Natural History - Madagascar - page 125

would very much like to hear from anyone who finds a bat cave or tree roost that is
notmentionedinthisarticle( e [e-mail] ; www.madagasikara-voakajy.org ) .
SPECIFIC SITES
CapSainteMarie There is a roost site of E. dupreanum that can be seen from one of
the tourist trails as it passes a deep valley. The bats are sometimes active in the day
and can be seen flying between different rock overhangs.
Mananara-Nord There is a P. rufus roost reported from Nosy Atafana, an offshore
island in the marine reserve.
Moramanga A Malagasy NGO called ACCE, based in Moramanga, is conserving a
numberofMadagascarflyingfoxroostsintheMangoroValley.Visitstotheirsitesof-
tenallowexcellentviewsofroostingbats(4x4ormotorcyclerequired).Arrangements
canbemadethroughNdrianaattheiroffice( m 0330501789; e [e-mail] ) .
Perhaps the most entertaining of all is the ring-tailed lemur. Among lemurs it forms the
largest and liveliest troops. Each troop typically stirs at dawn, warms up with a period of
sunbathing and then, guided by the matriarchs, heads off to forage, breaking at noon for a
siesta. The troop moves along the ground, each individual using its distinctive tail to main-
tain visual contact with the others. If out of eyesight, the troop members use the cat-like
mews that prompted their scientific name. By dusk they return to the sleeping trees which
they use for three or four days before moving on. In the April breeding season the males
become less tolerant of each other and engage in stink fights where, after charging their
tails with scent from glands on their wrists, they waft them antagonistically at opponents.
Similar aggressive interactions occur when two troops of ring-tails meet, sometimes lead-
ing to serious injury or death, but usually one side backs down before it reaches this stage.
identifying species Even for a keen naturalist, sorting out Madagascar's 105-plus varieties
(species and subspecies) of lemur can be challenging. The two illustrated layman's guides
on Click Here - Click Here should help you put names to faces. The first box covers diurnal
(day-active) species; the second describes the nocturnal ones more likely encountered on a
night walk. Serious naturalists should consider purchasing a field guide (see Click Here ) .
Tenrecs Employing one of the most primitive mammalian body plans, the tenrecs have
been able to fill the vacancies created by an absence of shrews, moles and hedgehogs,
and in doing so have diversified into about 27 different species. Five of these are called
the spiny tenrecs, most looking just like hedgehogs, some with yellow and black stripes.
However, the largest, the tailless common tenrec ( Tenrec ecaudatus ), has lost the majority
of its spines. Not only is this species the largest insectivore in the world at 1.5kg, but it