Cute But Different Children Of Madagascar - By Dandy Ahuruonye © 2015

Madagascar is a small village in a large jungle. This village is owned by a big woman – her name is Mamadgascar. She has many children, and all of them live with her in this jungle village.

Her husband’s name is Mandygascar, and her mother is called Madamgascar. Her first daughter is known as Gemagascar, and her first son is called Jimmygascar.

Mamadgascar’s family is very large, all her children are different, and none of them looked alike. They all behave very differently. As her family is so large, Mamadgascar told her children that the jungle must be treated as their home; she was not able to build a house large enough for a family with so many different kinds of children. The children liked their jungle home very much and did all they could to care for it from day to day.

One morning a visitor named Mark came to see Mamadgascar and her family; this visitor lived outside the jungle, and has never met any of her children. Mamadgascar prepared a nice breakfast for her guest, after eating, Mark asked Mamadgascar whether he could see some of the children.

“Oh, they have all gone out to search for food in the bush.”

“Can I go out into the bush to see them?”

 “Here in the jungle, we do not allow visitors to go out into the bush unless they change their names to jungle names, otherwise, they might be eaten by some of my children.”

 Well then; please give me a jungle name so I can go and see them, Mark told her.

 “Right, what is your name?”

“My name is Mark.”

 “From now on, you will no longer be called Mark; your new name is Markdagascar, all the adults who live in my house are given names ending with dagascar, it is only the children who have different names”

Mark asked her: “But why is that so?”

“They are allowed to bear different names because they only come home to sleep, once they are awake, they must go into the jungle to search for food”.

“Well, would you like to meet some of my kids now?” Oh, yes, please I would like to meet them. “Come with me this way please”.

As they walked through a narrow dirt track, she heard a sound up in the tree and so stopped and looked up. She saw one of her sons who looked very weird, he had ears like that of a bat, and his teeth looked like those of a rat.

 “Markdagascar!”

“ Yes madam.”

 “Look up there, can you see one of my sons on that branch over to the left?”

“ Is that your son?”

 “Yes, he is one of the oldest of my children; do you like him?”

“Eem… I’m not sure, he looks kind of weird.”

 Markdagascar has never seen such a creature before, so he kept looking at him.

“What is his name?”

 “His name is Aye-aye”

 Markdagascar asked her: “Why does he have that long bony middle finger and huge eyes?”

 “He looks that way because our home is a rainforest, and he can only feed on insect larvae.”

“Insect larvae?”

“Where does he find those?”

 “Oh, he finds them very easily; he uses his middle finger to knock on the bark of a particular tree. After knocking a few times, he stops and listens very carefully by bringing his ear close to the tree. If he hears or feels a movement, then he knows there are larvae inside the tree. At that point he rips off the bark and eats the larvae.”

“I like Aye-Aye, but can we see some others of your children now?”

 “Right, come with me because I can see another on that cluster of bamboo trees over there”.

As they approached the tall bamboo tree, a lemur saw them and started to descend from the treetop. The lemur stopped on a bamboo branch to get a closer look at Markdagascar.

“His name is Bamboo Lemur; his main food is bamboo shoots, that’s why he spends most of his day in these clusters”.

As they moved away from the bamboo clusters, they arrived at a clearing full of small flower trees. Markdagascar heard a sound somewhere and asked:

“Madam, what was that sound?”

“Ah, that is another lemur, she is one of my daughters, her real name is Black Lemur.

“Why is she called Black Lemur?”

 “Because even though she has a reddish-brown fur, you can see she also has a black and white face”.

“What kind of food does she eat?”

 “She feeds on flowers, leaves, and all sorts of fruits.”

“ Waoh, her diet is very healthy.”

“Yes, she eats well, that is why she looks healthy”.

“Come with me so you can meet her sister, see over there, there is another lemur”.

“Oh, this one looks small; is she a baby?”

 “No, she is just small in size”.

“ What is her name?”

“Her name is Dwarf Lemur. She is like her sister, and eats same foods like her sister, however, she also eats insects”.

“But she looks very small.”

“Well, you might want to meet one of the largest of my children. You see that Lemur that is hanging on that tree to your left?”

“Oh my goodness, this one is very large, he is like a giant, what do you call him?”

“His name is Indri; he is the largest of all my lemur children.”

 As they watched him, Indri made a loud eerie wail that sounded similar to the call of a humpback whale.

 “Did you hear that call?”

 "Yes". "Why did he make that call?”

“Because she is excited due to our presence, Indri feeds on fruit and leaves”.

“Oh, have you met some of my snake children as yet?”

“Did you say snakes? Oh, I am scared of snakes.”

 “If so, please allow me to introduce you to just one of them.”

“No, please, I do not want to see any snakes.”

 “Well, that’s a shame because that snake over there is my child; his name is Spear-nosed snake, he was given this name because of his long nose.”

“Now come with me to meet the oldest of my mongoose children, this one is called Fossa. I know he looks like a mongoose, but he is not really a mongoose.”

“He reminds me of a puma!”

 “Yeah, he has some puma features.”

“What is his diet like?”

 “Ah, that is a very good question. Because Fossa only comes out in the night, he hunts for any small animal he can find in the dark of the night. So to answer your question; he eats things like reptiles, rats, insects, and even small birds. You might also like to know that Fossa is able to find food both on the ground and in trees. I love Fossa so much”, she told Markdagascar”.

“ I like him too,  he looks interesting.”

“Oh, thanks for saying nice things about my son. If you liked him, you might also like his sister - Brookesia.
Brookesia is a chameleon; she is so tiny that if you did not look carefully, you might miss her on the tree leaf. Brookesia Chameleon is one of the smallest reptiles in the world”.

“She is really small, I did not see her until you pointed her out to me, how did you know she was there?”

 “Ah, that’s an interesting question,” she spoke to me.

“You did not hear her because you are a visitor. Visitors are not able to communicate with us because we have a special language”.

“She is so small that I doubt she needs any food,” Markdagascar said.

 “Yes, Brookesia feeds on small insects and flies. She is very good in faking, at times she make herself look like a piece of dry leaf, but when a small insect comes close, she grabs it for dinner.”

“So how does she avoid being eaten by bigger animals or birds?”

 “When a larger animal or bird disturbs her, she plays dead, this makes her look a fallen dry leaf – no one wants to eat dry leaves!”

“I know we have been out for a while now, perhaps before we return to the house, would you like to meet some of my frog children”?

“Yes please!”

“Right, come with me to the small pond.”

 At the pond they met a frog called Mantella frog. In Madagascar there are many kinds of frog. Mamadgascar said hello to Mantella. As they were talking to this frog, a very beautiful frog leaped out of the water and said hello to his Mum and also to Markdagascar. Markdagascar has never seen such a good looking frog before.

“What is her name?”

 “I knew you were going to be amazed by my daughter frog, her name is Tomato frog.”

“Tomato is famous because of a trick that no other frog can perform, Tomato can release coloured sticky glue which she uses to protect herself so other animals like dogs, snakes, or cats will not attack her. One day a cat grabbed Tomato and was going to eat my little girl, but she began to spit the sticky glue out of her mouth, this made the cat to leave her alone.”

When they returned to the house, they saw that Mandygascar and Gemagascar had prepared lunch. They all sat down and enjoyed the meal. Just before they finished, Madamgascar arrived from a nearby village. They invited her to join them at the table.

Markdagascar finished his lunch and told the family that he had to leave because he was going to visit a friend in another village. He said thank you to the family and left.

After they all had their lunch, Jimmygascar cleared the table, he and Gemagascar washed up while the adults sat in the front of the house chatting away their time.