I have wanted to travel to Madagascar ever since I first learned about it in third grade. In July 2015, I finally had my chance to tour this large island off the southeast coast of Africa. Approximately 90 percent of all plant and animal species found in Madagascar are endemic, so everything we saw on the island was a first for me.
I didn’t expect to get so close to the wild lemurs, but we did, repeatedly, viewing 24 of the 54 lemur species available on our Madagascar itinerary. One of the highlighs was seing the dancing Verreaux sifaka, who performed for us as if on queue. At Anjajavy, there was a mother Coquerel sifaka who had twins. Our group got to witness the babies leaving their mother for the first time to tightrope-walk across the tree limbs; there were a few moments when we gasped, as we were concerned they would fall, but they made it!
Since only 8 percent of the wilds of Madagascar are protected, ecotourism is vital to the survival of these rare creatures, it felt wonderful to be playing a role in protecting these wild animals.
This guest post was written by Senior Adventure Specialist Wendy Klausner.
