by Bindi Irwin
Berriman nodded.
He turned to the guests, cleared his throat, and said slowly, ‘We show you special things today. Come with us.’
The guests were charmed and hurried to follow the children. They were just on their way down the path when Terri heard a scream, along with a few other yelps. What is it this time? she thought to herself.
She ran out the front of the lodge to see a Madagascan hog-nosed snake crossing the path in front of the American guests. The tourists were almost jumping into each other’s arms in fright.
Terri grinned. Finally this was one ‘problem’ she could solve. She went quietly over to the snake, lifted him up by the tail, and deposited him out of harm’s way.
The guests applauded, and the local kids started singing a Malagasy folk song.
Bindi and Robert, who had been anxious about their mum, rode up to see the group clapping and singing. There was obviously nothing to worry about. Terri had it all under control!
Back in the kitchen, Terri was horrified to hear about Mr Indigo and the lemurs. When Sylvie came in at the tail end of the kids’ explanation, she frowned. ‘I have heard stories like this before. The owners of the ecolodge have had their suspicions about Mr Indigo for a while, but they’ve never had any proof.’
‘Well, unfortunately, we don’t have proof either,’ said Bindi. ‘We let the lemurs go.’
‘And unless we catch Mr Indigo, we won’t be able to stop him,’ said Robert, looking grim.
Sylvie was already starting to unpack lunch provisions. ‘Don’t worry, I have an idea,’ she said.
At dinner that night, the American guests had fully relaxed and were finally enjoying Madagascar and the ecolodge. In the kitchen, Bindi asked Sylvie what had happened to the woman who had collapsed at the market.
‘My brother found out she had food poisoning, and was dehydrated,’ answered Sylvie. ‘He made it very clear to the woman’s family that this was nothing to do with the aye-aye.’
‘Do you think they listened?’ asked Bindi.
Sylvie smiled. ‘When I told the village kids what had happened, they became brave enough to come up to the ecolodge and help with the tour. Previously, they were scared about being anywhere near where the aye-aye has been seen.’
‘That’s great,’ said Bindi. ‘It means they might be beginning to change the way they think.’
Sylvie smiled. ‘I hope so. And they’re going to accompany us on our night-time walk to the forest. So they might even get to see an aye-aye in the flesh.’
‘I guess that could be scary for them,’ said Bindi, thoughtfully.
‘Yes,’ agreed Sylvie, with a grave expression. ‘But the future of the species depends on their bravery.’
There was a knock at the door as everyone was preparing for the nocturnal walk.
Robert bounded over but was taken aback to find Mr Indigo at the door.
‘Oh, it’s you,’ he said, a little unkindly.
‘Oui, oui, it is me,’ said Mr Indigo. ‘Sylvie invited me to take part in the nocturnal tour.’
Mr Indigo’s mobile phone rang, and he answered in rapid French. He seemed upset by what the person on the other end was saying. Sylvie gathered up Bindi and Robert, and whispered that he was talking to someone in France who had not received the package they had paid for.
Bindi’s eyes lit up. ‘D’you think they mean the lemurs?’ she whispered.
Sylvie nodded, suppressing a smile.
Mr Indigo ended the call angrily.
The Irwins rounded up the guests and the group headed off into the forest, along a dirt track. Terri was at the front of the group with a torch. Shining eyes could be seen from tree branches as Terri pointed out various nocturnal lemur species, but there was no sign of the aye-aye.
Robert turned to Bindi. ‘I thought Sylvie said the local children were coming on the tour too,’ he said.
‘Perhaps they changed their minds,’ said Bindi.
They continued to listen to the wonderful night-time noises coming from the forest. They were on the last part of the track when Terri’s torch lit upon the endangered aye-aye.
‘Crikey, folks. There she is. You can see her huge eyes, batlike ears and big bushy tail, which is similar to a squirrel’s. I’ve never seen one in the wild before tonight.’
The guests were thrilled by the discovery. Sylvie went over to Terri and whispered something in her ear. Terri nodded.
‘Okay, folks, let’s keep moving and give this little critter some privacy.’ Terri ushered the group on. Mr Indigo lagged behind, using the light from his mobile phone to catch glimpses of the aye-aye.
Robert called out to him. ‘You don’t want to be left behind, Mr Indigo!’
‘I’d like a quiet moment with this remarkable creature,’ said Mr Indigo.
Once Mr Indigo assumed he was alone, he removed a large dark sack from the pocket of his jacket, and crept closer to the aye-aye’s tree.
‘You will be the crown jewel, aye-aye,’ he murmured to himself. ‘They won’t mind about not getting the ring-tails if I can deliver an endangered aye-aye instead.’ He began to climb the tree. His trousers snagged and his hair got ruffled, but he was getting closer and closer to the lemur, who was so focused on searching out insect larvae with her long middle finger that she did not notice the intruder.
Mr Indigo was almost close enough to grab the aye-aye, when five torchlight beams swung onto him.
‘Smile for the camera,’ said Bindi, as she took a photo of Mr Indigo with his sack, ready to pounce on the creature. The local children, headed by Berriman, were chattering excitedly to one another. They had seen their first aye-aye!
Bindi turned to her new friends. ‘The only bad thing that’s going to happen as a result of seeing this amazing animal is that Mr Indigo is going to jail!’ she said. ‘And for us, and for you and Madagascar, that is a very good thing!’
Sylvie called the police and they were there within minutes. Mr Indigo was furious and refused to come down from the tree. He tried to talk his way out of the situation but the local police had long suspected he was involved in illegal trade, and would not listen to his excuses.
‘I hate this ecolodge and everything to do with conservation. It’s ruining my business,’ he screeched, before falling out of the tree and landing, uncharmingly, on his bottom, right in front of the police.
‘C’est horrible!’ he cried.
After the excitement of Mr Indigo’s capture, Bindi and Robert found it hard to get to bed. The three Irwins sat on the end of Terri’s bed in their pyjamas, talking through their two days of action-packed adventure.
‘Hopefully we’ll get a few less exciting days now, kids,’ said Terri.
Bindi was counting the lemur species she still wanted to see. ‘Three down, thirty-six to go.’
Robert was reading through a reptile dictionary. ‘I reckon I’ve spotted about eight different types of lizards already. I only have,’ he made a quick calculation, ‘about two hundred and two left to find!’
Terri yawned. ‘Well, perhaps the excitement is set to continue then,’ she said resignedly, as Bindi and Robert leaned in and gave her a big hug.
ANIMAL FACT FILE
THE RING-TAILED LEMUR
Ring-tailed lemurs live along the south and south-western part of Madagascar.
They are easily recognised by their distinctive long black-and-white-ringed tails.
Along with tarsiers and lorises, lemurs belong to a subgroup of primates called ‘prosimians’, meaning ‘pre-monkey’.
They can be found in a variety of forests such as rainforests, gallery, deciduous and spiny bush forests.
They are very social and live in troops, which are led by the dominant female lemur.
Their diet consists of fruit, leaves, flowers, other plant parts, the occasional insect and small vertebrates.
ANIMAL FACT FILE
THE AYE-AYE
© Getty Images
The aye-aye lives in eastern Madagascar
and is the largest of the nocturnal primates.
It is equipped with a very long, very thin third finger that it is able to rotate 360 degrees, independently of the other, shorter fingers.
The aye-aye’s strange appearance has given rise to many superstitions and beliefs among the people of Madagascar.
When hunting at night, the lemur moves along a branch, rapidly tapping the wood with its elongated fingers while listening intently. If it detects the hollow sound of a cavity deep within the tree and hears an insect larva moving inside, it starts to gnaw at the wood until it is able to insert its third finger to extract the grub.
During the day, aye-ayes sleep in nests made from twigs woven together and lined with shredded leaves.
The aye-aye faces extinction, due to a combination of habitat destruction and human persecution.
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