The ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) is the poster child for Madagascar. If you do an image search for “Madagascar wildlife,” you will find the ring-tailed lemur more than any other animal. The Wikipedia article on “Wildlife of Madagascar” has a photo of a ring-tailed lemur at the top. King Julien from the animated “Madagascar” movies was a ring-tailed lemur. The logo of Madagascar National Parks features a ring-tailed lemur. So it’s no wonder that seeing ring-tailed lemurs was a highlight of all my lemur encounters.
Of course I took many, many photos. I did my best to cull out all but the very best. I still have too many.
Anja Community Reserve
Anja Community Reserve, created in 2001, has the highest concentration of ring-tailed lemurs in all of Madagascar. Sadly, they, like most lemur species, are endangered. At Anja, they are protected. Feeding them was once allowed, but is no longer. There are tomato and corn crops grown in the reserve, and the lemurs clearly enjoyed the tomatoes. Most of the reserve is forest, and there is a freshwater lake as well.
In addition to lemurs, Anja has several lizard species, and birds and insects, of course.
The lemurs in the reserve are used to people, and it’s easy to get close to them. Sometimes they came close to me as well.
Lemur Photos
Here are some of my favorite photos of the ring-tailed lemurs.
There are lots more photos of lemurs, plus a few other critters and scenes of nature in my online photo album from Anja Community Reserve.
Leave a Reply