ANIMALS OF ANDASIBE NATIONAL PARK

Andasibe National Park has lots of lemurs, including the curious, cuddly common brown lemur above. 

If there's one thing visitors come to Madagascar to see, it's lemurs. The island is home to 101 species, all endemic. The cute little creatures range from the smallest primate on the planet--the mouse lemur, to the famous ring-tailed with its black and white-striped tail.

After the sailing drama of the west coast, we headed inland to check out the country's unique animals and insects. It's worth noting that almost all of Madagascar's reptiles and amphibian species, half of its birds and all of its lemurs are found nowhere else on earth, making the place a virtual Eden for animal lovers, of which we definitely are. 

Just three hours outside of the capital Antananarivo, lies Andasibe National Park, famous for its families of indris, the largest species of lemur and also one of the most endangered. 

On a three-hour hike and a night walk, we were able to check off just about all the critters on our 'must see' list, many of which you can peruse below. 

For what it's worth, we didn't get lost once, we only had a few bug bites, we could hear indris calling from our lodge near the park, and the bus we took left and arrived more or less on time. 

Pretty boring actually...and so long overdue.

Liz happy to arrive at the park, where we would soon meet our first lemurs.

The elusive indri, which sings somewhat like a humpback whale, jumps a little like a frog, and looks kind of like a kid in a skinny panda suit.

A colorful Parson's chameleon crawls through the leaves after a light morning rain. 

The tiny, curious-looking giraffe weevil above is a full-grown male.  

A Diadem Saifaka kicks back while checking out some nosy tourists.

The Blue Coua, which eats bugs, fruits and small reptiles.

A sleepy chameleon we met on our night walk.. He's about four inches long and could easily snooze in the palm of your hand.

If you're really interested in hearing an indri's call, feel free to check out this video we shot in the park. While you can definitely hear the indris, you won't see one in this shaky home movie, despite a lot of panning around the forest.