Critters: Chameleons emerge!

Fidy, our gate guard, noticed this chameleon in a bush near our house.  He picked it up on a stick and brought it to our courtyard so I could photograph it.  He had several massage customers waiting in line for his services, and took time off to do that.  Notice how it's the same color as the branches on the bush.

                                                                        It's huge!

On the way to the Lemurs' Park with the Richards, we passed this car.  I'd never seen a bride and groom standing in the back seat, top down on the wedding car!  And shielded by a  parasol...

                 The rice paddies are covered with water now so the rice seeds can grow.

These are chalk cliffs.  They are dug to use the chalk for whitewash, chalk, etc. (I say etc. because I don't know what else)

The entrance to the Lemurs' Park, about an hour outside of Tana.  It held a lot of bushes and trees endemic to Madagascar, as well as animals

Blue palm

A river rushed by it, very brown from all the erosion caused by poor farming practices.  People on the other side fish there...it has tilapia.  Here are the Richards.

The water made a wonderful loud rushing sound, and the air smelled so clean and sweet from the pine needles around.

The park is built on five hectares of land, bounded by the river and a wall.  The lemurs stay in because they are fed here.  They can't swim, but I'm not sure if they could climb over the wall.  They are not tame, so don't jump on you in this park.  Kind of a relief to see them not spoiled.

This is a birds' nest!

A very young baobab tree.

A miniature one

Blue palm again

Fish tail palm

                                            A bamboo canopy where many lemurs live

There are six diurnal species of lemurs there, and we saw all six.  There are two nocturnal ones.  The mouse lemur, the smallest of the species, was...sleeping... in a dark cage.

The Crowned Sifaka

A small chameleon, green in honor of the leaves

                                            That roaming eyeball is pretty fascinating

The Coquerel or Dancing Sifaka, squatting on its haunches as if on a throne

That was a gorgeous brown, like chestnut, when the sun shined on it

He was very photogenic!

Third chameleon of the day, this time blending in with a dark stick

Black and white Ruffed

See his ruff?

These three Browns were cuddled together, having a nap

Red Fronted

                                                          Now you can see the red

Contemplating the river

Ring-tailed ("Maki").  This is the kind that invaded our canoe in Andasibe.  It is the symbol of Madagascar, and featured in all the Disney? Pixar? movies

Red-Fronted by the red river!

This Ring-tailed had a bad leg

Contemplating

The river was quite wide

A house on the other side of the river, with a rooster on the roof!

A guava bush, guavas not ripe for another month or so

These Radiated turtles are the largest growing ones.  This one is quite young.

On its way to get a drink from the pond

Picturesque turtle shelter

The mouse lemur, sleeping--see him?  ;)