Zafindrasity sy totokaratsoka

1^st November

Early morning saw us in the forest, close to a nest attended by male and female Schlegel’s asities. The male of this dazzlingly beautiful bird gave a quick quiver of display to his lady and burst into a shock of yellows and metallic blue and turquoise. No words suffice.

Mid morning saw us in the forest again, watching elegantly rakish red-capped couas trot across the trails, finding Van Dam’s vanga whistling vociferously from a treetop and tracking down, at last, an exquisitely lovely male white-breasted mesite.

The afternoon saw us on a boat on Lac Ravelobe, Nile crocodiles circling around us, Allen’s gallinules and a little bittern flying low over mats of non-native water hyacinth, and an African darter stock still on a fallen tree.

Dusk saw us again on the edge of the park. Here were more fat-tailed dwarf lemurs and grey mouse lemurs. Here too were new eyes, shining in the night from a little bright-coloured lemur. This was the locally endemic golden-brown mouse lemur, our target for the evening, our last possible lemur in Ankarafantsika, our twenty-first species of lemur since the tour began, and beautifully seen by our group.

Then things got really good. A greater hedgehog tenrec, newly emerged from dry season aestivation, shot across the track and crouched in a drainage ditch. High in a mango tree Claude found a sleeping rhinoceros chameleon, a highlight of the area and one of the most longed-for reptiles of the tour.

Sometimes the forest is silent; and sometimes it sings.

New today in Ankarafantsika

	Mammals
110	golden-brown mouse lemur	Microcebus ravelobensis
111	greater hedgehog tenrec	Setifer setosus
	Birds
958	Allen’s gallinule	Porphyrula alleni
959	Madagascar blue vanga	Cyanolanius madagascarinus
960	Schlegel’s asity	Philepitta schlegeli
961	long-billed tetraka	Bernieria madagascariensis
962	red-capped coua	Coua ruficeps
963	Van Dam’s vanga	Xenopirostris damii
964	white-breasted mesite	Mesitornis variegate
965	African darter	Anhinga rufa
966	little bittern	Ixobrychus minutus
	Reptiles
57	Nile crocodile	Crocodylus niloticus
58	Madagascar hog-nosed snake	Leioheterodon madagascariensis
59	rhinoceros chameleon	Furcifer rhinoceratus
	Fish
12	Nile perch	Lates niloticus

2012 Totals

Mammals: 111

Birds: 966

Reptiles: 59

Amphibians: 16

Fish: 12