27th October 2015. Berenty, Madagascar.

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On our last morning at Berenty, this is also my last wildlife post from Madagascar.

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Yellow-billed Kite.

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Ring-tailed lemurs.

Elephant birds would likely have roamed this region in previous centuries.  They were three metres high and weighed half a tonne and survived until at least the seventeenth century.  Much of the year they lived in the mountains but came down to the sand of the south coast to lay their eggs.

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Natural cactus garden.  Actual colours.

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They look like funghi but they’re flatid leaf bugs.  Click on the image to see them closer.

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Chameleon.  Species unidentified.

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A conspiracy of lemurs.

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Octopus trees.

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Octopus trees and scrub.

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Sportive lemur.

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Baobab, probably Adansonia za.

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A clump of Alluaudia Procera or Madagascar Ocotillo, also known as Octopus Tree, showing the habitat and especially for Jeni (Skyscapes for the Soul), following a comment in an earlier post.

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A clump of the cacti common in the area.

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Where once was spiny forest, lemurs and other wildlife, now is sisal plantations and no wildlife.  I wonder whether this is also a plantation crop grown by a foreign company with little or no benefit to the local population.

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