The Wildlife of Madagascar’s Magical Forests with Oliver Smart

Arrive Antananarivo (Tana). Met on arrival and transfer to your hotel.

Today we transfer to the airport to take a flight to Fort Dauphin in the far south of Madagascar. On arrival we make the bumpy 4-hour transfer through the eerie spiny forest to the Berenty Private Reserve. Depending on the timing of the flight, we can explore the reserve and take a night walk to look for nocturnal wildlife.

A full day to enjoy the wildlife of the Berenty Reserve. The gallery and spiny forests of this reserve are famed for their many habituated ring-tailed lemurs and photogenic “dancing” Verreaux’s sifakas.

This is one of the best locations in Madagascar to observe and photograph the "dancing" behaviour of these wonderful sifakas. While the curious and bold ringtails will also provide many memorable encounters and photography as they interact with each other and walk the trails with their tails up in the air. With luck we will also hopefully see some new born baby lemurs clinging to their mothers.

The reserve also supports a large colony of Madagascar flying foxes, white-footed sportive lemurs and gray-brown mouse lemurs. In the evening we can take a night walk in the bizarre spiny forest for its nocturnal species.

Today we can enjoy another full day of morning and afternoon guided walks on the easy and flat forest trails.

Besides the wonderful lemurs, birds we may see and photograph include the hook-billed and sickle-billed vangas, Madagascar paradise flycatcher, the ashy cuckooshrike, white-browed owl, greater and lesser vasa parrots and the souimanga sunbird. We also spend time with the fascinating reptiles of this habitat such as thick-tailed and fish-scaled geckos, various skinks, warty chameleons and snakes such as the Dumeril’s ground boa.

We have another morning for wildlife viewing and photography in Berenty. After lunch we will make the 4 hour drive back to Fort Dauphin for the night, stopping to admire and photograph the spiny forest, local villages and mountains along the way.

Today we will take a domestic flight back to Tana. Depending on the time of the flight we will then visit Tsarasaotra Lake in a district of Tana for some urban birdwatching. Here we can see a variety of waterfowl, egrets, herons, Madagascar malachite kingfishers, swamp warblers, white-throated rails and also many beautiful butterflies and dragonflies.

Today we will transfer to the airport to take our domestic flight to Morondava. On arrival we transfer to the Kirindy Reserve past the Avenue of Baobabs and begin exploring the reserve in search of its special wildlife including eight species of lemur.

The 10,000-hectare Kirindy reserve is a rare remnant of Madagascar’s threatened dry tropical deciduous forest.

Highlights may include the acrobatic Verreaux’s sifaka, red-fronted brown lemur, the charismatic predatory fossa, narrow-striped mongoose (bokiboky) and birds such as the white-breasted mesite and crested coua.

In the evening we will take a night walk to see nocturnal species including the tiny Madame Berthe's mouse lemur, the smallest primate in the world and the strange giant jumping rat.

Today we will have exciting morning and afternoon guided walks in the Kirindy Reserve in search of its special wildlife. In the late afternoon we will particularly be on the lookout for fossa and narrow striped mongoose around the lodge grounds.

Later in the evening we will take another night walk where we could encounter big-headed panther geckos, ground boas, scops owls and six species of nocturnal lemur.

This morning we will have a final morning of wildlife photography around Kirindy. We then transfer back to Morondava for lunch and some time to rest and swim in the pool in the afternoon. In the evening we then return to the Avenue of Baobabs to take enjoy and photograph these iconic 800 year old trees in the best light.

Today we transfer to the airport for our flight back to Tana. We then continue to transfer (4 hours) on to Andasibe.

In the evening we will take a short night walk along the road outside the hotel to spot and hopefully photograph nocturnal wildlife of the rainforest. This might include the cute Goodman's mouse lemur and furry-eared dwarf lemur or a tiny stump tailed chameleon such as the Brookesia superciliaris.

This morning we will visit the Analamazotra (Perinet) Reserve. Here the wonderful tail-less indris are particularly habituated allowing for some very intimate and memorable sightings and photographic opportunities.

Other diurnal lemur species such as the eastern bamboo lemur, common brown lemur and stunning diademed sifaka can also hopefully be found during our time here.

Bird highlights might include the nuthatch, red-tailed and blue vangas, Madagascar cuckoo roller, and if lucky the skulking brown mesite or a roosting collared nightjar.

In the afternoon we can visit one of the community-run sections of Perinet such as the Voihamana or Mitsinjo Reserve. These forest sections are also excellent for close views of lemurs and are particularly good for the lowland streaked tenrec and Parson's chameleon. As dusk approaches, we will stay in the forest to enjoy the great nocturnal wildlife opportunities here.

An early drive (1 ½ hours) takes us to Mantadia National Park to the north. Here we can explore the mysterious old growth primary rainforest in search of some very special and diverse wildlife.

Our highlights will hopefully include encounters with the vocal and agile black-and-white ruffed lemur, diademed sifaka and reptiles and frogs such as colourful painted mantella frogs, nose-horned chameleons and unusual insects such as the giraffe-necked weevil.

Mantadia is home to an extraordinary bird life and we can look for the beautiful pitta-like and scaly ground rollers, the shy red-fronted coua and blue couas, Meller's duck, Madagascar wood rail, velvet asity, Crossley's babbler and tylas vanga to name a few.

We return to the hotel for the afternoon and some time at leisure before another evening walk for more nocturnal species.

Today we have a final morning to explore one of the local rainforest reserves such as Perinet or Mantadia. The choice of exactly which reserve to visit can be decided locally depending on the local conditions, sightings and the group’s interests.

After lunch we will transfer 3 hours by road to the village of Manambato, for our boat transfer through the Pangalanes Canal to the Palmarium Reserve.

In the early evening we depart for a 15-minute boat ride to a small forested islet on the edge of Lake Ampitabe, followed by a short walk to a viewing area. Here we can enjoy a rare opportunity to watch and photograph wild aye ayes only a few meters away as they feed on coconuts left by the rangers.

Today we can enjoy morning and afternoon guided walks in the 50-hectare Palmarium Reserve to observe and photograph the diurnal wildlife in this palm filled littoral forest reserve.

This is the perfect location for us to enjoy some very intimate views and photography of lemurs as the numerous lemurs found here are exceptionally confiding as they are regularly given titbits from the guides. Many of the lemurs have been introduced to the reserve from outside of their natural range.

However, this is an ideal site for those looking to take more abstract and artistic images and practice with their camera.

The reserve also supports many reptiles and endemic frogs including the beautiful blue reed frog: Heterixalus madagascariensis and giant hog-nosed snake, plus an exceptional range of palms and orchids.

In the evening we can enjoy a second aye aye excursion for more memorable sightings and photography with these wonderful lemurs.

Today we make the long but interesting journey back through the rice growing countryside of Eastern Madagascar to Tana. We will arrive at our hotel, Relais Des Plateaux in the late afternoon and have time for a final dinner and use of a room before transferring to the airport for departing flights. (An overnight and airport transfer the next day can also be arranged)