Leaf tailed geckos are pretty crazy looking creatures. From the expression on this guy’s face, it’s hard tell if he was pleased to see me or if he wanted to eat me. He was actually displaying his bright red mouth as a warning sign to stay away. My guide and I were heading back to camp late one afternoon on the island of Nosy Mangabe, just off the east coast of Madagascar.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 80-200mm lens (at 80mm) ISO 100, f/22 at 1/60th of a second, Nikon SB-800 flash

This handsome little guy is a red-fronted brown lemur. And like all lemurs, he lives in Madagascar. If there’s one country I need to get back to some day, it’s Madagascar — my favorite exotic place (so far) on earth.
Nikon D40X with Nikkor 18-55mm lens (at 26mm) f/4 at 1/60th of a second, Nikon SB-800 flash

In addition to lemurs and chameleons, Madagascar is also full of interesting tree frogs, like this little white guy with gold flecks and yellow belly. I’m not sure of the common name but the latin name is Heterixalus Betsileo. I was on a night hike in Ranomafana National Park which is in the central part of the country.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 80-200mm lens (at 200mm), Canon 500D close up filter, ISO 100, f/22 at 1/60th of second, two Nikon SB-800 flash units on an off camera bracket

Brown mouse lemurs are among the smallest primates in the world. I came across this one on a night walk in Nosy Mangabe, an island off the east coast of Madagascar. The island has no human inhabitants and you must camp on the beach in order to spend the night. This guy was about ten inches tall.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 80-200mm lens (at 185mm) ISO 200, f/10 at 1/60th of a second, 2 SB-800 flash units

Hope everyone had a nice long weekend. Thought I’d start out the work week with a creature that hasn’t been seen on the blog in over four years. This is a fanaloka (also known as the Malagasy civet), and it was photographed in a rain forest in central Madagascar in Ranomafana National Park. Fanalokas are nocturnal and usually very secretive. This one was looking for scraps near a picnic area. These guys are about the size of a house cat, but are a bit more fox like in appearance. They are neither a feline or a canine, however, and are more closely related to the mongoose.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 80-200mm lens (at 92mm) ISO 200, f/5 at 1/60th of a second, Nikon SB-800 flash unit

I once saw a show on Discover, or one of those networks, and they were counting down the most stealth animals on the planet. Coming in at number one was the chameleon. They have it all — eyes that have a 360 degree field of vision and can look in two directions at once, a tongue that can lash out at record speed and distance, colors that can change to camouflage or attract, and tong-like feet that are specialized for gripping just about any kind of branch. Half of all the world’s chameleons live in Madagascar, where I photographed this guy late one afternoon while traveling upriver in a small boat.
Nikon D40X with Nikkor 18-55mm lens (at 19mm), ISO 200, f/4.5 at 1/160th of a second

Here’s another one from Madagascar (this will be the last post for the week as Karen and I are heading to Mexico tomorrow night for the Memorial Day weekend). This is a Verreaux’s sifaka lemur and it kind of looks like it’s ready for some sort of a duel — I say gunslinger, Karen says swashbuckler. Either way, what it really was doing was racing across the ground, getting from one tree to the next as quickly as possible.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 80-200mm lens (at 80mm) ISO 400, f/5 at 1/500th of a second

The comet moth is native to the rain forests of Madagascar and is one of the largest moths in the world with a wingspan of eight inches. They are considered an endangered species — like seemingly every other creature living in Madagascar — because of habitat loss. I came across this one in Ranomafana National Park on my 2007 trip to the African island nation, a place that is at the top of my list to revisit some day.
Nikon D40X with Nikkor 18-55mm lens (at 19mm) ISO 400, f/4.5 at 1/50th of a second

This is another lemur that goes by many names — although all are simple variations on appearance — the white-headed lemur, white-headed brown lemur, white-fronted brown lemur and white-fronted lemur. They live within a rather small range in northeastern Madagascar. This one was spotted on the island of Nosy Mangabe, just off the coast of the mainland. I was camping on the island for a few nights and woke one morning to find several males and females of the species resting in a tree just a few feet from my tent. I liked the way that this particular male was curled up in his tail (the males have the characteristic white heads, while the females have a grey head).
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 600mm f/5.6 manual focus lens, ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/60th of a second, Nikon SB-800 flash

It’s been a while since I posted one of my favorite animals, the ring-tailed lemur. These guys are sun worshipers and often look as if they’re meditating as they sit back and soak up the heat. The latin name for the ring-tail is lemur catta, because they meow like cats. The best place to see them is at Berenty Reserve in southern Madagascar.
Nikon D40x with Nikkor 18-55mm lens (at 55mm) ISO 100, f/5.6 at 1/500th of a second