Galleries / Madagascar

A Naturalist’s Dream. Extraordinary wildlife. Tropical.

A naturalist’s dream and veritable eighth continent, Madagascar separated from the rest of Africa around 135 million years ago, leaving its ecology to evolve completely independently from the rest of the world. This natural isolation means that over 80 percent of the country’s flora and fauna exist nowhere else on the planet.

These unique ecosystems are spread over a wide variety of terrains and microclimates: desert and spiny forest in the south, rainforests in the east, tropical dry forests in the west and a high plateau in the center stretching up to the mountainous north. While the climate is largely tropical, there are distinct variations according to altitude and other geographical and geological factors.

The most famous endemic denizens on the island are its lemurs – 99 different species in all shapes, sizes and hues. There are over 12,000 species of plant including 170 different species of palms, 960 orchid species and six of the world’s eight different baobabs. Madagascar’s wildlife rates amongst the best in the world in terms of diversity, abundance and approachability – it is simply impossible to convey the scale of the extraordinary natural bounty found on this island, the fourth largest in the world.

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