Average Expert Rating
Rating Breakdown
Write a User ReviewChameleons Great and Small
Read more
and human eyes due to their mottled bark-like scaling and habit of resting motionless on a tree trunk with their body flattened. We were also fortunate enough to see the Amber Mountain rock thrush, a bird whose entire global population is confined to this one single forest block.
Endemism Galore in Pristine Rainforest
Amber Mountain National Park must rank as one of Madagascar’s most scenic parks. The pristine rainforest reaches 40m/131ft high into the sky and orchids, tree ferns and bird nest ferns are just some of the more iconic plants that caught my eye in this environment renowned for its floral diversity. I saw crowned and Sandford’s brown lemur, but it is the chameleons that steal the show here. I managed to see six species in a short walk along the Petit Circuit (small circuit) which is only a couple of kilometers long but takes in two beautiful waterfalls. My guide managed to spot two chameleons which were high on my wish list as they are endemic to Amber Mountain and can be found nowhere else in the world; the Amber Mountain chameleon and the tiny Amber Mountain leaf chameleon. The latter is the second smallest chameleon on earth and it fits comfortably on a fingertip.