Madagascar: The Island That Evolved in Isolation
Madagascar separated from Africa 165 million years ago, and in that isolation it evolved a cast of creatures found nowhere else — lemurs, fossa, chameleons, and baobab trees that look like they were drawn by a child.
Madagascar is the fourth-largest island in the world and one of the most biodiverse places on Earth — a consequence of its 165-million-year isolation from the African continent, which allowed its flora and fauna to evolve along entirely independent lines. Approximately 90 percent of Madagascar's wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth, including all 107 species of lemur, all 59 species of chameleon (including the world's smallest, the Brookesia micra, which is smaller than a thumbnail), and the fossa — a cat-like predator that is the island's apex land predator and is more closely related to the mongoose than to any cat.
The lemurs are the most iconic of Madagascar's unique fauna — primates that evolved from a common ancestor that rafted across from Africa on floating vegetation around 60 million years ago and diversified in isolation into over a hundred species occupying every ecological niche from the rainforest canopy to the dry spiny forest. The ring-tailed lemur, with its distinctive black-and-white striped tail, is the most recognisable; the indri, the largest living lemur, produces a haunting wailing call that carries through the rainforest for kilometres; and the aye-aye, with its enormous eyes and elongated middle finger for extracting grubs from wood, is one of the strangest-looking animals in the world.
The Avenue of the Baobabs, near the town of Morondava on the west coast, is one of Madagascar's most photographed landscapes — a dirt road flanked by enormous baobab trees up to 30 metres tall and 11 metres in circumference, their swollen trunks and sparse canopies creating silhouettes against the sunset sky that look like something from a children's illustration. The baobabs are estimated to be between 800 and 1,200 years old, and the avenue is a remnant of the dense forest that once covered this part of Madagascar before it was cleared for agriculture.
The Ranomafana National Park in the southeastern highlands protects a section of the eastern rainforest that is home to 12 species of lemur, including the golden bamboo lemur, discovered only in 1986. The park's trails wind through dense forest of tree ferns, orchids, and bamboo, and the best wildlife viewing is at dawn and dusk when the lemurs are most active. Night walks reveal a different world: chameleons sleep on branches, mouse lemurs hunt insects, and the eyes of sleeping birds reflect the torchlight from the canopy above.
The Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park in western Madagascar protects a landscape unlike anything else on Earth — a forest of razor-sharp limestone pinnacles, called tsingy, that rise up to 70 metres from the forest floor and are connected by a network of suspension bridges and via ferrata routes. The tsingy were formed by the dissolution of limestone by slightly acidic rainwater over millions of years, and the resulting labyrinth of spires, canyons, and caves supports a unique ecosystem of plants and animals adapted to life on the knife-edged rock.
Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world, and the pressure on its natural environment from deforestation, slash-and-burn agriculture, and charcoal production is severe. The island has lost more than 90 percent of its original forest cover, and the remaining forests are under continuous threat. Conservation organisations working in Madagascar have developed community-based approaches that give local people a direct economic stake in protecting the forests — ecotourism, sustainable harvesting of forest products, and payments for ecosystem services — but the challenge of balancing conservation with the needs of a rapidly growing population remains formidable.
The best time to visit Madagascar depends on which part of the island you plan to explore. The east coast and the rainforests of the highlands are best visited from September to December, before the cyclone season begins in January. The west coast and the dry deciduous forests are best from April to October, during the dry season. The south, with its spiny desert of cacti and succulents, can be visited year-round. Getting around Madagascar requires patience — the roads are poor, the distances are large, and the infrastructure is limited — but the rewards for those willing to make the effort are extraordinary.
