Andohahela National Park

Southern Madagascar’s best-kept secret

In the remote deep south, Andohahela is one of Madagascar’s most underrated and least-visited parks. Its vital statistics are impressive: 120 bird species and 12 different kinds of lemurs in a stirring mix of montane rainforest and typically Madagascan spiny forest. The park even has crocodiles! Because there are so many lemurs at large, my visits here are all about tracking down some of the more obscure members of the lemur family tree. Some examples are the southern lesser bamboo lemur, the Milne-Edwards sifaka and the Fleurete’s sportive lemur. Not many travelers make it down here. If they did, Andohahela would be one of the country’s most celebrated parks. Until they do, the silence and blissful isolation is a salve for the soul. And I love a good mystery – they say that there are aye-ayes (the long-fingered lemurs) living deep in the forest. I’ve never seen one, but I plan to return and keep looking until I do.