Madagascar: Lemurs...

Our last few days in Madagascar have been spent down the east coast. The east coast is lush, full of forests and jungle, and the perfect place to spot (and on occasion interact with) the amazing Malagasy wildlife. As you may know nearly 90% of the animals and plants are unique to this island. But the main draw (and indeed for some the only reason they come here at all) is the lemurs. 59 species of these fluffy primates currently live wild in Madagascar. And they are simply gorgeous. They don't smell, they don't have claws, they are herbivores, and they are very gentle.

Lemurs share a common ancestor with their distant cousins the monkeys but have evolved completely independently over the past 40 million years in divine isolation. Sadly many lemurs are now on the vulnerable species or endangered animal list due to excessive hunting and habitat destruction. A few species are actually expected to become extinct within the next few years.

In my opinion they make a better WWF mascot than giant pandas as unlike pandas there are few breeding programmes and frankly they could do with the exposure.

We saw quite a few lemurs in the wild and even more when we visited a rescue sanctuary where they climbed all over us. Bless.