Madagascar: stunning wildlife, landscapes, and cultural diversity
WildMadagascar.org highlights Madagascar's stunning wildlife, landscapes, and cultural diversity.
Madagascar is a land like no other. An island roughly the size of Texas or France, Madagascar is home to more than 250,000 species of which 70% are found nowhere else on the globe.
Geography: Madagascar can be divided into five geographical regions: the east coast, the Tsaratanana Massif, the central highlands, the west coast, and the southwest. The highest elevations parallel the east coast, whereas the land slopes more gradually to the west coast. Geography of Madagascar
Culture: are of the past; where in many areas taboo and tradition takes precedence over the law; and western-style religion is freely mixed with beliefs in sorcery and unparalleled funerary customs. The People of Madagascar
Plant biodiversity: Madagascar is home to as many as 12,000 plant species -- 70-80% of which are endemic -- making it one of the most diverse floras on the planet. Flora of Madagascar.
Animal biodiversity: Madagascar has some of the highest biodiversity on the planet. Of roughly 200,000 known species found on Madagascar, about 150,000 are endemic. Unique to the island are more than 50 types of lemurs, 99 percent of its frog species, and 36 genera of birds. Madagascar houses 100 percent of the world's lemurs, half of its chameleon species, 6 percent of its frogs, and none of its toads. Some species found in Madagascar have their closest relatives not in Africa but in the South Pacific and South America. Wildlife of Madagascar.
Madagascar News
Right whales can live to 130, but in North America they die young (January 10, 2025)
- A new study indicates that right whales have extremely long lifespans of 130 years or more, adding to growing evidence of extreme whale longevity.
- The research draws attention to the plight of North Atlantic right whales, which are critically endangered. It found that despite their long potential lifespan, their actual lives are far shorter than those of southern right whales, a close relative.
- The authors and other experts believe North Atlantic right whales’ lives are being cut short due to threats in the “highly industrialized” waters off the eastern United States and Canada where they live; these include fishing gear, which can entangle the whales, and vessel strikes.
Indonesia’s voracious songbird trade laps up rare and poisonous pitohuis (January 10, 2025)
- In Southeast Asia, the time-honored tradition of keeping songbirds in cages has resulted in an unsustainable trade in wild-caught songbirds and an alarming decline of many species — a phenomenon ecologists have termed the Asian songbird crisis.
- A recent study finds evidence for a new family of poisonous birds — the pitohuis that are endemic to New Guinea — featuring in the songbird trade in Indonesia.
- Researchers analyzing bird market surveys over a 30-year period have found that pitohuis first entered the trade in 2015, both online and in bird markets, and their trade numbers have since increased.
- Although it’s illegal to buy or sell these birds in Indonesia, the thriving trade suggests a need for closer monitoring and stricter enforcement of laws, say conservationists.
‘You have to be passionate’: Interview with Turtle Survival Alliance’s Hery Razafimamonjiraibe (January 10, 2025)
- Environmental defenders in Madagascar have faced a spate of threats and attacks in recent years, overshadowing their work to protect biodiversity and human rights.
- Against this backdrop, tortoise conservationist Hery Razafimamonjiraibe spoke with Mongabay about how his team manages threats working in often isolated conditions in the south of the country.
- Antipoaching work is risky, he says, but this can be managed through close collaboration and cohesion between communities, NGOs and law enforcement agencies.
‘Nightmare’ fire threatens iconic Madagascar national park (January 10, 2025)
A mighty blaze in Madagascar’s Ranomafana National Park is menacing the home of the world’s rarest lemur species. Disastrous dry conditions have turned the biodiversity haven into a tinderbox. The park, one of the country’s leading tourist destinations, is a 10-hour drive from Madagascar’s capital, Antananarivo, and is also home to the prestigious Centre ValBio […]Bonobo numbers in DRC park stable, but signs of decline appear (January 10, 2025)
Bonobo populations in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Salonga National Park remained steady between 2002 and 2018, but there are worrying signals of decline, a recent study has found. For decades, Salonga has been known to host the largest known population of bonobos (Pan paniscus), an endangered great ape found only in the DRC. However, […]NGOs raise concerns over Borneo pilot of ‘jurisdictional’ certification for palm oil (January 10, 2025)
- A new report by a coalition of Indonesian environmental groups reiterates concerns over a long-running trial of “jurisdictional” certification conducted by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
- The trial underway in Seruyan district, Central Kalimantan province, intends to apply the RSPO standards to the entire district, rather than the more costly, but more specific, vetting of individual plantations or corporate entities.
- A 2017 investigation by Mongabay and The Gecko Project documented how former Seruyan leader Darwan Ali blanketed the district in oil palm plantation concessions beginning in the mid-2000s, issuing licenses to many companies set up in the name of his relatives and cronies.
- Civil society researchers say they worry that a jurisdictional certificate for Seruyan could gloss over long-standing and ongoing land conflicts, and that the palm oil produced from such plantations could enter “green” supply chains.
It’s time for a U.N. ‘universal declaration on nature’ (commentary) (January 9, 2025)
- Nature needs an equivalent to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a new op-ed argues.
- The ‘rights of nature’ is an allied approach, but nature needs something with more and broader teeth, that can elicit a moral and political consensus on the need for nature conservation.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
Deadly wildfires force thousands to evacuate homes in Los Angeles (January 9, 2025)
Wildfires in Southern California, U.S., have killed at least five people, forced some 130,000 to evacuate, and damaged or destroyed more than 2,000 buildings. Numerous fires are raging around Los Angeles county, a region famous for its beaches and Hollywood celebrities. Nearly 30,000 acres (12,140 hectares) have burned in a quickly accelerating fire as of […]Indonesian forestry minister proposes 20m hectares of deforestation for crops (January 9, 2025)
- Indonesia’s forestry minister says 20 million hectares (50 million acres) of forest can be converted to grow food and biofuel crops, or an area twice the size of South Korea.
- Experts have expressed alarm over the plan, citing the potential for massive greenhouse gas emissions and loss of biodiversity.
- They also say mitigating measures that the minister has promised, such as the use of agroforestry and the involvement of local communities, will have limited impact in such a large-scale scheme.
- The announcement coincides with the Indonesian president’s call for an expansion of the country’s oil palm plantations, claiming it won’t result in deforestation because oil palms are also trees.
At least 11,500 deaths linked to extreme weather in 2024 (January 9, 2025)
Extreme weather in 2024 affected around 18 in every 1,000 people across the globe, according to preliminary figures from the International Disaster Database. Mongabay has compiled the data into an interactive dashboard below. Intense droughts, floods, storms, heat waves and other climate-driven disasters claimed more than 11,500 lives and affected at least 148 million people […]One atlas to map all ecosystems on Earth: Interview with Yana Gevorgyan (January 9, 2025)
- The Global Ecosystems Atlas is a tool that aims to serve as an open-source repository for data on all the ecosystems in the world.
- Developed by the intergovernmental initiative Group on Earth Observations, the Global Ecosystems Atlas pulls together existing data while also using remote sensing and AI technologies to fill gaps in areas where data don’t exist.
- The proof of concept for the tool was launched at the COP16 biodiversity summit in Cali, Colombia, in November last year.
Near-extinct Siberian crane is recovering thanks to habitat protection (January 9, 2025)
Over the past decade, the population of the critically endangered Siberian crane has increased by nearly 50%, according to the International Crane Foundation. The foundation said the boost in the snowy-white Siberian crane’s (Leucogeranus leucogeranus) numbers is the result of efforts to secure the migratory bird’s stopover sites along its eastern flyway, or migratory route, […]Warming threatens flies more than bees, raising pollination concerns (January 8, 2025)
- New research shows flies can tolerate temperatures 2.3°C lower than bees before losing motor function, making them particularly vulnerable to climate change and raising concerns about their crucial role as the world’s second most important pollinators.
- The study, conducted across three countries, reveals that flies’ sensitivity to heat is especially concerning for crops like chocolate that depend on fly pollination and for high-altitude ecosystems where flies are the dominant pollinators.
- Insect populations are declining by nearly 1% annually (projected 24% decrease in 30 years), prompting urgent calls for conservation as these creatures are essential for pollination, nutrient cycling, and overall ecosystem function.
- Individuals can help protect pollinators by creating diverse habitats in their yards through native plant gardening, reducing pesticide use, providing nesting sites, and supporting conservation organizations.
After a searing Amazon fire season, experts warn of more in 2025 (January 8, 2025)
- South America recorded the highest number of fire outbreaks in 14 years in 2024, with Brazil at the epicenter of the crisis.
- In the Amazon, fire outbreaks grew out of control even amid a sharp reduction in deforestation rates, indicating deforesters are relying on fire as a new technique to clear land.
- Experts are urging more investment in fire prevention since the rainforest may face another intense fire season in 2025.
2024’s top ocean news stories (commentary) (January 8, 2025)
- Marine scientists and policy experts from nine international research and conservation institutions share their list of the top ocean news stories from 2024.
- Hopeful developments this past year include advancing innovations in mapping technologies, legal strategies and financial instruments to protect the ocean and greater inclusion of Indigenous peoples and coastal communities into high-level ocean planning.
- At the same time, 2024 was the hottest year on record as a result of climate change, surpassing 2023, and scientists declared the fourth global coral bleaching event, a major setback for the world’s coral reef ecosystems.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.
Indigenous communities come together to protect the Colombian Amazon (January 8, 2025)
- Indigenous communities are increasingly recognized as the most effective guardians of the Amazon Rainforest, thanks to their deep-rooted beliefs that nature possesses its own life and rights, and also to their focus on long-term sustainability rather than short-term profits.
- In the Colombian Amazon’s Putumayo department, Indigenous women have come together to plant trees, collect waste, monitor water quality, launch educational campaigns, and denounce extractive activities that threaten the rainforest.
- One of the key challenges lies in blending traditional Indigenous knowledge with modern scientific approaches.
- Despite growing interest in Indigenous knowledge and preservation efforts, Indigenous communities remain underrepresented in political decision-making and the funding of conservation projects, and are also left exposed to attacks for their role as environmental defenders.
What singing lemurs can tell us about the origin of music (January 8, 2025)
MADAGASCAR – It turns out that the Indri Indri lemurs of Madagascar can carry a tune. Researchers have found that these furry, tree-dwelling creatures use music to communicate with one another, likely for generations. Through collecting songs and calls produced by 20 indri groups in Madagascar’s rainforests over the span of 15 years, the scientists […]President Biden bans offshore oil and gas drilling for many U.S. waters (January 8, 2025)
With just two weeks remaining as president, Joe Biden invoked the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to ban new offshore oil and gas drilling for the entire U.S. East Coast, West Coast, eastern Gulf of Mexico and sections of the North Bering Sea in Alaska. The move will ban fossil fuel extraction from nearly 2.5 […]Bangladesh must move from ‘fast fashion’ to ‘defashion’ to improve human & ecological wellbeing (commentary) (January 8, 2025)
- The rise of ready-made garment (aka ‘fast fashion’) factories in the Bangladeshi cities of Savar and Gazipur near Dhaka completely transformed the natural ecosystem and waterways to produce wealth and jobs, but also misery and poverty at their peripheries, a new op-ed argues.
- A pivot away from ‘fast fashion’ toward previously cherished and traditional dress systems that have been erased by global tastes — which is called ‘defashion’ — should begin with the reclamation of garment workers’ environment and traditional skills.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
Former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres remains optimistic despite disappointing COP process (January 7, 2025)
The 29th United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, ended late and with a massive finance shortfall of pledged climate finance for countries in the Global South, roughly $1 trillion less than what was sought. Many delegates were already on flights home when the final agreement was reached, while other […]Atlantic puffins are perilously attracted to artificial light, new study shows (January 7, 2025)
- When they make their first journey into the ocean, fledgling Atlantic puffins are prone to being stranded on land, imperiling them. For years, scientists have wondered what leads to these strandings.
- A new study provides experimental evidence to show that artificial light lures young puffins toward land, contributing to strandings.
- The study found pufflings don’t have a strong preference for any particular light source or color. However, once stranded, they move more under darkness and high-pressure sodium lights than under LED lights.
- Reducing artificial lights along the coast and offshore could save puffin lives, say conservationists, as Atlantic puffin populations are decreasing in parts of Europe. It can also save other threatened seabirds, such as Leach’s storm petrel found off Canada’s coast.
Indonesian company defies order, plants acacia in orangutan habitat (January 7, 2025)
- The Indonesian company PT Mayawana Persada has shifted focus from clearing peatlands in western Borneo to planting acacia on previously cleared lands in defiance of a government order to restore damaged peatlands.
- The lands are home to the critically endangered Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), and any habitat loss pushes the animal closer to extinction.
- Mayawana Persada’s concession spans nearly 140,000 hectares (345,900 acres), overlapping with more than 83,000 hectares (205,100 acres) of carbon-rich peatlands and more than 90,000 hectares (222,400 acres) of Bornean orangutan habitat.
U.S. reports first human death from H5N1 bird flu (January 7, 2025)
A person in the state of Louisiana has died from avian influenza or bird flu, also known as H5N1, the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) reported on Jan. 6, marking the first recorded human fatality from H5N1 in the U.S. “The patient contracted H5N1 after exposure to a combination of a non-commercial backyard flock and […]India’s latest forest cover report hints at countrywide degradation (January 7, 2025)
The latest forest survey report from India suggests a slight increase in the country’s forest and tree cover in recent years. But experts say the net marginal gain masks considerable declines across many biodiversity-rich forests and mangroves as well as in overall forest quality, reports Mongabay India’s Kundan Pandey. The report, published by the Forest […]Jane Goodall awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (January 6, 2025)
On Saturday, President Joe Biden honored Jane Goodall as one of nineteen recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor. This accolade recognizes individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public, or private endeavors. “Dr. […]We need a North Pole Marine Reserve to secure a healthy future for Arctic waters (commentary) (January 6, 2025)
- In 2024, the cod fishing moratorium on Newfoundland’s Grand Banks was lifted, 32 years after a historically significant ecological collapse of the fish’s population was caused by overfishing.
- The Central Arctic Ocean Fisheries Agreement signed in 2019 provides an example of how to address the threat from such overfishing by using the precautionary principle, international collaboration and science led evaluations of fish stocks.
- The future health of Arctic marine ecosystems can be secured by establishing a North Pole Marine Reserve, a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
Climate change fueled record extreme weather events in 2024 (January 6, 2025)
Climate change fueled some of the worst extreme weather events on record in 2024, according to a recent report. Researchers at the World Weather Attribution (WWA) and Climate Central reviewed heat waves, droughts, wildfires, storms and floods that struck in 2024, and found that nearly every extreme weather event they studied was “made more intense […]Latin America in 2024: politics, turmoil and hope (January 3, 2025)
- In 2024, Latin America continued facing chronic issues of deforestation, ecosystem contamination, violence, habitat loss and political turmoil.
- Changes brought on by presidential elections in several countries have not brought on significant changes for the environment, at least not yet, with effects still to be seen in the years to come.
- Increased criminal activity in the region remains a serious obstacle to conservation work, endangering local and Indigenous communities, while highlighting governments’ inability to tackle narco-trafficking and its associated consequences.
How the U.S. got no old growth forest protections from the Biden Administration (commentary) (January 3, 2025)
- President Biden’s executive order in 2022 directed the U.S. Forest Service to conduct an inventory of mature and old-growth forests on federal lands for “conservation purposes,” but it did nothing to move the needle on old forest protections.
- The national old-growth amendment (NOGA) failed for a variety of reasons, and as a new, anti-conservation administration looms in Washington, not a single acre of old forests was protected by it.
- “I have experienced two Reagan terms, three Bush terms, and a Trump term where conservation groups united in throwing sand in the gears of bad forest policies. And I have lived through two Obama terms and a Biden term where conservation groups could not agree on a unified strategy that has now contributed to the deja vu of having to defend forests all over again, with nothing gained. We must all now unite, put aside our differences, and get ready for the fight of our lives,” an old growth forest expert and conservationist argues in a new op-ed.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
Indonesian president says palm oil expansion won’t deforest because ‘oil palms have leaves’ (January 3, 2025)
- Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has called for the expansion of oil palm plantations, saying any criticism that this will cause deforestation is nonsense because oil palms are trees too.
- The remarks have prompted criticism that they go against the established science showing how plantations have driven deforestation, biodiversity loss and carbon emissions.
- Experts have long called for the palm oil industry to improve yields at existing plantations rather than expand into forests and other ecosystems.
- But the main industry association has welcomed the president’s call, and even the Ministry of Forestry under Prabowo has changed its logo from a forest tree to something that resembles oil palm.
Conservation and the rise of corporations in the Pan Amazon (January 3, 2025)
- Despite agreement on the importance of protecting the Amazon’s biodiversity, most people in the Pan Amazon depend directly or indirectly on conventional development and extractive production models.
- Investments by the extractive sector in the mid-nineteenth century were more successful because they were organized by multinational corporations with experience in managing operations in remote geographies (Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname) or by state-owned corporations with practical knowledge of their own country (Brazil, Venezuela).
- In Brazil, some family enterprises evolved into complex holding companies that now finance expansion via joint ventures and international credit markets. A select few have chosen to raise capital by selling equity shares on domestic or international stock markets, although they typically retain majority control to maintain the family legacy.
Amazon communities reap the smallest share of bioeconomy profits (January 3, 2025)
- Recently praised by environmentalists, governments and companies as a solution for rainforest conservation, bioeconomy has been practiced for centuries by Amazon’s traditional communities.
- Despite their key role in generating income from the standing forest, these communities continue to reap the smallest share of the profits, according to a new book.
- Traditional people need more financing, better access to energy and improved roads to get their products into the market.
Overviews - by language
Arabic
Chinese-simplified
Chinese-traditional
Croatian
Czech
English
Farsi
French (expanded)
German
Greek
Hindi
Indonesian
Japanese
Italian
Malagasy (rainforests)
Malay
Portuguese
Portuguese (Brazil)
Romanian
Russian
Spanish
Slovak
Ukrainian
Overviews - by language
About Madagascar
Maps
FAQs
People
History
Flora
Wildlife
Birds
Fish
Frogs
Invertebrates
Lemurs
Mammals
Reptiles
Environment
Conservation
ANGAP
Parks
Educational
Madagascar Travel
About the site
How to help
Contact
Overviews - by language
Rainforests
Deforestation
Environmental news
Tropical fish
Books
Madagascar, 9th: The Bradt Travel Guide
Madagascar Wildlife, 3rd: A Visitor's Guide
Mammals of Madagascar: A Complete Guide
Madagascar Travel Pack
Birds of the Indian Ocean Islands
Birds of Madagascar: A Photographic Guide
Lonely Planet Madagascar & Comoros
The Natural History of Madagascar
Malagasy-English: Dictionary and Phrasebook
Lords and Lemurs
The Eighth Continent: Life, Death, and Discovery in the Lost World of Madagascar
The Aye-Aye and I : A Rescue Journey to Save One of the World's Most Intriguing Creatures from Extinction
Shadows in the Dawn: The Lemurs of Madagascar