Chris Anderson
Dr. House of Chameleons
There was a lot of discussion about a year ago about getting a group of people together to go on a trip to Madagascar. In the end, the trip did not have enough people to end up happening and the general consensus was that the trip was prohibitively expensive for a lot of people. Obviously a trip to Madagascar is never going to be cheap and it will always prohibit many people from going but I've been itching to get back to Madagascar since my 2001/2002 trip.
Some of our European members have posted photos of their travels to Madagascar over the last few years with Thorsten Negro of Tanalahorizon (www.tanalahorizon.com). Their photos have included some incredible chameleons (Calumma gallus, C. parsonii, Furcifer rhinoceratus, Furcifer sp. nov. "Montagne de Ambre", to name a few). I've been talking with Thorsten for some time now and he seems to have a lot of experience bringing groups into Madagascar and tracking down some really unusual chameleon species. He has also mentioned that he's interested in getting a group together with a bunch of English speaking chameleon enthusiasts.
Thorsten is planning a 3 week trip in April 2010 called the Jurassic Tour. This trip will visit some of the east coast rainforest areas looking for rare chameleons of that area and then travel up the east coast to Tamatave and Masoala/Maroantsetra/Nosy Mangabe to see some of the pardalis of the east coast as well as some other rare and unusual chameleons. This tour is priced at 2200 euros (about $3100) not including airfare. Here is a link to the brief description: http://www.tanalahorizon.com/index.php?id=19&L=1
Obviously any trip to Madagascar is expensive and will prevent a lot of people from going but I wanted to see if there was anyone on the forum who might realistically consider going on the trip? I'm very tempted by it and there are a lot of species in those areas that I would love to see. Would anyone else realistically think about a trip to Madagascar like this?
Chris
Some of our European members have posted photos of their travels to Madagascar over the last few years with Thorsten Negro of Tanalahorizon (www.tanalahorizon.com). Their photos have included some incredible chameleons (Calumma gallus, C. parsonii, Furcifer rhinoceratus, Furcifer sp. nov. "Montagne de Ambre", to name a few). I've been talking with Thorsten for some time now and he seems to have a lot of experience bringing groups into Madagascar and tracking down some really unusual chameleon species. He has also mentioned that he's interested in getting a group together with a bunch of English speaking chameleon enthusiasts.
Thorsten is planning a 3 week trip in April 2010 called the Jurassic Tour. This trip will visit some of the east coast rainforest areas looking for rare chameleons of that area and then travel up the east coast to Tamatave and Masoala/Maroantsetra/Nosy Mangabe to see some of the pardalis of the east coast as well as some other rare and unusual chameleons. This tour is priced at 2200 euros (about $3100) not including airfare. Here is a link to the brief description: http://www.tanalahorizon.com/index.php?id=19&L=1
Obviously any trip to Madagascar is expensive and will prevent a lot of people from going but I wanted to see if there was anyone on the forum who might realistically consider going on the trip? I'm very tempted by it and there are a lot of species in those areas that I would love to see. Would anyone else realistically think about a trip to Madagascar like this?
Chris