Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
A large, loud, and spectacularly agile rainforest-dwelling lemur, it is usually considered a single species, Varecia variegata.
Some argue that its three subspecies are so distinct that they should be classified as three species.
Alas, beyond argument is its/their status: critically endangered.
Comments closedThe largest and loudest of living lemur species has to be heard to be believed!
Humpback whales are the oceans’ most prodigious “singers”; arguably, the Indri (Indri indri) is the grand champion “vocalist” among land mammals.
Comments closedThis is a wee landscape sequel to the first lemur post (more lemur posts to come, soon)
Comments closedLooks rather like a Paris-styled raccoon.
(Primatologist Alison Jolly’s 1967 description of Madagascar’s emblematic mammal)
Lemur catta – the ring-tailed lemur – is the most “adaptable” of circa 107 lemur species.
However, like other lemurs, its post-1967 story is one of potentially catastrophic decline, mostly via destruction of suitable habitat.
Comments closed“Languid”, “calm”, “quiet”, “gentle”…could such words ever properly describe a market, let alone a butcher’s shop within one?
They did in fact fit our experience of the covered market in Antsirabe, late on the morning of 12 May 2018.
One CommentChapter Two is international, and includes a musical bonus – audio of two of my favourite rain songs. (one of them is an “unissued” version)
Comments closedNearly half of the world’s circa 200 species of chameleon live only in Madagascar, including the most massive – Parson’s chameleon, Calumma parsoni.
Its spectacular ability to change colour is a means of communication rather than camouflage.
Comments closedRing-tailed lemurs (pictured above, in Anja National Park) are its emblematic animal.
Parson’s chameleon (pictured below, near Ranomafana) is the world’s biggest chameleon.
Comments closedWe are in France for our first time.
However, this bit of France is very much closer to Madagascar than to Paris!
Reunion is a spectacular volcanic island; its (and the entire Indian Ocean’s) highest peak soars more than 3,000 metres above the sea…and rather more than half of the whole mountain is below the sea’s surface.
Comments closedSome local tourist promoters and “official” signage falsely claim that marimo live nowhere else.
However, eastern Hokkaido’s Lake Akan is the best place to see them.
Akan has by far the largest known examples of this rare and astonishing algal form…and the lake and its surrounds are beautiful in their own right.
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