Western Madagascar Wildlife - Ankarafantsika individual tour extension

You will be met at your hotel by your professional, experienced, English-speaking Malagasy wildlife expert guide and your private driver. Travel about 8 ½ hours from Antananarivo to Ankarafantsika National Park, where you stay for 3 nights in the rustic Tia Asity Lodge or Blue Vanga Lodge, all meals included. Guided day and night walks should reveal plenty of wildlife, including star attractions like the (Endangered) Van Dam's vanga (pictured here), an endemic passerine which visiting birders can't really seek anywhere else.

The first of two full days in which to make the most of Ankarafantsika and seek out the wonderful array of mammals, birds and reptiles that find protection here. Your time will include a boat trip on Lac Ravelobe where a key attraction is the (Critically Endangered) Madagascar fish eagle (pictured), one of the world’s 6 rarest raptors, of which the population is perhaps 150 pairs. You will also be taken to see the sandstone canyon and a grove of the large northern Malagasy baobab Adansonia madagascariensis. Lemur fans can seek out the acrobatic Coquerel's sifaka, a group of which inhabits the area around the centrally located campsite, where they are often seen in the Teak trees. Also present are Common brown lemur and the much scarcer, crepuscular Mongoose lemur. By night, it is possible to see Western woolly lemur; Milne-Edward's sportive lemur; Fat-tailed dwarf lemur (summer months only) and Golden-brown or Ravelobe mouse lemur.

Your second full day to enjoy this wonderful national park. An added bonus is being able to see the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust’s largest Madagascar-based project site, ‘Projet Angonoka’, where the 4 endemic Malagasy land tortoises and its one endemic freshwater turtle, are being bred in captivity as part of the DWCT’s ‘SAFE’ (Saving Animals From Extinction) programme. Your guides will take you along the trails – graded as easy for the most part – for day and night walks High on visiting birders' lists are the critically endangered Madagascar fish eagle; White-breasted mesite; Schlegel's asity and the nationally rare Van Dam's vanga. All of these are best sought in Ankarafantsika, along with some other western 'specials' such as Coquerel's and Red-capped couas.