Black and white ruffed lemurs are probably the second most well known behind the ring tailed lemurs. They also happens to be the most mischievous (at least as far as I could tell). This one was checking me out as I took a few wide angle shots from directly below. I was using my backup camera with its pop up flash so the lighting isn’t ideal, but it works well enough.
Nikon D40x with Nikkor 18-55mm lens (at 22mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/60th of a second

The white footed sportive lemur is just one of the many species of lemur in Madagascar that are nocturnal. Like all lemurs, they are endangered. In the case of the white footed sportive lemurs, habitat loss due to agriculture and charcoal production are the main problems. Fun fact about these lemurs — they are coprophagous, meaning that they consume and reediest their own feces to help breakdown the cellulose in their food (their diet consists almost entirely of leaves).
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 80-200mm lens (at 185mm) ISO 200, f/4.5 at 1/60th of a second, two Nikon SB-800 flash units

Some of you might remember a close up photo of this guy that I posted several years ago. For this shot, I backed up a bit to show the flowers that the juvenile Madagascar reed frog was hiding in. When little (and I mean little — this frog was less than an inch in length) Madagascar reed frogs are completely yellow, but as they age, their backs turns light blue.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 80-200mm lens (at 86mm) ISO 100, f/22 at 1/60th of a second, two Nikon SB-800 flash units

This is a paradise flycatcher. The males of the species have very long tails. As the name suggests, they are insectivorous — mainly catching their prey while in flight. I photographed this one on the island of Nosy Mangabe off the east coast of Madagascar. The background is a bit out of focus and motion blurred, but you can see that the bird is perched on a branch over a small waterfall.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 80-200mm lens (at 185mm) ISO 400, f/2.8 at 1/60th of a second, two SB-800 strobes

Only two primates have blue eyes. The blue-eyed black lemur and us. I don’t usually post captive animals, but this is a rare exception for this very rare animal. Blue-eyed black lemurs are classified as critically endangered. This means that, in all likelihood, they will soon be extinct in the wild. The current estimate is that there are less than a thousand individuals remaining in the forests of Madagascar. Loss of habitat due to slash and burn farming is the main culprit. I photographed this female (males are completely black) in a free range zoo on the east coast of Madagascar.
Nikon D40X with Nikkor 18-55mm lens (at 46mm) ISO 400, f/5.3 at 1/60th of a second

I was directly under this lemur when it jumped from one tree to another. This species is the rather pedestrian named, common brown lemur. They were very habituated to people at this particular location and were jumping all around me. I used a flash to illuminate the under side of the lemur while still exposing for the much brighter sky in the background.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/100th of a second

A Madagascar flying fox soars overhead in the early morning, before returning home to roost in a tree for the day. These large bats are very cool looking and do, in fact, have little fox faces. For a look at the face, check out this previous post. As I mentioned in that post, I was in the extreme southern part of Madagascar at a place called Berenty when I took this one.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 80-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 400, f/4.5 at 1/250th of a second

Here’s another one from Madagascar. Those little green eyes belong to a baby Coquerel’s sifaka lemur, hiding in the lap of its mother. They were pretty high up in a tree in the dry forest of the western part of the country. At the time I was using a manual focus 600mm lens on a cropped sensor camera, getting me out to about 900mm — more than enough distance to focus in on the baby. As the baby gets older, its eyes will turn more yellow in color. The Coquerel’s sifaka, like pretty much all lemurs, is on the endangered species list due to continued habitat loss.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 600mm manual focus lens, ISO 200, f/5.6 at 1/60th of a second

The photo above doesn’t look like much. Until you look a little closer. Toward the bottom of the tree on the right side, you can see the head of a mossy leaf-tailed gecko blending into the bark — its hand is visible to the left. Pretty amazing camouflage. This is the way that these geckos spend the day while at rest. They have dermal flaps that can break up their outline, and they can change color to match their surroundings. When awake, they can look somewhat like the giant leaf-tailed gecko below (I posted a close up of this guy about two months ago). This particular gecko is doing quite the opposite — trying its best to stand out and scare off potential danger (me) with its bright red mouth. Note the tail that gives these geckos their name. Leaf-tailed geckos can also jump from tree to tree, and this one had just leaped from a tree that better suited its particular skin color and pattern.

Top photo: Nikon D200 with Nikkor 80-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 400, f/2.8 at 1/60th of a second, two Nikon SB-800 flash units.
Bottom photo: Nikon D200 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 400, f/4.5 at 1/60th of a second, two Nikon SB-800 flash units.

This odd little creature is called a greater hedgehog tenrec. Despite the descriptor in the name, and the appearance, tenrecs are not related to hedgehogs. I found this guy on an afternoon walk in Maroantsetra, Madagascar.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 100, f/5.6 at 1/60th of a second, Nikon SB-800 flash