Madagascar could just as well be on another planet, in spite of being a mere 400 Km (250 miles) into the Indian Ocean off the south eastern coast of Africa. The closest African country is Mozambique. If you compare the wildlife on the island to the rest of the world, you’ll find that 80% of it unique to Madagascar.

It’s a country ideally suited to adventure tourism. It is very important to have a guide that knows the work, because this kind of travel could involve encounters with wildlife that some would find scary. However there are a number of national parks which offer safe viewing of the unique wildlife of the island. The island’s most famous national park is called Andasibe, with its rainforest vegitation. Here you can see some of the more than 70 species of lemur, a snouted tree-dwelling primate that exists nowhere else. There are a plethora of chameleon species in all colours of the rainbow, the largest being the size of a house cat, the smallest smaller than a thumb nail. The fossa is the largest predator. Ankarana National Park is another unique experience, given its eroded wonderland of sharp limestone pinnacles and bat caves.

A journey to Madagascar, the 4th largest island in the entire world with its surface land area of 226, 444 sq. miles is part of the African continent. It lies in the Indic (Indian) ocean near the neighboring islands of Seychelles, Comoros, and Mauritius and separated by 500 mile wide gap of the Mozambique Channel. The Madagascar Island once was deemed as Noah’s Ark adrift in the Indian Ocean is the home for a wide range of biodiversity on earth. Lists of endemic species are endless as well as extraordinary of which 97 per cent are unique and native to this beautiful island. The long and winding forests is refuge to half of the world’s varieties of chameleon, 28 different species of bats, 300 butterfly species, 260 different species of reptiles, and 150 types of frogs. Madagascar is also home to not less than 50 types of different lemurs and native to the island is half of 201 birds’ species resident to the island.

The breath taking view and wildlife of Madagascar attracts an increasing volume of visitors as the years go by, not letting the opportunity to pass to be able to experience and take photos and videos of the island in the African coast. Tourists and wildlife  enthusiasts are drawn by the lemurs’ unique to the island as these animals populate almost every habitat across the region including the very dry dessert in the island’s southwest and the wet, lush, rainforest in the eastern region of Madagascar. However since the arrival of human in the island, deforestation has caused endangerment and extinction to some 15 species of the bear-like mammal. The government has been implementing significant undertakings so as to tackle this menace and promote ecotourism and likewise getting the native local’s involvement in profits tourism.

If you are planning on your trip to Madagascar, officials in immigration office will simply check or issue a visa prior to your entrance in the country. You can choose to travel by plane or by boat if you have a lot of determination and time. You have to be prepared for a rough ride on cargo ships like eating and sleeping conditions and expect a turbulent sea sometimes. While air transport with the Madagascar flag carrier Air Madagascar will make your travel more efficient in time with recent improvements with regards to service and the fleet itself.

Aside from the fauna species, you cannot simply ignore the impressive and unbelievable flora in the wonderful country where trees and plants grow in the most unusual place and shapes. Your imagination will simply run wild with a trip to Madagascar. The skilled hands of nature resulted to unique landscapes. The islands fabulous dry lands ornate by Boab trees and spiny plants and the humid breath-taking beauty of the virgin rain forests combined with the underwater life will surely take you to a world only possible in your dreams if you haven’t been to the island. Truly, you need not be a biologist or scientist to be able to appreciate the island that made it to the 8 continents.  Your trip to this dreamy place situated in one of the remotest part of the earth will be implanted in your mind that to last a lifetime.

Things to See

Wildlife – The Fossa

The fossa is yet another specie in danger of extinction, making it a popular subject for ecotourism. (Photo Nick Garbutt, posted on Facebook)

Wildlife tourism is probably the first thing that comes to mind when Africa is mentioned. Travel to Madagascar and you could see the Fossa (pronounced Foossa), a very unique creature of our planet. The specie is endemic to the island.

It shares traits with civets (Viverrridae), mongooses, and cats (Felidae). Fossas appear to be a smaller form of a large felid, such as a cougar. Across Madagascar, people mainly distinguish two types of fossa—a large fossa mainty (“black fossa”) and the smaller fosa mena (“reddish fossa”). Unfortunately it’s numbers are on the decline, and particularly vulnerable to extinction.

Fossa research has also generated spin-offs in the form of ecotourism and local development. Sightings tend to be rare, partially because they prefer to keep to forested areas. One place you can find them is in Madagascar’s Ankarafantsika National Park. There are some scary myths regarding the Fossa. In some parts of Madagascar they are said to eat children who wander off alone in the forest. While it preys on a wide variety of animals, they specialise in feeding of what is common to an environment and season. Humans do not form part of its diet.

Things to Do

Go Backpacking

Backpacking can get you very close to the wilderness in Madagascar.