First Encounter with a Wild Ring-Tailed Lemur

by Mirana Francoise Razafindramboa (Madagascar)

Making a local connection Madagascar

The zoo in Antananarivo was a strange place in the 1980s. As a child, the lemurs and birds imprisoned in tiny, rusty cages seemed perfectly happy, even natural. It wasn’t until I was much older that I really understood the incredible natural and cultural heritage of my country. This love of wild Malagasy fauna and flora dates back to when I joined a youth group trip in high school called the Jeunes Lasalliens Missionnaires. We went to Analabe, Ambositra. I always imagined the smoggy cement and brick capital city was surrounded by a dense forest like those I had seen in tourist post-cards and in books in school so I was disappointed to see that for nearly the entire 8 hour drive, rice paddies, non-native eucalyptus groves, and eroding hillsides were all we could see from the road. After this initial trip, I made several more field trips to parks around Madagascar. I saw a wild lemur for the first time at the Isalo national park; a ring-tailed lemur, known as ‘hira’ for the local people. Hira in Malagasy means song, and it was such an amazing experience for me to hear him shouting and singing in freedom. ‘It’s a male calling for a female,’ explained the local guide. This male lemur’s cries completed the amazing landscape of the immense Isalo massif, etched with deep canyons, eroded over time into a variety of fantastic shapes; it was such a wonderful spectacle. Formerly, the staring eyes, haunting sounds, and nocturnal ways of some lemur species inspired early observers to think of them as ghosts or forest spirits, which explains why they were called ‘lemurs’ which is actually derived from the old Latin referring to ghosts and spirits. That day, seeing the ring-tailed lemur in his natural habitat was unforgettable, with his black and grey coat, slightly lighter coloured limbs and belly, and white extremities. Dark rings circled his eyes, his muzzle was black, and his tail banded black and white. After seeing that lemur, so perfect and magnificent in the wild, I thought back with horror to those kept in tiny cages in the zoo.