Madagascar Kestrel, Reniala Reserve

Again, I took the opportunity while in Ifaty to go on night walks around the hotel grounds. 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 that 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 is dangerous to humans. Nonetheless, the local Malagasy people I was with kept their distance from this Cat-Eyed Snake while I took a few photos of it!