As I mentioned in my Madagascar post, I have always been fascinated with lemurs, and ring-tailed lemurs in particular. The ring-tail lemur or maki is perhaps the most well-known and easiest to recognize lemur of all Madagascar and visiting these lemurs in the wild was truly a dream come true. The most dense population of ring-tailed lemurs can be found in the Anja Community Reserve, not too far from the town of Ambalavao. In this local reserve, about 300 ring-tailed lemurs roam freely in the forest and the big boulders of the park and it’s a unique opportunity to observe these animals up close in their natural territory. As I visited in February, many of the females had given birth a month ago, resulting in a lot of playful young ring-tailed lemurs jumping from tree to tree. I spent two full days in this park. Walking through the forest with a local ranger, I learned so much about these animals and got to really spend some time amongst them. Many don’t seem scared of people and carry on with their daily routine as if you weren’t even there.
In the morning, when sun has just risen above the surrounding mountains, many ring-tailed lemurs climb up the rocks and spread their arms to dry off from the morning bath. This ritual happens every sunny morning and is one of my highlights to this reserve. The lemurs just sit there for 30 minutes to catch some rays of sun and seem to really enjoy it!
Here are some fun facts about the ring-tailed lemurs:
- The tail of a ring-tailed lemur is longer than it’s own body
- They are being used as the symbol for the island of Madagascar and for other endangered animals on the island in general, because they’re so well-known and easily recognized.
- Another word for ring-tailed lemur is Maky, which comes from the local language spoken on Madagascar, Malagasy
Here’s my favorite collection of the maki’s having spent a some amazing days with these beautiful lemurs.
