Réserve Peyrieras

Reserve Peyrieras, Peyrieras Farm, officially Madagascar Exotic, was designed to meet international trade of “exotic critters.” Eventually, it became a “zoo,” unequalled tourist attraction, even eclipsing national parks, to discover and picture chameleons, frogs, butterflies, snakes, bats, and tenrecs visible yearlong independent of the climate and consequential torpor for some vertebrates which can hardly be spotted even by the expert eyes of a trained tour guide while in their natural habitat in Winter when they enter torpor or remain inactive.

The Reserve Peyrieras is located at the foot of the Mandraka pass some 75 km eastwards of Antananarivo the capital of Madagascar. The reserve is located alongside the busiest national road in Madagascar, RN2, which connects the towns of Antananarivo to the main port on the east coast, Toamasina. As such, the drive to the reserve can take longer than anticipated and as suggested by the distance depending on the time of the day and the traffic. The reserve consists of several cages and large enclosures of the type of aviaries in which small vertebrates are kept according to their group. Two species of lemurs, Coquerel’s Sifaka and common brown lemur, the sole free roaming animals of the reserve can be encountered atop a hill covered by eucalypts and pine trees which overlook the surrounding and the native forest those introduced species of lemurs call home.

Remarks

The visitor understands that non sympatric species of vertebrates are sharing the same enclosure at the reserve Peyrieras and that guides will hand move animals from hide for comfort of picturing. Chameleons will be fed with grasshoppers to show how they feed and lemurs will be allured to the hill top as visits are not carried out in the native forest.