sifaka

So on the weekend we rowed in the rain. Monday we filled potting bags with manure and kicked about Fort Dauphin, where I completely failed to do my banking or send any emails - internet in Madagascar is not so good (which is why these are all backblips). Tuesday we got in a wee bus and went to the Tandroy, the Spiny Desert, and spent the day at Berenty lemur reserve.

This was our second trip to a lemur reserve, and like the first I have a lot of photos to choose from! Berenty has ring-tailed lemurs, brown lemurs, mouse lemurs, sportive lemurs and of course Verreaux's Sifaka.

The Antandroy people say that the sifaka are the descendants of a young girl who angered her step-mother. The step-mother swung her ladle, hitting the girl in the face so hard that she flew up into the trees - where she stayed. This is where the sifaka get their black face, why they 'dance' (skip sideways across the ground on their back legs), and why they hate humans.