Unique Madagascar
The father-son duo of Randeep and Arshdeep Singh are back, exploring this island in wilderness
Madagascar is a dream destination for someone who is really passionate about wildlife. It is an island off the southeast coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean with approximately twenty six million inhabitants. Luckily for me, I had to travel to Madagascar for a business trip. So I thought that I would mix my business trip with my passion for wildlife photography.
I planned this trip with my son and he was very excited about this trip. Since the crime rate in Madagascar is quite high, I was a little worried and hesitated to go there; but after speaking to a friend, with his guidance. My love for nature and my passion for wildlife have always boosted me to work hard and explore wonderful destinations.
We landed at Antananarivo Airport in by a few hours, we had no option, but to drive at night to the Andasibe-Mantadia National Park. It is dangerous to travel at night in Madagascar and we were warned against it, but, we really did not have another option. One of my friends from Madagascar provided us with private security so that we could travel safely at night. We reached Andasibe-Mantadia National Park post midnight and our lodge was inside the forest. After a good night’s sleep, we were ready to explore the national park the following morning.
we had to trek a lot to get a glimpse of the lemurs, reptiles, birds and other wildlife there. We saw various types of lemurs such as Common Brown Lemur, Diademed Sifaka, Indri, Eastern Grey Bamboo Lemur and Red Ruffed Lemur. The picture of the Common Brown Lemur is really special and close to me and my son’s hearts. We saw this particular Common Brown Lemur that was jumping from one tree to another. We focused on it through our lenses, as it sat on one of the tree trunks closer to us, but all I could see was its back. We waited for a while and then walked to a small mud mound, which brought us to eye level with this lemur. We waited further and as soon as this charming creature looked towards us, we both captured this beautiful moment on our cameras while it sat quietly, watching us. We then left him on his own, but, it surely was an amazing moment for us to see the Common Brown Lemur up close. Then, we shifted our focus to the Diademed Sifaka Lemurs. We had to wait for almost three hours and it was afternoon soon. Luckily, we had packed our lunch before leaving and had it in the forest. The Diademed Sifaka Lemurs were still sitting quite high on the tree branches. We just kept sitting on the ground, which, I guess, built up their came down and sat just a few metres away from us. It fed on the fruits and leaves close by. I did not want to make a sudden movement by taking my camera out and scare the creature in front of us. So, I asked my son, who had his camera ready for capture. As soon as the lemur turned his face towards us, Arshdeep captured the moment. It was a really cool shot of the cute looking Diademed Sifaka Lemur. We walked a few more miles in the afternoon and it was very tiring for us but we were determined to cover more distance. As we walked,
I suddenly felt something moving very close to me. I thought it was some kind of reptile as it was behind the bushes. I asked Arshdeep to look as he was closer to the bushes. He peeped through the bushes and saw a lemur different than the ones we had seen earlier. It was a little beauty called the Eastern Lesser Bamboo Lemur or Grey Bamboo Lemur. My son just stood there motionless and after a short while, took out his camera. It seemed like this lemur had just been waiting for us to capture this perfect portrait shot. It came towards us and just kept on looking at us. I guess, he was curious of our presence. As the creature stood there, trying to understand what was happening, Arshdeep took the shot. It was an unbelievable sighting of this rare little beauty of Madagascar. It was a beautiful moment for us. In the evening, we saw a variety of amazing birds such as Madagascar Flycatcher, Madagascar Fody, Olive Bee Eater, Madagascar Bulbul and Madagascar Sparrow-hawk and I captured many shots of these birds as well. It was getting dark and we were walking towards our lodge when our guide asked us if we would be interested in a night walk in the forest. Needless to say, my son and I happily agreed. We saw some fascinating insects, frogs and chameleons on our night tour. We saw the beautiful Wooly Lemur. Arshdeep was so excited to see this cute little lemur that he immediately captured it on his camera. We also saw a huge chameleon called Parsons Chameleon which was more than two feet in length. I was surprised at the size of this creature but it was too dark to shoot.
On the second day, we began our trek early again. The forest was so dense that it looked dark even after the sunrise. We walked more than two miles and became tired. As we sat quietly for a followed the bird and watched it land could not see anything. He whispered in my ears that the bird was just a few feet away from us but I still could not see it. He took out his lens and waited, as there were a lot of branches that hid his view. He got the picture of the bird and on inspection, it turned out to be a Nightjar. I immediately knew that it was a Nightjar as I had seen many different species of this bird in India as well. He got close to a small opening on the and when he saw the bird through his were two of them. I was even more surprised to hear this as the previous shot only had one Nightjar in sight. I asked him to check again and shoot but when he clicked the picture, I saw the just amazing to see a pair of Nightjar eyes locked together and the fact that