jewels
AMONG THORNS
SPINY FOREST BIRDS
In a land already renowned for being ‘different’, the spiny forest of southern and
south-western Madagascar is even more other-worldly, characterised by multiarmed octopus trees, spiky euphorbias and massive-trunked baobabs. And true to
the island’s form, this arid habitat is rich in endemics, notably birds that bring their
own suite of followers to the region. Charlie Gardner and Louise Jasper open

this birders’ treasure chest.
TEXT BY CHARLIE GARDNER & LOUISE JASPER
PHOTOGRAPHS BY LOUISE JASPER
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SPINY FOREST BIRDS
SPINY FOREST BIRDS
charming bird that is so shy and secretive during the non-breeding season that
it was once assumed to be migratory. The
ground-rollers are another family that is
entirely endemic to Madagascar, with
four species occurring in rainforests and
just one, the long-tailed, found in the
country’s dry regions. A burrow-nesting
bird whose haunting song is a highlight
of the spiny forest at night, the longtailed ground-roller is restricted to a narrow coastal band in the Mikea area of
the south-west and is classified as

Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
I
MADAGASCAR
Antananarivo
INDIAN
OCEAN
Toliara
Spiny
forest
Fort Dauphin
N
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t’s early morning in the spiny forest
and as the sun illuminates the
uppermost limbs of the cactus-like
octopus trees it reveals a singing
bird atop almost every one: here a
magpie-robin crisp in its pied butler’s
uniform, there a Madagascar fody burning bright scarlet like a Christmas
bauble, and everywhere stripe-throated
jeries singing their hearts out in their
eternal quest to defend their territories.
Suddenly a bizarre cacophony erupts
from within the dense thicket of thorns,
a complex and richly layered chorus of
whistles and trills that sounds for all the
world as if a party of frogs and crickets
has gathered in a cave for a singsong.
After an eerie half-minute the song
begins to fade – but then starts again,
much closer this time, and our excitement builds as we realise that the
authors of this crazy chorus are about to
be revealed.
Resembling an odd amalgam of rail,
quail and dove, a subdesert mesite
scurries across the path in front of us,
quickly followed by three more. Even in
a forest full of oddities, this mesite is one
of the strangest birds around – a real
avian enigma. Like social primates and
carnivores but no other bird species (as
far as we know), the subdesert mesite listens to the choruses of rival groups to
assess their group size and decide whether
to fight or flee. And while being a cooperative breeder is in itself not unusual for a
bird, the system employed by the mesite
is so strange that, even after years of
study, we still don’t fully understand it. In
fact, so extraordinary are the subdesert
mesite and its two sister species (the
brown and the white-breasted mesites)
that scientists don’t even know what their
closest relatives are. Once thought to
belong to the pigeon, pheasant or crane
families, they are now believed to be the
sole members of an order all their own,
the Mesitornithiformes.
T
he mesites are just one of the
unique and spectacular avian treasures that inhabit the spiny forest
of southern Madagascar, an island
so long isolated from Africa and India
that more than 80 per cent of its
species, both plant and animal, occur
nowhere else. Even birds, the world’s
great travellers, seem to have been unwilling to hop across the Mozambique
Channel, with the result that more than
OPPOSITE Part rail, part quail and part dove
in appearance, the subdesert mesite has long
confused scientists and birders alike.
LEFT Octopus trees, of the family Didiereaceae,
dominate Madagascar’s spiny forest landscapes
and, with their multitude of thorns, give the
forest its name. Many bird species sing from the
tops of their branches in the breeding season.
BELOW The spiny forest is home to a high
diversity of reptiles and mammals as well as
birds, among them the ring-tailed lemur.
PREVIOUS SPREAD The ground-rollers are a
spectacular family of birds that occur only in
Madagascar. Of the five species, the long-tailed
ground-roller is the only one that lives outside
the country’s eastern rainforests.
half of Madagascar’s breeding species are
endemic – an unparalleled proportion
for any comparable landmass. Not just
species, but dozens of genera and subfamilies, and even five whole families,
are endemic to the island and the nearby
Comoros. Madagascar’s bird community
is full of old relics, drifters and evolutionary experiments that could not have
arisen – or survived – anywhere else on
the planet.
This much is clear in the spiny forest,
where a dense, other-worldly vegetation
of candelabra euphorbias, swollen baobabs and spine-encrusted octopus trees
grows on ancient limestone plateaux and
coastal dunes, each species displaying its
own adaptations to the arid climate. A
dry and unforgiving environment, the
spiny forest is nevertheless dripping with
life, and is recognised as one of the top
200 most important eco-regions in the
world. Two of Madagascar’s most famous
lemurs live here – the ring-tailed lemur
and Verreaux’s sifaka – and the forest is
home to 10 bird species whose global
ranges fall entirely or almost entirely
within its borders. These 10 local endemics have prompted BirdLife International to classify the spiny forest as
an Endemic Bird Area (and therefore a
global conservation priority) and they
draw many hundreds of birders to the
region every year.
The subdesert mesite shares its habitat
with the long-tailed ground-roller, a
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SPINY FOREST BIRDS
SPINY FOREST BIRDS
BELOW With its smart black head and massive
bill, the male Lafresnaye’s vanga is one of the
spiny forest’s most striking birds. The female
shows more white on the face.
BOTTOM A recent addition to Madagascar’s
bird list, the red-shouldered vanga has become
one of the spiny forest’s most sought-after
species. It can easily be found around Andatabo,
Toliara’s Table Mountain.
The vangas are perhaps the most celebrated of Madagascar’s endemic bird
families, not least because they have been
likened to Darwin’s finches on account of
the variation in their bills – between
them they boast a veritable Swiss Army
knife of probes, pliers and nutcrackers.
Recent genetic studies have revealed that
the Vangidae is a much bigger family
than we had previously realised and now
encompasses species that had been placed
in families as diverse as babblers, flycatchers and warblers.
Twelve members of the Vangidae occur
in the spiny forest, of which three are
endemic to it. The handsome Lafresnaye’s
vanga uses its massive bill to rip open
bark as it searches for insects, but it can
just as easily accomplish more delicate
tasks with it, such as picking berries. The
red-shouldered vanga, described as
recently as 1997, has become an avian
legend among visiting birders as they
need to make a pilgrimage to the area
around Andatabo – Toliara’s own Table
Mountain – for any chance to see it. The
plucky Archbold’s newtonia is the third
endemic vanga, its sweet, confident song
a constant companion on many walks
through the region’s forests.
Like the vangas, the Bernieridae is a
catch-all family made up of species that
until recently were thought to belong to
other groups, in this case warblers, jeries,
greenbuls and babblers. Few species occur
in the south, but one, the enigmatic
thamnornis, is a characteristic bird of the
region. It skulks furtively in thick undergrowth for much of the year and is therefore a real challenge to see. Come the
rainy season in November and December,
though, the males proudly proclaim their
presence, perching on prominent branches and singing a complex series of rattles,
trills and fluty notes to attract a mate.
Large, long-tailed birds rather resembling louries after a visit to a make-up artist, the couas are a vocal and prominent
component of any walk in the spiny forest. The running coua and Verreaux’s
coua are endemic to this habitat and are
often seen presenting their rufflefeathered backs to the morning sun in
winter, while the more widespread crested, giant, green-capped and Coquerel’s
couas also occur in the region.
The last on the list of spiny forest
endemics are the only two that don’t
belong to endemic genera and both are
largely restricted to coastal dune systems.
Luckily for more relaxed birdwatchers, the
littoral rock-thrush and subdesert brush
warbler can often be seen from the beach

in some of the region’s seaside ‘resorts’.
The vangas have been
likened to Darwin’s finches
on account of the variation
in their bills – between them
they boast a veritable Swiss
Army knife of probes, pliers
and nutcrackers
Mikea
Ranobe
Mangily
Ambondrolava
Toliara
Toliara harbour
Tsinjoriake
Protected Area
Anakao and Nosy Ve
N
U
Tsimanampesotse
Spiny forest birding
The spiny forest covers a huge area and is
served by a terrible road system, so access
to many parts of it is difficult. Most visitors
base themselves in Toliara, from which all
10 local endemics can easily be found. The
following sites around the town are good
for endemics and other special birds;
visits are best arranged through local hotels
or tour operators in Toliara or the capital,
Antananarivo.
Mangily (Ifaty)
The region’s most accessible and best-known
birding site, Mangily has knowledgeable guides
who can almost guarantee sightings of longtailed ground-roller and subdesert mesite year
round, as well as Lafresnaye’s vanga, running
coua, thamnornis, subdesert brush warbler
and Archbold’s newtonia.
Ranobe
A ‘wilder’ alternative to Mangily, Ranobe has all
the same bird species but no guides specialised in finding them. It is also probably the best
place in the country for the elusive Madagascar cuckoo-falcon, and an excellent site for
reptiles such as Labord’s chameleon and the
Critically Endangered spider tortoise. Trips on
the lake can produce pygmy goose, little bittern and the endemic subspecies of whitebacked duck.
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Tsinjoriake Protected Area
Red-shouldered vanga is most easily seen
around Andatabo Mountain and along the
road to St Augustin, where Verreaux’s coua,
running coua and Lafresnaye’s vanga are also
common. The coast around Sarodrano and St
Augustin occasionally shelters Humblot’s
heron and greater flamingo, and can be good
for migrant waders.
Anakao and Nosy Ve
Littoral rock-thrush is common in this seaside resort, where it shares hotel gardens
with Lafresnaye’s vanga and subdesert brush
warbler. The offshore island of Nosy Ve hosts
Madagascar’s only breeding colony of redtailed tropicbird and often holds good numbers of terns, migrant waders and crab plover.
Mikea
The Mikea coast is one of the most beautiful
in the world, but access is only possible with
the sturdiest of vehicles. Long-tailed groundroller and subdesert mesite are common
and Verreaux’s coua and littoral rock-thrush
have recently been recorded.
Tsimanampesotse
The beautiful soda lake of Tsimanampesotse
(‘where there are no dolphins’) is home to
Madagascar’s only breeding colony of flamingos and is a stronghold of the threatened
Although it has only a tiny global range, the
littoral rock-thrush is easily seen at many
coastal ‘resorts’ in southern Madagascar, where
it perches prominently on euphorbia shrubs.
Madagascar plover. Red-shouldered vanga
has been recorded, while Lafresnaye’s vanga
and Verreaux’s coua are common. This is
also an excellent site to see ring-tailed
lemurs, the Critically Endangered radiated
tortoise, blind cave fish and Grandidier’s
vontsira, a mongoose-like carnivore that
occurs nowhere else on earth. www.parcsmadagascar.com
Ambondrolava
A community-managed mangrove and marsh
complex 20 minutes’ drive north of Toliara,
Ambondrolava has the highest wetland bird
diversity of any site in the region, with species
including little bittern, Allen’s gallinule and Madagascar harrier. It has the region’s only purposebuilt bird hide and a wonderful boardwalk trail
through the mangroves. www.honko.org
Toliara harbour
Perhaps the region’s best site for wader
watching, Toliara harbour offers excellent
viewing of Palearctic migrants such as Terek
sandpiper, terns (including Saunders’) and
the elusive but beautiful crab plover. Greater
flamingos also turn up occasionally.
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SPINY FOREST
TRAVEL
PACK BIRDS
SPINY FOREST BIRDS
A
Madagascar
M
adagascar’s spiny forest is dominated by plants of
the Didiereaceae family, which protect their small
deciduous leaves with an armour of menacing thorns
and spines that project directly from the branches.
Occupying the hottest and driest regions of the country,
the forest offers visitors a prickly welcome. So, do your
research before a visit and check out Charlie Gardner
and Louise Jasper’s list of ‘must-have’ paraphernalia.
DON’T FORGET
• Small change is essential in rural areas, because few
people have change for the 10 000 ariary notes that
the banks supply.
• Visitors travelling independently should also bring a
French phrasebook, since very few Malagasy people
speak English. However, even French is rarely spoken
in rural areas.
Verreaux’s sifaka
THE RIGHT GEAR
• Thick-soled shoes or sandals to prevent spines
piercing your feet.
• Long trousers and a long-sleeved shirt to protect
your skin against spiny bushes (although this is a
trade-off, because it gets very hot).
s beautiful and rich as the spiny
forest is, it is also disappearing
fast. The eco-region has suffered
the highest deforestation rate in
the country since 1990, thanks primarily
to the slash-and-burn cultivation of
maize, known locally as hatsake.
Remaining forests are under extreme
pressure as a source of fuel wood too;
more than 90 per cent of urban households use charcoal to cook their daily
meals and there are no eucalyptus or
pine plantations in the spiny forest ecoregion – as there are in the country’s
centre and east – to satisfy this demand.
Although less destructive than slash-andburn because it targets only hardwood
trees rather than clearing the forest completely, charcoal production is causing
the degradation of vast areas of spiny
forest around the major towns of Toliara
and Taolagnaro (Fort Dauphin).
It is not just the local demand for
resources that threatens the forest
though. Western overconsumption is also
a driver of deforestation, as demonstrated
by a recent huge increase in mining interest and agricultural ‘land grabs’ by foreign
corporations looking to produce biofuels.
The habitat of southern Madagascar’s
unique birds is under pressure from all
sides, and even the birds themselves fall
prey to villagers, who hunt many species
for food.
It is essential to understand why forests
are overexploited if we are to develop
effective conservation strategies, but in
the case of the spiny forest what we do
know reveals something of a paradox.
Rural communities are indeed the main
drivers of deforestation and forest degradation throughout the region, yet forests play an important role in the lives of
the Masikoro, Mahafaly, Tagnalagna and
Tandroy people and are generally valued
by them.
Many forest sites are sacred because
they house ancestral tombs or are home
to spirits of various kinds, and zebu cattle can be safely hidden from rustlers in
their dense vegetation. Forests serve as
free supermarkets too, being a source of
housing materials, timber, fuel wood,
medicinal plants, wild fruits and tubers,
string, glue and meat, among countless

other goods, and thus help to bolster
ABOVE, RIGHT The thamnornis was thought
to be a warbler until recently, but is now known
to belong to the Bernieridae, a family entirely
endemic to Madagascar. Although common
throughout the spiny forest, it is difficult to
find when not singing.
THIS IMAGE Once thought to occur only on
the Mahafaly Plateau, Verreaux’s coua has
recently been found at several new sites and
is now thought to be far more widespread.
• A wide-brimmed hat to protect your face and
neck as the heat makes you sweat all your sunscreen off.
• A Leatherman or other pocket multi-tool for pulling
spines out of your shoes.
• A small, soft brush for sweeping sand out of
equipment like binoculars and cameras.
• Insect repellant to ward off mosquitoes and
sweat bees.
• High-SPF sunscreen.
c ap e un ion m art (3)
GEAR RECOMMENDED BY SOUTH AFRICA’S
FAVOURITE OUTDOOR STORE
WIN!
Test your knowledge and you could win a R250 gift voucher from Cape Union Mart to buy
some of the kit you’ll need for a visit to Madagascar’s spiny forest.
Which soda lake in Madagascar is home to the country’s only breeding
colony of flamingos?
E-mail your answer to [email protected]. Insert ‘Travel pack’ in the subject
line, and don’t forget to give us your full name. The sender of the first correct entry drawn
will be the winner. (Closing date 31 May 2013; the winner will be announced in the July issue.) Congratulations to Mduduzi Ndlovu of South Africa, who correctly answered the March 2013
question ‘In what year did Somaliland gain full independence from the UK?’ The answer is 1960.
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SPINY FOREST BIRDS
TOP Fortunately for birders, Madagascar has
few LBJs and those that do occur can be readily
identified by their song. The fast rattle of the
subdesert brush warbler is a constant
companion on walks in spiny forest near
the coast.
ABOVE Despite the dry climate and extremely
poor soils, huge areas of spiny forest are burned
each year by farmers looking to grow maize.
Yields are generally poor, so even this massive
destruction does not provide a way out of
poverty.
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the household economies of communities living in extreme poverty. Unfortunately forests can also be converted into
cash, and for farmers whose crops have
failed due to climate change, fishermen
whose catches are dwindling, or young
families needing a plot of land to eke out
a living, the forest is the only bank that
will grant them a withdrawal.
On a more positive note, things are
beginning to change in Madagascar.
Pressure on the forests may still be high,
but a number of conservation initiatives
are under way that show signs of reversing
this worrying trend. In 2003 the Malagasy
government declared that it would triple
the size of the country’s protected area system, and while for conservationists this
was wonderful news, it was also a huge
challenge, as most remaining forest areas
are home to substantial human populations that depend on them for their subsistence and household income.
Nearly 100 new protected areas are
being established across the country,
including several within the spiny forest,
but they follow a radically different model
from the strictly protected national parks
and special reserves of the past. Instead of
imposing a complete ban on the exploitation of resources, the managers of these
new sanctuaries seek to accommodate the
needs of local communities by permitting
them to make sustainable use of the forest.
Indeed, in many instances communities
themselves are involved in managing the
protected areas.
Some of the spiny forest eco-region’s
existing parks are also being expanded,
including its flagship example, Tsimanampesotse. This is one of Africa’s oldest
national parks, having been created in
1927, and has increased in size from
40 000 hectares in 2008 to more than
200 000 hectares today. Many of these
protected areas are developing tourism
infrastructure as a way to generate a little
revenue for the communities that manage them, so it is now easier than ever for
visitors to enjoy the region’s special birds
and other unique wildlife (see ‘Spiny forest birding’, page 71). With a little luck
and a lot of hard work, these initiatives
and the numerous other conservation
activities under way will help to safeguard
some of the spiny forest for future generations – the lives of thousands of species
and millions of people depend on it.
Look out for Charlie Gardner and Louise
Jasper’s book on the biodiversity and conservation of Madagascar’s spiny forest, due for
publication in 2014. To see more photographs of the country’s wildlife, follow
Louise Jasper on Flickr and Louise Jasper
Nature Photography on Facebook.