The Spiny Forest of Ifaty, famous the world over for it's weird and wonderful plants

The next chance at nocturnal photography was on a night staying at Le Paradisier in Ifaty. I was on my way to Anakao in the hope of seeing Red Billed Tropicbirds on the nearby island of Nosy Ve. Ifaty is famous for it's Spiny Forest. All plants in this area have evolved to cope with extreme drought. Perhaps the most famous is the family of Baobab trees. These amazing trees are fire resistant and store a large amount of water in their bottle shaped trunk. They grow incredibly slowly; between 1mm and 5mm a year. 7 of the 9 Baobab species in the world are native to Madagascar. The local people don’t cut down these trees as they have a superstition around them, known locally as 'fady', as they believe that the spirits of their ancestors are inside of these ancient trees.

While on the night walk around the hotel grounds of Le Paradisier I came across a Madagascar Cat-Eyed Snake. Locals fear all snakes. Again, 'fady' surrounds snakes - they're called 'kakalava', meaning 'long enemy'. Snakes have always received a bad rap, a primordial fear, from the Biblical reference that snakes introduced evil to man. Personally, along with all reptiles, they have fascinated me. Far from being slimy, scaly creatures who are out for the sole intention to make our lives a misery, they move with grace and have some of the most intricate and beautiful patterns and colours found in the natural world.

In fact, Madagascar is home to more than 80 species of snakes of which none are dangerous to humans. The country has no vipers, adders or cobras, only boas and colubrids. While some snakes are venomous snakes, they're rear-fanged and only capable of inflicting a painful bite. Nonetheless the local Malagasy people I was with kept their distance from this Cat-Eyed Snake while I took a few photos of it.