Walking in the shadow of the Indri…



Brown lemur silhouette as i make my way to the park

Indri looking down at me

My quarry in Andasibe was the Indri Indri which is the largest living lemur weighing around 8kgs. Surprisingly, I had never heard of it before researching Madagascar because I thought that the Ring Tailed Lemur was the biggest and that could be attributed to the fact that it’s the most recognized lemur species.

Indri just about to take off

Some species of frog This could be because it has a fairly cute and marketable face and tail, so no wonder that it was this species that was portrayed in the movie Madagascar. It also does not hurt that the Ring Tailed Lemur is the most terrestrial of all the lemurs and has a reputation of socializing with humans.

Diademed Sifaka


The park at Andasibe-Mantadia was the best place to see the Indri so, as I woke up the next day I had a quite sense of excitement building up. Around 6am I got out of my chalet and noticed that my chalet was right behind the entrance to the Andasibe train station.

The village of Andasibe lied at the other side of the train tracks so I walked across the tracks to a small shack surrounded by a bunch of early risers having coffee. I needed some carbs for that day so I ate some slightly sweetened rice cakes (somewhat similar to idli’s in India) and some coffee.

Breakfast time

Andasibe with its picturesque train station and village, hills and rain forests, and eucalyptus and pine plantations reminded me of some of the hill stations in India which used to be the summer homes of the British in Colonial India. During colonial French era in Madagascar, Andasibe used to be a major refueling destination with the fast growing eucalyptus and pine trees used as fuel in the steam engines of the trains.


Some species of Gecko


The entrance to the main park of Andasibe was a twenty minute walk from the village of Andasibe. The morning was cool and hazy and on my way I caught sight of a group of 8-9 red fronted brown lemurs foraging in the trees right beside the road leading to the park. I sat down to see them for 15mins and then they disappeared into the thick of the jungle and I proceeded towards the park entrance.

At a distance of about 10 yards

As I neared the park entrance I could hear the calls of the Indri that to me sounded somewhat like a roar and somewhat like a wailing cry. Evidently these calls are their means of communication with each other and together with their stature, and presence of only a small tail might explain the reason why the Malagasy consider them to be their ancestors.

We were probably one of the earliest ones to get in the park and after hiking for 20mins we saw an indri sitting on a tree in its very typical pose of resting on its hind legs with its knees resting around the vertical truck of the tree. The rain forest of Andasibe was different from the one in the south west region of Madagascar because the trees were lush with leaves and a long truck with no branches on the lower end. This made seeing the Indri doubly difficult since it was tough to observe them in the canopy of the forest and I could not even climb the trees to get a better view.


I was however lucky to see the Indri’s jumping from one tree to another and it was special to see that as they are reputed to easily make jumps as far wide as 10 meters with powerful hind legs. It surprising how they can make the jump from one vertical truck of a tree to another all while having their body perfectly vertical. My guide left me to admire the Indri and set off in the jungle to see if he could spot any other lemurs and he came back after 10mins and suggested that we move a little further where he had seen another species of Lemur…the Diademed Sifaka.

Brown lemur on the way back to the Andasibe

This was the 3rd Sifaka I had seen in Madagascar and the coloring on its fur was different from the Verreaux's and Decken’s Sifakas because it had a beautiful shade of gold and grey-silver. It was interesting to hear that the Indri and the Diademed Sifaka share the same forest but there is no competition for food between them as the Diademed Sifaka lives at a lower level of the canopy and their diet also varies slightly from the Indri.

Train Station of Andasibe

Andasibe

Later than afternoon I saw a few more Indri, one of which was a very close encounter. I was fortunate that one of the Indri was at a lower level of the canopy and there was one tree that allowed me to scale a little off the ground so I could get a better view of it. The Indri was perhaps about 10 yards from me before it decided to jump higher into the canopy.

Main street of Andasibe

Some species of chameleon

After a satisfactory walk in the park I returned back to the village of Andasibe to have my lunch and walk around this picturesque village.

That night was my last night in Madagascar and made sure that I went into the jungle for one last time for a night walk. The sighting was not as productive as the morning but we sill managed to see 4 species of Chameleons (one of which was new to me), a couple species of frogs and glowing eyes of the mouse and dwarf lemurs. One of the better memories was walking back to my chalet through the pitch darkness of the jungle.