Berenty

Berenty Private Reserve, not far from the south-east corner of the island, is famous for its habituated lemurs, but offers a great deal more besides, notably one of the few intact gallery forests of the region. There are also some small patches of spiny forest surviving, although the depressing sisal plantations surrounding the site are pretty sobering. It was warm and dry throughout our time at Berenty.

We reached Berenty after a short flight to Fort Dauphin from Tana, and a long drive through some amazing but patchy spiny forest. The lodge seemed quite tired and touristy, and the food and service were not good. However, the individual cabins were fine, if a little hot, and prone to being raided by the resident Ring-tailed Lemurs. The small museum is of some interest, largely because it has an intact Elephant Bird egg.

On the journey we connected with some birds, notably Lafresnaye's Vanga perched on top of some Didierea. At the lodge we bumped into White-browed Owl outside our room, and also saw Warty Chameleon on a night walk. At breakfast we were entertained by the habituated Ring-tailed Lemurs who gathered to make commando-style raids on the tables. Their habit of warming themselves in the sun in the mornings was alarmingly human. Also each morning the Verreaux's Sifakas cross the paths in the lodge grounds in their incredible sideways 'dance', often with babies clinging to their backs.

In the forest here we encountered several Giant Couas, but moreover the elusive and very difficult Madagascar Cuckoo-hawk. On the sandy dried up riverbed we had a single Madagascar Sandgrouse. Here we also came across the Berenty Red-fronted Brown Lemur hybrids whose existence is threatening the Ring-tailed Lemurs. We also found a White-footed Sportive Lemur peering out of a tree hole, in its usual startled fashion. A new 'herptile' seen here was the Three-eyed Lizard, with a vestigial 'pineal' eye on the top of its head, and we also enjoyed the large roost of Madagascar Fruit Bats.

Whilst here we visited a tiny patch of the spiny forest engulfed in a depressing sea of sisal, and found some really cool Flatid Leaf Bugs, as well as a lame Green-capped Coua (apparently it had been like this for some time and was surviving perfectly well). There were also two huge Warty Chameleons, and two Torotoroka Scops Owls roosting amongst some Prickly Pear.The night walks here were not as productive as elsewhere, but we did pick up another Grey Mouse Lemur.