Trip to Madagascar
Three-week trip to Madagascar – observed several species of lemurs, visited the Palmarium reserve with Aye-Aye.
Trip to Madagascar
Post author
Anna Bauerová
3 Comments
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Jacob Zinn
The radio-collared aye-ayes at Kianjavato are also a good option for seeing wild individuals of the species. This is not a national park, and there are opportunities for night walks. Additionally, you will be supporting the conservation mission and operating costs of the research station there.
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robbizl
Due to the Malagasy authority’s regulations, night walk is not allowed in all the national parks in Madagascar which made to see a wild Aye-aye became bits like a mission impossble, more or less. While, the Palmarium seems the only option at hand. But, LaFleur et al. (2019/2020) published a paper on the Lemur News (Vol. 22) pointed out that the very Palmarium did not hold a good record of keep indriids lemurs in captivity. During authors visit in July 2018 to the site, they been told that all Coquerel’s Sifakas had died. And in 2015, four adults Indri been translocated from Ambalarondra to the Palmarium to replace animals that had died before the new arrival. Furthermore, this place even put the hybrid lemur on its big sign at the entrance as Eulemur hybride, which shown that the owner and management personnel of that private so called “reserve” do not feel anything wrong about created those hybrids, even use them as a tourism attarction. Considering this place’s not so bright captive history and their ongoing attitude to the Eulemur population management, as a mammal enthusiast who shall keep the conservation concern at the very first place, I do not believe that to visit the Palmarium is a good idea. In fact, the IUCN SSC Primates section on Human-primate interactions published a guide “Responsible Primate-Watching for Tourists” (2023), authors of the Madagascar chapter given some recommendations as follow: Confirm with your tour operator that you will not be visiting/staying at any hotels, ecolodges or restaurants that keep lemurs. That’s sounds like a good point to start with, isn’t it?