Qualla: Berenty Reserve

Berenty Reserve: Introduction

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hans Bernhard (Schnobby), CC BY-SA 3.0. A ring-tailed lemur strolls across the breakfast table, tail held high like a question mark, utterly indifferent to the humans reaching for their coffee. This is normal at Berenty Reserve, a 1,000-hectare patch of forest in the deep south of Madagascar where six species of lemur have grown so accustomed to people that the boundary between wildlife sanctuary and open-air zoo has effectively dissolved. Founded by the de Heaulme family in 1936, Berenty is one of the oldest private nature reserves on the island, and its lemurs have become some of the most studied and filmed primates on Earth.

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Image: Hans Bernhard (Schnobby) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Berenty Reserve: A Family's Vigil

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Dennis, CC BY-SA 2.0. For nearly a century, the de Heaulme family has protected this bend in the Mandrare River while the landscape around it has been transformed into vast sisal plantations. The reserve opened to the public in 1981, and since then it has become one of Madagascar's premier tourist des...

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Image: David Dennis | CC BY-SA 2.0

Berenty Reserve: The Lemurs Who Forgot to Be Wild

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. Three species dominate the daytime trails: ring-tailed lemurs with their iconic black-and-white tails, brown lemurs, and Verreaux's sifakas, which move through the trees in a distinctive sideways leap that looks almost like dancing. These animals are so habituated to people that ...

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Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

Berenty Reserve: Flying Foxes and Spiny Forests

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Neil Strickland, CC BY 2.0. Lemurs are not the only spectacle. Berenty shelters the south's largest colony of Madagascar flying foxes, fruit bats with wingspans that can exceed a meter. Their roosting trees are cordoned off to protect the colony, but the sight of hundreds of bats hanging from branches is vi...

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Image: Neil Strickland | CC BY 2.0

Berenty Reserve: The Long Road South

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit gailhampshire, CC BY 2.0. Reaching Berenty is itself an adventure. The reserve lies 86 kilometers west of the coastal town of Taolagnaro, also known as Fort Dauphin, but the road is rough enough that the drive takes two to four hours. There is a private airstrip for small planes, though advance permission...

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Image: gailhampshire | CC BY 2.0