Lokobe National Park – Your beautiful walk
Lokobe National Park is a beautiful place covered in thick rainforest. Your beautiful walk will take you through dense vegetation to meet nocturnal and diurnal lemurs including macaco and fulvus, chameleons, boas as well as 42 species of birds including the owl of Madagascar and the Madagascar kingfisher. Silence is obligatory for the respect of its nocturnal fauna. This also facilitates the observation of animals.
Lokobe covers around 7, 4 km² of the last remaining Sambirano primary forest of Nosy Be, added to this, a marine protection area of 1,22 km² belongs to the park, too. Already in 1927 this ancient forest started to be protected and in 1966 the actual Reserve was created. In 2011, Lokobe was officially declared a national park and thus opened to the public. But most of this park is closed to the public due to the delicate and unique balance between fauna and flora.
The park is mostly known for the black lemur. These humid medium altitude evergreen forests are the natural habitat for the endangered black lemur, which only occurs here and is the most representative species of the park. Unfortunately only few are left. These lemurs are real beauties. The females are not black at all, but beautifully reddish brown. They are the national park’s secret mascots that jump through the tree top and come quite close to people and very popular among visitors. But the black lemurs are not alone: Sometimes, rare Hawk’s sportive lemurs (Lepilemur tymerlachsoni) sleepy blink through the branches, and in the night, mouse lemurs (Microcebus mamiratra) run through the area.
Regarding the flora, palms are the most spread species. There are a couple of local endemic palm species and precious woods too. You can still gaze at giant trees like the ramy (Canarium madagascariense). They also have other, very rare plants like the palm trees Dypsis nossibeensis and ampasandavae. Lichens and ferns grow everyhwere.
Lokobe National Park is also home to some endemic birds like the Madagascar pygmy kingfisher or the Madagascar long-eared owl, to spectacular panther-chameleons, local endemic frogs and several snakes. Over centuries, animals could develop undisturbed in this park, and became enormously diverse. 42 bird species fly in Lokobe. Between green leaves, chameleon species like the blue and white panther chameleon (Furcifer pardalis), pymy chameleons (Brookesia stumpffi, ebenaui and minima) and the real Calumma boettgeri hide. In trees, on rocks and along the many small, idyllic streams, you can find endemic plated lizards (Zonosaurus boettgeri), leaf-nosed snakes (Langaha madagascariensis), bright green day geckos (Phelsuma grandis, seippi, abotti, laticauda, dubia) and small frogs. If you are lucky, you may even find the perfectly camouflaged leaf-tailed gecko (Uroplatus ebenaui and henkeli). All in all, more than 50 reptile species and almost 35 amphibians call Lokobe their home. Among the frogs of Lokobe, there are Mantella ebenaui and one of the smallest frogs in the world, Stumpffia pygmea. Butterflies lovers will also get their money worth: More than 110 species of butterflies live in Lokobe.
There is also a 1,5 km long path, consisting only of stairs, up to a lovely view point. The latter can become quite hard to go due to the tropical climate of the island – but the amazing view will reward you afterwards. After your walk you will be treated to a lovely fish lunch.
Lokobe National Park has a special that makes it unique among all national parks of Madagascar. So when visiting Nosy Be, take into consideration to visit Lokobe.
Watch more photos about Lokobe National Park here.
