Madagascar Nosy Be Chameleons

jannb

Chameleon Enthusiast
I finally had a chance to go through some of the chameleon shots while in Madagascar on the island of Nosy Be. I know many of you will be very disappointed because I mostly have Nosy Be Panther shots and a few Brookesia.

We spent one day and night in Tanny (Antananarivo) which was extremely scary and 6 nights on the beautiful island of Nosy Be. We stayed at the Amarina Hotel and Resort and it was truly spectacular. I will post resort and Nosy Be pictures in the Lizard Lounge when I get a chance. I also have photos of chams from Cape Town that I will post later.
The resort website for those interested. http://www.amarinahotelmadagascar.com/index_eng.php

We were the only Americans there and very few English speaking people. Three of the workers at the resort knew a little English. One of the workers told us that the dry season kills off most of the chameleons every year and they pick them up off the ground. The eggs hatch in early spring and the chams start all over again. Most of the panthers we saw were young. It was late spring/early summer there. Once the workers figured out we were looking for chamelongs, as they called them, they would wait for us for hours to come out of our villa or off the beach to take us and show us another chamelong. Some of the chams were friendly and others did not want to be messed with. We would always return them to the exact spot that we found them in after a photo session.

The flora and fauna was absolutely gorgeous and we saw more chameleons on our resort that in the rain forest. We walked on the beach and found most of the chams in the trees and bushes on the edge of the beach and on the walking trails behind the hotel. They were even on the bushes right outside our villa room door. It was amazing that we found most in small bushes with flowers, that attracted bugs for food.

The resort was very safe and secure protected by guards all around the property. Maddy was extremely scary and very sad for me to see all the poverty. Madagascar was by far the poorest county I’ve ever been to, much worse that Africa and Brazil. If the locals don’t stop cutting the trees and burning the forest down to plant rice, pretty soon there will be no wildlife left to see. We could see smoke everywhere from the fires and tons of rice fields to feed the starving Malagasi. Their entire day is filled with looking for food, preparing the food, eating and getting up and doing the same thing again the next day.

Ok here are the pictures. Jeremy I tried to keep a count for you. We saw 40 + chams althogether.

I hope you enjoy.


Our first boy

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Our second boy and these two lived together in the same big tree.

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Our 3rd boy and this is the bush he lived in right outside our door.

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4th baby girl living on a tiny bush at first before moving to a bigger tree

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4th girls larger tree

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5th cham another little skinny girl that I tried to catch flies for

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6th cham was a young handsome boy and so sweet

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A few more shots of the 11th guy

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Look at the red rain in his tail
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Snack time. There were Maddy crickets all in the grass
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This is the 12th guy that we saw

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This is one of the workers that showed us this cham. He was afraid of the chams because they bite. We told him to go slow and no bite and eventually I think he understood.
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The 12th ones tree
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We went out with a flashlight one night but only found one new sleeping cham. This was our 13th cham.

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!4th cham

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and his tree
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One more shot of #20. She was just precious.

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Number 21 was anouther handsome young man. Just look at those fat pads.

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Number 22 was yet another handsome male

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Our 23rd cham to spot and she was such a sweet little girl.

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Our 24th

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Number 25

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The first 25 chams were all found on our resort. The next couple were on the way to Lokobe Reserve, the last little bit of rain forest left on Nosy Be


Number 26 was pointed out by our guide Julius

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Number 27 and she was also pointed out by our guide on the was to Lokobe

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Number 28 was another male spoted on the way to Lokobe

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One more of number 28

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The only chameleons we saw at Lokobe were the little Brookesia. We did see lemur, leaf tail gecko and a few bugs that I'll post later under other reptiles. The pictures in the rainforest are not very clear. The camera lens stayed fogged up due to the high humidity.

The first little Brookesia and our 29th cham to see

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Our 30th cham

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Our 31st another little Brookesia

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Our 32nd and our last Brookesia


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Our 33rd was a handsome boy on the way home from Lokobe

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Number 34....back on the resort

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We also saw some Bradypodium when we got to Cape Town but I'll post those later in a seperate thread. I'm quite tired right now.
 
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great pics jann! i can't imagine how awesome that trip must have been. just seeing these incredible animals living in their natural surroundings is just amazing. i'm so glad you got to go on the trip!
 
Great pics. It's always nice to see chams in their natural environment.
Looks like it was a trip of a lifetime. Thanks for sharing.
 
Awesome! Thanks for taking the time to post all those photos! It is MUCH appreciated!

Deb
 
Totally Awesome!!! I have to know how many times did your husband have to confiscate Chams on your person??? LoL!!
Very cool Jann you have some great pictures and memories of great times.
 
These pics were well worth the wait.Excellent,thanks Jann for letting us see these wonderful chams in their own environment.This also puts me in the mood to now wanting to get a nosy be baby:D
This would have been an adventure of a lifetime
 
Oh Wow! What an awesome post thanks so much for sharing! Arn't those ladies lovely! So many different patterns - stunning! Can't wait to see more!!
 
Wow! Thanks for sharing all the photos. Definitely some gorgeous pardalis in there! Now off to see if the other thread is started yet (before looking through all these again)! :cool:
 
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