Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
CONSERVATION AREAS TO THE SOUTHWEST OF
MAHAJANGA
From Katsepy (see
Click Here
) a road, of sorts, provides access to the
tsingy
and wetlands
whichareofgreatinteresttoanyonewholovesMadagascar'sdiversityoflandscape,plants
andwildlife.Accessisexceptionallydifficult,however,soevenadventuroustravellersmay
prefer an organised tour.
PRETTY POLLY
Dr Jonathan Ekstrom
Anyone who has spent time in Madagascar will realise that the Malagasy are not the
most monogamous of peoples. The same is true for the island's parrots. The greater
vasa parrots of Madagascar are those big black squawking things you see flying
around the forest canopy. They are not the prettiest of parrots, having drab brownish-
blackplumage,longnecksandevenbaldheadsforsomeofeachyear.Butvasaparrots
have one of the most exhilarating sex lives of any animal on Earth. It's the females
that are dominant over the males (they're 25% bigger) and they pursue the little chaps
ardentlyallthroughSeptemberandOctober.It'sthegirlsthatdothechasing.Andthey
seem to know what they're doing as most females end up with four to eight mates.
You can imagine what a headache this is for the males, having to compete to fer-
tilise the eggs of the female with all your best buddies. The male parrots have risen
to the challenge, however, with some utterly unbelievable evolutionary adaptations.
For a start they have a penis. Birds in general don't have penises; both sexes just have
cloacalopeningswhicharepressedtogethertotransferthesperm.Notsoforvasapar-
rots:themaleshaveevolvedapenissomewhatbiggerthanagolfballwhichtheyerect
out of their cloaca as and when they need it. Courtship before sex takes an appropri-
ately long time - several weeks in fact - and on the big day the female might consort
with a half dozen males before settling down with one at midday. And of course this
is not ordinary love-making.
Sex in most bird species doesn't look that fun to be honest - it's all over pretty
quickly with a kiss of the cloacas lasting a couple of seconds, and both partners then
wander off in different directions pretending they don't know each other. Not so in
vasa parrots: sex lasts a full two hours with the male and female locked together in
passionate coitus. Tied together for two hours you can see them crooning over each
other, preening their partner's plumage, squawking when things get a bit rough. So
