Magical Madigascar June 21, 2012

Magical Madagascar- Featuring Bob Lewis

Ninety million years ago, Madagascar broke away from the last fragments of Gondwana, the great southern continent. Since that time, life on Madagascar has been evolving in its own unique way, isolated from Africa by 300 miles of the Mozambique channel. Five or six families of birds are found only on this fourth-largest island in the world, and more than half of the world's chameleons live only here. Lemurs are found nowhere else. Join Bob Lewis as he considers the evolutionary concepts of endemism and adaptive radiation on this island laboratory, and illustrates Madagascar life with striking images taken on a recent trip. Meet Cuckoo-Rollers, Asities, Mesites, Vangas, and other Malagasy birds, and discover some of the many species of lemurs that call the Madagascar forests home. To get in the right time zone, we'll spend a few minutes in Cape Town, South Africa, chasing the elusive Cape Rockjumper before departing for our ultimate destination.

Bob is a GGAS board member and an award-winning nature photographer who has traveled to many countries in search of avian subjects. He has taught birding classes in the Bay Area for almost 20 years and is a frequent speaker at libraries, conservation groups, photo clubs, and benevolent societies on bird-related subjects. Bob has seen about 4,000 of the world's 10,000 species of birds, and enjoys photographing members of the world's bird families.

Official Website: http://www.goldengateaudubon.org/education/speaker-series/