Madagascar travelogue

[Alexl]

Hi everybody,

I finally managed to set up my last Madagascar travelogue from this year in english, so I wanted to share it with you. Originally I wanted to post the pictures here inside the forums, but that's way too much for one thread. Or two ort three... I visited Madagascar's west coast (Ankarafantsika, Ambilobe, Ankify, Ankaramy, Djangoa, Ambanja...) and Andasibe on the east coast in several weeks in April/May, which is the best time to see especially the chameleons in full colours. Well, my english isn't the best and not every word is translated yet, but I think at least the pictures are worth to see . My favourites are the Furcifer timoni, the male yellow giant parsonii and the Calumma gallus males.

http://www.masika-sipa.de/en Go to Nordwesten '13 for the travelogue (don't know why exactly this one single word doesn't want to be translated)

If you like to have special habitat pictures etc., just let me now, I couldn't put all 3500 pictures into the website. We also collected habitat data, which will be published soon on www.madcham.com (as soon as we will renew the whole page...we're at it for some weeks now, cause it's a mess of data and species pictures to upload). I measured UVB in every place I visited additionally, the graphics will be published on madcham.com too, probably in May (then hopefully together with up to date measurements from the east coast).

Enjoy!

 

[Psychobunny]

I enjoyed that very much, I cant get enough!
Thanks for posting, I think if I went there, I wouldnt want to come home!!

 

[SaintJimmy]

Wow, I'm seconding that. Lots of beautiful pics and things to read about Thanks for sharing.

Those beautiful chams with the purple (carpets?) are so amazing

 

[anwebb]

Amazing photography, very inspirational, absolutely fantastic blog! Loved it!

 

[Alexl]

Thanks, I'm glad you like it.

Those beautiful chams with the purple (carpets?) are so amazing

You probably mean Furcifer viridis, which still belong to the lateralis clade. We found two females and one male during "pee breaks" . They were called Furcifer lateralis, too, until revision in 2012:

FLORIO, A. M., INGRAM, C. M., RAKOTONDRAVONY, H. A., LOUIS, E. E. and RAXWORTHY, C. J. 2012. Detecting cryptic speciation in the widespread and morphologically conservative carpet chameleon (Furcifer lateralis) of Madagascar. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 25: 1399–1414

 

[Decadancin]

Thanks for sharing! This is awesome! (and you never have to apologize for your language, you are doing us the favor!)

 

[Alexl]

Hi everyone,

I've been in Madagascar again this year, at the Eastcoast (Marojejy, Masoala/Nosy Mangabe, Akanin'ny Nofy, Sambava, Maroantsetra...) and took a lot of pictures. And of cause I wrote some kind of diary about sightings, found chameleons and so on. And nooooow translation is finished!

This time we managed to find Brookesia vadoni, the most colourful Brookesia species alive... amazing creatures, I'm still so proud and glad to have seen them in their habitat. My boyfriend has been to Madagascar for almost 20 years, and it was the first time for him to see a vadoni, too. A little less rare, but not less beautiful are the other chameleons. Of cause Furcifer pardalis, but also Furcifer bifidus, some yellow giant Parson's, Calumma gallus, Calumma marojezense, Calumma parsonii cristifer. And I've encountered my personal favourite besides chameleons, the Aye-Aye, much more close than I've expected them to see at all. Have fun reading!

www.masika-sipa.de