirindy Forest on the W coast, it’s totally opposite.

Oct 30, 2017 For many of us, fossa is the reason why we take the trouble in getting here in the first place.

Oct 30, 2017 You carry your dusty luggage to the basic but functional cabin nr 10, and put them on the squeaky wooden floor.

Oct 30, 2017 – and you are told that if we don’t mind, a male fossa is seen behind cabin nr 13.

Oct 30, 2017 It’s mating season, and the male is restless.

Oct 30, 2017 Panting, the fossa lies on its back, legs spread, then rolls over, stands up, takes few idle steps, and falls on the ground again.

Oct 30, 2017 Dark brown, slender yet muscular, long tail (almost as long as the body), small head, round ears, strong jaw muscles, long mustaches.

Oct 30, 2017 Latin names are confusing at this point. Fossa fossa is not fossa but fanaloka aka Malagasy civet. Fossa is Cryptoprocta ferox.

Oct 30, 2017 A quick glance is thrown to my direction by a Kirindy guide. “They did the…thing…last week, and now he is tired.”

Oct 30, 2017 A🇲🇬-🇫🇷-en code of conduct in the cabin is apt when it explains why you can’t sleep outside:‘There are a ”wild” animals in the forest’.

Oct 30, 2017 It’s an ill-kept secret that fossas stay here because they are fed. There are 3 individuals atm, we are told. 2 males, 1 female.

Oct 30, 2017 During the heat of the day fossas sleep under the cabins. Other times they check the feeding sites, followed by fascinated tourists.

Oct 30, 2017 In the morning, there are footprints on the sandy road that leads to the forest.

Oct 30, 2017 Fast fwd 3 days. Location: Tsingy de Bemaraha NP, <200 km N of Kirindy. In driving hours, incl. lunch in Belo and two ferry trips: 8.

Oct 30, 2017 ”Wait here, I heard something.” Your focus is on a group of white Von der Decken’s sifakas breakfasting up in the canopy.

Oct 30, 2017 Tsiombia ”TV” Tovonasy vanishes behind psychedelic, knife sharp limestone rocks that denote the start of the famous Big Tsingy.

Oct 30, 2017 There is urgency on TV’s face when he rushes back in his plastic sandals. ”Come come, a fossa.”

Oct 30, 2017 The area is a rocky slope w/ few bigger trees. Their thick trunks & branches tilt in an angle that looks just right to born climbers.

Oct 30, 2017 It’s a female. She is midway up on a tree. Short, nasal, cat-like meows. Sniffing of air. Rubbing of scent glands against the branch.

Oct 30, 2017 There is no response. The female fossa descends from the tree, crosses the path, and is gone.

Oct 30, 2017 Except that it is not. But first, after a quarter of an hour of quiet waiting: another fossa above the rocks next to the tree.

Oct 30, 2017 A bigger one, and more grey. A male.

Oct 30, 2017 But the moment is not quite right yet. The male exits, too. Dry leaves on the ground rustle easily so we try not to move much at all.

Oct 30, 2017 Minutes pass. Temperature is rising, hope diminishing. Stingless bees find human sweat irresistible.

Oct 30, 2017 None of us saw when and from where it returned but all of a sudden the female was up on the tree again.

Oct 30, 2017 This time the female climbs higher up, but not the tree where it left its scent but another one next to it.

Oct 30, 2017 From this moment on, time seemed to accelerate.

Oct 30, 2017 As if it had heard the female’s ascent, the male comes back. Maybe it had waited somewhere close by.

Oct 30, 2017 Only 2-3 long, effortless, almost weightless leaps, and the male fossa was high up on the tree with the female.

Oct 30, 2017 The mating act lasted maybe a minute or so. During it, both fossas held a grimace that revealed their impressive canine teeth.

Oct 30, 2017 The male fossa showed also signs of tenderness by licking the female’s back.

Oct 30, 2017 When all was over, the male quickly departs, leaving the female alone. Only after several minutes it came down, too.

Oct 30, 2017 Tough times. The female fossa was limbing. There was fresh blood on its left back paw, so it descended from the tree very carefully.

Oct 31, 2017 Still there, i.e in the Farankaraina Forest, 45min boat ride from Maroantsetra, the busy seaport town in NE, 2 hour flight from Tana.

Oct 31, 2017 The hardest part is camping but when that’s sorted out, there’s a big chance that an aye-aye is close to the main building.

Oct 31, 2017 Night walks in Kirindy Forest are famous and rightly so. Nocturnal lemurs are plenty. In the dry (=leafless) season also easy to see.

Oct 31, 2017 Loud, sharp, nasal calls cut the darkness. ”Fork-marked lemurs”, whispers Nambinina Randriatafitasoa.

Oct 31, 2017 Two of them sit side by side up on a vine, grooming each other.

Oct 31, 2017 ”Most interactions between males and females are conflicts over food – the female wins.”

Oct 31, 2017 I cannot say in what way this couple was related but one thing is certain: the moment was a peaceful one.

Oct 31, 2017 Other species seen: Grey Mouse Lemur; Coquerel’s dwarf lemur; Fat-tailed dwarf lemur; Red-tailed sportive lemur; Berthe’s Mouse Lemur.

Oct 31, 2017 Berthe’s Mouse Lemur (Microcebus berthae) is the world’s smallest primate. Weight: 30g.

Oct 31, 2017 It doesn’t run away from the torchlight so you have time to admire its delicate fingers and huge eyes. So tiny, so endangered.

Oct 31, 2017 If you’d like to see the Giant jumping rat (and who wouldn’t) you need to wait until the Kirindy camp has switched to night gear.

Oct 31, 2017 The generator churns electricity between 6 and 10pm. After that, there is only solar power, if available.

Oct 31, 2017 A good hiding place is the open restaurant. When the lights go off, a lone dim bulb in the ceiling emits just enough lumens.

Oct 31, 2017 It takes a while before Kirindy goes to rest. Headlights travel across the sandy yard. Sleepy flip-flop steps, last showers.

Oct 31, 2017 During the dry season, the camp occupies some 20 staff. In the wet season, the number of ppl increases. Flora and fauna change, too.

Oct 31, 2017 Student groups come to field courses. ”They invent trees, and study frogs and snakes”, explains Nambinina, a 26yro guide from Tana.

Oct 31, 2017 In the restaurant, audible squeaks below the floor and above the ceiling beams. Running in circles over the floor. Rats. A lot.

Oct 31, 2017 10:45pm. Onto the large shadowy area that covers most of the yard is added a new small batch of blackness. It moves.

Oct 31, 2017 The jumping rat runs, in all four, and quickly at that.

Oct 31, 2017 Before we had time to do anything but follow the rodent w/ a torch, it had crossed the yard, and disappeared behind the staff cantine.

Oct 31, 2017 We ran behind, only to see that it was already on the entrance road that runs ruler-straight for 5 km before it reaches the main road.

Oct 31, 2017 But now the Giant jumping rat had stopped. It was sitting in the middle of the road, lifting its small front paws.

Oct 31, 2017 Maybe it was waiting for the others – because others were coming, two of them.

Oct 31, 2017 At Kirindy, Giant jumping rats are often given leftover rice, we heard. This time there wasn’t any, a fact the animals soon found out.

Oct 31, 2017 It is almost surreal that these animals like so many others on Madagascar, have only a single forest left to live. Outside it, 0.

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