On the rocks

22^nd October

Tomorrow I will be up at four o’clock. Lovely though today has been in Isalo, I’ll not write much tonight. The day was hot and the lizards were beautiful, the sky was blue and the scenery dramatic, the broad-billed rollers – just two days back here – were dazzling and the ring-tails a joy as they bounded up the sandstone cliffs this evening to their fosa-proof roosts in Isalo’s caves.

This is a fine place indeed and today to my list I have added these beautiful creatures:

New today in Isalo

	Mammals
97	Verreaux’s sifaka	Propithecus verreauxi
	Birds
913	helmeted guineafowl	Numida meleagris
914	Madagascar turtle dove	Streptopelia picturata
915	Namaqua dove	Oena capensis
916	broad-billed roller	Eurystomus glaucurus
917	Madagascar cisticola	Cisticola cherina
	Reptiles
35	four-lined iguanid	Oplurus quadrimaculatus
36	spiny-tailed iguanid	Oplurus cyclurus
37	big-eyed grass snake	Mimophis mahfalensis
38		Trachylepis elegans

2012 Totals

Mammals: 97

Birds: 917

Reptiles: 38

Amphibians: 16

Fish: 11