Due to
flight schedules we had to visit the far-flung Marojejy National Park. This
park was of special interest to me for rumours about genuine Dusky Tetraka´s
seen here. Unfortunately these rumours turned out to be false and we saw none of
these mythical creatures. However, I still think this is The place to search
for this phantom, due to the variety of the forests and the extremely high
quality of them in this national park. The main draw of this national park is
however the charismatic mega fauna that can almost solely be observed here:
Silky Sifaka.
We had
unfortunately only one night inside the park due to our flight from Sambava to
Maroantsetra and a delayed taxi-brousse from Diego Suarez to Sambava (very,
very rough road). To get to Marojejy you have to take the taxi-brousse from
Sambave to Antalaha and ask to be dropped at the national park office. To get
back to Sambava you can flag down a passing taxi-brousse or simply hitch a
ride, which we found to be much more comfortable.At the
office, which is amazingly well organized, you can arrange everything for your
visit into the park. Staying overnight inside the park is highly recommended,
especially at camp two. The cabines are awesome and the view is breathtaking.
Unfortunately we stayed at camp one, for we lacked time, but we got a good look
at camp two. Camp one is also very nice, but the views are not as nice as at
camp two. To get to the national park you have to walk four km from the office.
Once inside
the park we started seeing good species almost immediately and species noted on
our way to camp one included Purple Heron (ssp. madagascariensis), Red-breasted Coua and Chabert´s Vanga. At camp one we heard Madagascar
Long-eared Owl and many Rainforest Scops Owls. We also observed Brown Mouse
Lemurs. Reptiles included Uroplatus
sikorae, Calumna nasutum, C. boettgeri and Furcifer pardelis.
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Red-breasted Coua (Coua serriana) eating Brookesia spec. |
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Furcifer Pardelis |
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Uroplatus sikorae (picture taken by Matt Baillie) |
The next
day we walked to camp two and back to the office. This walk produced Blue and
Red-breasted Couas, Alpine Swift (ssp.
willisi),
Long-billed Bernieria, White-headed and Madagascar Blue Vanga and Rand´s
Warbler. We also saw two Helmet Vanga nests, but they had already fledged two
or three days before and we did not manage to find them. The lemurs however
stole the show: we saw Eastern Grey Bamboo Lemur, White-fronted Brown Lemur and
after a long search we finally also connected with the “Spirit of the forest”:
Silky Sifaka.
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Silky Sifaka (Propithecus candidus) peering down through the canopy |
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White-fronted Brown Lemur (Eulemur albifrons) (Male) |
I can
highly recommend this national park to anyone, its pristine rainforests and
mountains are more than spectacular, the wildlife is first class (due to the
immense variety in altitude, virtually every rainforest bird species can be
observed here) and maybe the best of all: the management of this park is
absolutely the best of entire Madagascar. Concluding: this is an off the beaten
track experience not to be missed, for both birder and non-birder!
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The camp two view (picture taken by Matt Baillie) |
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