No, there are not meerkats in Madagascar. We decided to stop off in South Africa to photograph meerkats, keeping with our small mammal theme for the trip.
We are currently on our way to Madagascar. This trip it seems like we are always in an airplane, heading to an airport or leaving one. We fly on 8 of our first 9 days of the trip to get to our first Madagascar photo location. The fights range from the intercontinental 13 hours from San Francisco to Istanbul to an hour intra-country trip in Madagascar. And since we have left San Francisco, nary a jet way in sight, airplane stairs always. Even in global sophisticated cities like Istanbul and Johannesburg.
Our guides described the meerkats as one of Africa’s ‘shy 5″. These elusive animals are almost impossible to find unless you know which burrow they slept in the night before. Few people get the opportunity to see these cute creatures. Well our guides had a handle on their sleeping location and got us there before the 6AM sunrise. Unfortunately the meerkats didn’t get the message and only came out of their burrows ½-1 hour later. But when they did they put on a good show as they basked in the sun to warm up before heading out for their day of foraging.
As an added South African bonus we visited a local ostrich farm where we feed them, rode them and watched them race
Of course no trip of ours would be complete without some bird pictures:
Tomorrow the main event starts as we fly from Johannesburg to Madagascar,