Madagascar's gem

Madagascar, former « Green Island », is a land gifted by nature. The island, now known as Red Island-due to deforestation issue- is counting numerous of endemic species both in its fauna and flora, among those first, its crocodiles. I’ve been at a place named Crocs’ farm, a park housing- as its name suggests it - crocodiles. It was a first for me. The place’s signboard promised adventure and that is what I got.
Croc Farm is a zoo, open all seasons,at ten kilometers north-west of Antananarivo by a secondary road. Thinking there’s a mini jungle just outside the crowded modern town, shocking. Some miles before you get there, the view of the park was already breathtaking,with a luxuriant vegetation, white birds flying above hills of violet flowers, a little forest.Passed the gates, it was another world: green and savage.
The park trek is set on a circular circuit that takes an hour on a tour, along which were displayed all the inhabitants of the zoo: lemurs-majestic with their white and black fur and piercing red eyes seeming to mock you from their high perch on the trees, birds as parrots, ducks; a couple of turtles, a zebra, even domestic animal such as donkey and cows; snakes, all sorts of amphibians of all shapes and colors-brilliant orange, green and red- which were spectacular. But the main attractions were the crocodiles. They were the king of this little jungle.
The crocodiles were everywhere. They seemed to melt with the setting, unmoving, their skin the same brownish color as the ground and mud in which they were splayed.How lazy can be such powerful and dangerous animal! They were all motionless, as if time for them had stopped. Some were caught the mouth wide open showcasing hundreds of sharp teeth, some were sleeping, some unmoving,their yellow eyes wide open, their following motion the only sign they were not in trance. Others were lazily bathing on the surface of the natural ponds.
But the real spectacle came at their feeding hour, at noon, another thing altogether. At the view of the fresh meat, mostly birds, the once dormant crocodiles were fighting to have their share, showing their hidden power, jumping even for their catch. Greedy they were, yet in the end, they’ll finish one by one-just as delicious as the birds they ate-on the visitors’plates offered by the exotic restaurant set in place. Not surprising if hundreds they were once, now, just 150 remain.
After all that, Croc farm is an imperative detour to taste Madagascar’s colors.