From bright green spiders to 100ft trees, the natural beauty of Madagascar is revealed in all its shapes and sizes
- British photographer Dale Morris, 40, visited the island to capture its natural beauty on camera
- He documented stunning landscapes and unusual animals and insects to show its diversity
By ROSIE TAYLOR
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It's nickname may be the 'Great Red Island' - but Madagascar's stunning wildlife is anything but one-dimensional.
The country's colourful plants and animals are as varied as the natural world gets.
British photographer Dale Morris visited the country to document dozens of species, including chameleons, lemurs and unusual insects like the giraffe-necked weevil.
He said: 'I lost count of how many animals I photographed. Every day was a photographer's dream. Madagascar is absolutely unique in every way. It's like no other place on earth.'
Silhouette: Babab trees dominate the skyline on the island of Madagascar
Canopy: Around 80 per cent of the plants and animals on the island are unique to Madagascar
Dramatic landscape: The island's babab trees look stunning against the sunset (left) and spotlit at night (right)
Friendly: Photographer Dale Morris, 40, gets up close and personal with a tortoise
The 40-year-old photographer is concerned about the rate at which forests and jungles on the island are being destroyed, threatening the lives of animals outside its nature reserves.
Madagascar is the world's fourth largest Island and is three-and-a-half times the size of Great Britain.
It is is known as the 'Great Red Island' because large amounts of iron in its soil gives the earth a rusty colour.
Its diverse landscape includes rain-forests, sloping highlands and tropical dry-forests and much of its flora and fauna is unique to the island.
Around 80 per cent of Madagascar's plants and animals are found nowhere else on earth.
Stunning: The photographer catches a colourful chameleon for a close-up
Dramatic: The island is full of colourful species, like this chameleon (left), and majestic landscapes, like this babab-tree lined road (right)
Darkness: Mr Morris documented many of the animals at night after exploring the forest with a local guide
Unusual: Madagascar is home to some strange wildlife including the giraffe-necked weevil
Trek: Mr Morris discovered nocturnal animals by walking through the forest with a flashlight
Posing: Several of the animals showed little fear of Mr Morris and he managed to capture some, including this chameleon, up close
In danger: The photographer wants to raise awareness about the rate at which forests and jungles are being destroyed on the island
Mr Morris, 40, who is originally from London but now lives in South Africa, had no trouble getting the animals to pose for him.
He said: 'Much to my surprise, many of the nocturnal species were unafraid of me.
'I would venture into the forests with a local guide and a flash light and there we would begin searching for chameleons, giant geckos, tree frogs, snakes, owls and night lemurs.
'The chameleons and geckos were particularly accommodating models and stayed perfectly still for me even when I was right up close.'
But perhaps the animals should have been a bit more hesitant as Mr Morris, who was suffering from food poisoning, accidentally vomited on one unfortunate tree frog he was trying to photograph.
Colourful: This green-and-yellow spider is one of hundreds of unusual creatures that live on the island
Ghostly: The photographer snapped this chameleon (left) and praying mantis (right) in the middle of the night
Beautiful: Mr Morris managed to get a picture of this multi-coloured dragonfly before it took off
Nature: There are around 200,000 known species of flora and fauna living on the African island
Colour change: This close up image shows the different shades in this chameleon's skin
Creatures of the night: The photographer captured some unusual insects on camera
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2331637/Dale-Morris-From-bright-green-spiders-100ft-trees-natural-beauty-Madagascar-revealed-shapes-sizes-British-photographers-images.html#ixzz2UWuw8FzK
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