In September 2013 I spent a
fortnight in Madagascar with my partner Helen as part of a group on an
organised “Exodus” trip. Of course I was particularly interested in seeing and
photographing the unique wildlife of the island (and in particular its lemurs),
a high proportion of which are endemic.
The wildlife did not disappoint:
we saw 13 species of lemurs together with a bewildering array of birds, reptiles
(including some spectacular chameleons), amphibians and invertebrates. However,
we also had plenty of opportunities to observe and interact with the Malagasy
people, both on the long bus journeys that were involved with crossing the
island from east to west and during rest and overnight stops.
During our fortnight on the
island I took over 3000 photographs, ultimately keeping around 1000 as a
photographic record of our visit. The images below give a flavour of the
wildlife and the people that we came across.
Wildlife
Madagascar is most famous for its
lemurs, a family of mammals that exists in the wild only here and on one or two
other small Indian Ocean islands. It is now possible to track some of the rarer
lemurs in Madagascar’s reserves using transmitters and receivers, together with
the knowledge of the excellent local guides. As a consequence we were able to
observe two of the rarest mammals in the world, the Golden and Greater Bamboo
Lemurs. However, photographing lemurs in the wild proved, in most cases, to be
incredibly difficult. Animals were often high in the tree canopy, in the shade,
but adjacent to bright patches of light as the sun shone through gaps in the
foliage. I had to resort to manual focussing and bracketing images: even so,
most were unusable. Fortunately the commoner lemurs (in particular Ring-tailed
Lemurs [Image 1] and Verreaux’s Sifakas) proved to be rather more photogenic:
consequently, a high proportion of my lemur images feature these two species. A
few nocturnal lemurs, including Hubbard’s Sportive Lemur (Image 2) were also
seen in the daytime.
Image
1: Ring-tailed Lemurs, Anja NP
Image
2: Hubbard’s Sportive Lemur, Zombitse NP
Madagascar has more species of
(endemic) chameleons than the whole of Africa and we were lucky to see several
of these including Parson’s Chameleon (Image 3), the largest in the world.
Birdlife seen included a high proportion of species endemic to Madagascar,
together with familiar birds such as Great White Egret and Common Myna. Madagascar
Hoopoes (Image 4) look very similar to European and African Hoopoes, but are a
separate species. We also saw some amazing invertebrates, including giant
spiders (non-venomous!), praying mantises, stick insects, scorpions, crabs and
the bizarre Giraffe-necked Weevil!
Image
3: Parson’s Chameleon, Perinet NP
Image
4: Madagascar Hoopoes, Anakao
People
The Malagasy people are, with a few
exceptions, incredibly poor yet very dignified. The country has recently been
rocked by political upheaval, whilst corruption and economic mismanagement
amongst senior officials have made matters worse. Birth control is virtually
non-existent in a country where Catholicism (introduced by the French, who
colonised the country from 1895 to 1960) is the major religion, and AIDS is
rampant. Half the population is under 20 years of age, but the average life
expectancy is only 62.
Our tour involved several long bus journeys
and I became habituated to taking photographs of the landscape and the people
through the bus windows as we drove along, or at the various stops along the
route. Images 5-8 are representative of the many hundreds of photographs that I
took along the way.
Image 5: Broom
Wholesaler and Traders, Antananarivo
Image
6: Malagasy Boy with Coke Bottle
Image 7: Rum Factory Worker near Tulear
Image 8: Malagasy
Couple on Traditional Boat, Anakao
Some parts of the capital,
Antananarivo, were designated as “no go” areas for tourists, but otherwise our
movements were not restricted and we enjoyed interacting with the people,
bartering for souvenirs and learning about the culture. This was a fascinating
holiday, both for the traveller and for the travel photographer, and I have had
no problems putting together a slide show that shines a light on this unique
country, its wildlife and its people.
Learning Points
·
Photographing subjects in forests where there
are extremes of contrast is extremely tricky! To stand a chance of getting
decent results it seems best to shoot entirely manually and I should consider bracketing
exposures using the D7000 in order to under- and over-expose by (say) two
shots.
·
Concentration is required at all times to
capture that “decisive moment”!
For a selection of other wildlife
images, see my gallery at: www.roystonwildlife.com
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