Berenty Reserve is a small private reserve of gallery forest along the Mandrake River, set in the semi-arid spiny forest ecoregion of the far south of Madagascar. For more than three decades the primatologist Alison Jolly (who started the research at Berenty),[2] researchers[3][4] and students have visited Berenty to conduct fieldwork on lemurs. The reserve is also a favourite for visitors who want to see some of Madagascar's endemic bird species, which include owls and Couas.