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
6 Comments
-
-
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.
-
Anna Bauerová
Thank you for your comment. To be honest, I would have imagined the recommendation to be different from how they were kept at Palmarium. Here, it seemed that the lemurs were not even fed (with the exception of the aye-aye) and were just tame, which is also the case with those living in the wild. The lemurs in Andasibe were also tame and would walk right up to the hotel grounds, but they weren’t kept by the hotel. But I can’t deny that I had my doubts about whether it was right to go to Palmarium. I even consulted with a primatologist who was working in Ranomafana at the time before I left, and he wasn’t nearly as dismissive of Palmarium. So thank you for the recommendation, I’ll look into it for next time. I had no idea how unsuccessful they are.
-
-
-
Anna Bauerová
Yes, we only planned to travel on paved roads during the dry season, so the car was fine. The only problem was the condition of the roads – lots of holes and many zebu cart, so the journey took a long time. But it would have been the same with a local driver. The only challenging terrain we ventured into was the road to Manambata to catch the boat to Palmarium. Next time, I would plan it differently because we spent a lot of time in the car, but we didn’t encounter any restrictions. Once, we took a wrong turn in Antananarivo, and the police stopped us within a minute, but even that went smoothly and without a fine.
It was Avis – we contacted them using the phone number listed on Google. Everything went smoothly, and returning the car at the airport was no problem at all. However, apart from holidays and unusual events, they should usually have a window open at the airport. In any case, it was perfectly adequate for the route Antananarivo – Ranomafana – Morondava and Andasibe, and we didn’t even need a 4×4 vehicle.
-
-
AlexS
Some lemur species seen in Palmarium should not be on a trip list. They are not even close to their natural range (for instance Crowned Lemur and Black Lemur only live in Northern Madagascar). Personally I would even suggest to leave Palmarium out of any mammal trip report. If you are a nature reserve with conservation goals, you should not have hybrids or species far out of their natural range. Other comments on your report support my bad feeling about this place…..
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
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?