Karin Bucht, Environmental Science and International Studies Degrees, is spending Fall 2010 on an SIT study abroad program on biodiversity in Madagascar.  The following is an excerpt from her own blog.

So I’m back in Antananarivo, the capital for the next week. Since Tulear; we road tripped through Madagascar, visiting several different Parks and protected areas. The first place we stopped was Isalo National Park, which was incredible, even though a large portion had been burned several weeks before by an out of control brush fire.  The rocks and the views were incredible.

Our second stop along our roadtrip was Anjy, which is a community managed protected area. The best thing about Anjy, we found out the next morning. First off, while waiting for breakfast; a group of ringtail lemurs came and passed by our campsite. Later that morning we did a circuit tour where we learned that the lemurs passing by our campsite was just the beginning of our lemur experience. According to our guides, about 400 ringtails live in Anjy, in

groups of about 20. Being a community managed protected area, the lemurs here have never been hunted by locals and are very accustomed to humans. So when we did our circuit tour, we found ourselves in the midst of a group, with lemurs passing overhead. The hike also included some great views, but the lemurs were definitely the highlight. It seems pretty incredible to find lemurs here more approachable than they were at a private reserve (called Berenty) that we visited in the south. I’m still in Tana now, enjoying a reasonably fast cybercafé and getting lots of practice with the french keyboard. Veloma!