Guy Witney Krocker: Ranomafana National Park

Ranomafana means “hot water” in Malagasy and is called such because of several natural hot springs found in the park. It is one of the most visited parks of the island as it has well developed trails and fantastic biodiversity including 100 species of birds, 30 of which are found only in this park 12 species of Lemurs and countless insects, amphibians and orchids. Established in 1991, it is 415 km² of dense moist primary and secondary forest at altitudes between 800m and 1.200m.

Ranomafana gets rainfall every day usually in late afternoon and evening, so afternoon walks can be very wet experiences.

The terrain consists of steep hillsides narrow ridge trails and sharp riverine valleys. In order to travel a kilometer as the crow flies you will ascend and descend at least three steep hillsides. The hillsides are always wet and side trails are treacherous due to the lian vines, slippery roots, red mud and wet grasses laying over fallen bamboo shoots. Of course when seeking the Lemurs and other critters you spend most of you time in these conditions often moving quickly between valleys to follow groups of the next species of Lemur to be seen. It’s exhausting work when lugging camera gear as well.

Needless to say after seven hours hiking from 530 am to 1230 pm lunch then another 4 including a night walk you have no problem getting to sleep before 900 pm.

I was very lucky to have an excellent guide that has a species of frog as well as a sightless snake named after him. He has been guiding this park since inception and is a popular lecturer at amphibian and ornithology conferences that are held here. His keen ear is outstanding, he will pick a rare bird or frog out of the cloud forest sounds and follow it to source in minutes. Equally as handy he is keenly attuned to preserving his client’s ego. Any time he heard me huffing like a locomotive on a long steep climb, he always seemed to find a need to get the Ipod out and attempt to call some bird species in. I never once had to beg him to stop for a breath. J

On the first day and third morning we hiked the upper portion of the rainforest 1000-1200 m, on the second day the lower 800 – 1100 as each area had its own specific species to be seen.

The lower range has the greater number of Lemurs as well as the tourists seeking them so I encouraged my guide to head off into less traveled areas. The guides here need to learn wildlife viewing etiquette, they are so focused on the possibility of tips they work on getting their clients to see as many Lemurs as possible at any cost to other people trying to view and photograph, more importantly impact to the animals. It becomes a bit of a zoo after 730am or so when the bulk of the tourists start on the trails. These aggressive guides hurry clients to the best viewing spots then make noise to get the Lemur’s attention for a good photo op then loudly move to the next area when the animals move away. I got immediately pissed off and had to leave in a hurry before I went all medieval. Needless to say my Lemur shots from this park are not the best.

A classic example of this poor behavior; I sat for a half an hour at a Pitta-like Ground Roller’s nest waiting for the opportunity to photograph this rare bird. Just as the bird was approaching and as I was readying my camera a guide with a young lady came walking up and moved directly between me and the bird, he grabbed the girls cheap point and shoot camera for her to take a picture all the while moving forward towards the bird and it’s nest. Needless to say he scared it away, it did return later much more wary and flighty. You could have boiled water from the steam coming out of my ears. Being the good polite Canadian I held my tongue. I did ask my guide to speak with him later though.

Two of the tree days we walked the difficult upper sections mostly on our own so I was a happy camper. It was absolutely fantastic and I am going to keep these memories for a lifetime.