Berenty

27^th October

As I write tonight a white-footed sportive lemur bounds down the tin roof of my cabin and disappears into the night giving his breathy call. A Torotoroka scops owl hoots, softly, rhythmically, nearby. Today we reached Berenty.

The road was very bad – worse even than last year – and the journey long; but this place has an alchemy of its own and it’s impossible for anyone – clients and tour leaders alike – to arrive here and not forget in five minutes the early start, the incompetence of Air Madagascar, and the coccyx-crunching state of disrepair of Route Nationale 13.

For as soon as you step from your minibus in Berenty you are greeted by ring-tailed lemurs strutting across the red soil of the car park. In the edge of the forest are families of hybrid brown lemurs with little youngsters (these are the gene-jumbled descendents of red-fronted brown and red-collared brown lemurs, neither of which belongs here but which were misguidedly released in the past). A family of Verreaux’s sifakas speeds through the trees and all thoughts of discomfort or of long journeys are forgotten.

This evening we walked in the gallery forest. Almost as soon as we entered it my torch’s beam fell on the bright eyes of a sedate sportive lemur, the first of several we saw. Less sedate were four grey mouse lemurs which pinged through the understorey at speed. Spiny-backed chameleons dozed, white-browed owls sang – wrrroh! – and we felt privileged to have reached this last island of wild habitat in a sisal sea.

New today in Berenty and on our journey here

	Mammals
100	white-footed sportive lemur	Lepilemur leucopus
101	grey mouse lemur	Microcebus murinus
	Birds
950	giant coua	Coua gigas
951	Torotoroka scops owl	Otus madagascariensis
	Reptiles
47	Madagascar lined snake	Bibilava lateralis
48	changeable day gecko	Phelsuma mutabilis
49		Lygodactylus tuberosus

2012 Totals

Mammals: 101

Birds: 951

Reptiles: 49

Amphibians: 15

Fish: 11