MADAGASCAR: Slideshow | Topics | Wildlife | Scenery

Pictures of Madagascar

Madagascar is a land of spectacular biological and cultural richness.

I am still working to identify species in poorly captioned photos. If you recognize unidentified species, please contact me (Rhett Butler).

Gallery | Slideshow | Environmental news for Madagascar | Madagascar Information | Madagascar Information for Kids

Sections: aerial | agriculture | amphibians | animals | arthropods | birds | chameleons | deforestation | flora | frogs | geckos | herps | insects | invertebrates | lemurs | lizards | mammals | mountains | people | reptiles | rice | scenery | sifakas | spiny forest | sunsets | tsingy | villages | wildlife

Places: Andasibe-Perinet-Analamazoatra | Andringitra | Anja Reserve | Ankarana | Ankavandra | Ankarafantsika | Antananarivo | Bemaraha | Berenty | Fort Dauphin | Ifasina | Isalo | Kirindy | Manambolo Canyon | Maroantsetra | Masoala | Montagne D'ambre | Morondava | Nosy Be (Lokobe Special Reserve) | Nosy Komba | Nosy Mangabe | Ranomafana |

Highlights [Gallery | Slideshow]





Verreaux's Sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi) in a heated chase



Male panther chameleon (Furcifer pardalis)



Male Panther chameleon



Kids in an Antanifotsy Valley village



Vezo child



Male panther chameleon (Furcifer pardalis)



Girl with painted face in Ankarana



Kids in Maroantsetra



Village and rice fields in Madagascar's Central Plateau



Gray Mouse Lemur (Microcebus murinus)



Arovana (Ankorohoke), a Vezo fishing village



Children in Maroantsetra



Stone forest



Isalo sunset



Orange and blue planthopper



Territorial chase between a pair of Verreaux's Sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi)



Fisherman on the Bay on Antongil in the early morning



Flooded rice fields at sunset



Flowering trees in Ankarana



Male panther chameleon (Furcifer pardalis)



Pachypodium geayi



Aerial view of rice fields outside of Fort Dauphin



Green Bright-eyed Frog (Boophis viridis)



Male panther chameleon (Furcifer pardalis)



Black-and-white Ruffed Lemur (Varecia variegata)



Deciduous forest of Ankarana



Kids in a Tsaranoro Valley village



Mantadia rain forest



Verreaux's Sifaka dancing



Ankarana cave



White flower



Coquerel's Sifaka (Propithecus coquereli)



Parson's chameleon (red and yellow)



Rutted granite atop Andringitra's Chaine de Montagne Ampiadrianombilahy



Rice field and zebu cattle



Baobabs with rice paddies (Morondava)



Plane view of deforestation-induced erosion in Madagascar (Flight from Tana West)



Airplane view of erosion in Madagascar (Flight from Tana West)



Flatid leaf bugs (Phromnia rosea)



Sunset over the Bay of Antongil



Boat in the Bay of Antongil



Coquerel's sifakas kissing



Girl looking out a window of a hut in a village in the Tsaranoro Valley



White Spotted Reed Frog (Heterixalus alboguttatus)



Orchid



Madagascar day gecko (Phelsuma madagascariensis)



Parson's chameleon (Calumma parsonii) [yellow and orange]



Giant Leaf-tailed Gecko (Uroplatus fimbriatus)



Andringitra camp site



Giant day gecko (Phelsuma madagascariensis)



Satanic Leaf-tail Gecko (Uroplatus phantasticus)



Diademed Sifaka (Propithecus diadema)



Rock face of the Ampiadrianombilahy mountain chain



Verreaux's Sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi)



Giant Leaf-tail Gecko (Uroplatus fimbriatus)



Shadow of a gecko on a sunlit leaf



Creek and burned grass in Andringitra



Petter's Chameleon (Furcifer petteri) [female]



Spider



Tavy or slash-and-burn agriculture in Madagascar



White Spotted Reed Frog (Heterixalus alboguttatus)



Girl in a Tsaranoro Valley village



Girl in a Tsaranoro Valley village



Mongoose Lemur (Eulemur mongoz)



Guibemantis punctatus



Female Crowned lemur (Eulemur coronatus)



Fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox) in captivity



Church in the Tsaranoro Valley



Blue, green, orange, white, and brown Calumma crypticum chameleon [male]



Female Common Brown Lemur (Eulemur fulvus)



Vezo kids dancing atop a sand dune



Leaf-mimicking treehopper



Fire in Madagascar



Uroplatus fimbriatus with flying insect



Uroplatus fimbriatus gecko on Nosy Mangabe



Calumma Parsoniia (Andasibe)



Calumma parsonii chameleon



Brookesia peyrierasi chameleon in hand



Baobabs (Morondava)



Pandanus palm



Masoala rainforest



Andringitra landscape



Rice paddies near Canyon des Makis and Canyon des Rats



Flooded rice fields at sunset



Sand dunes near Arovana (Ankorohoke)



Verreaux's sifaka in Isalo



Moth



Sifaka in a dry gallery forest in southern Madagascar



Kids in village outside of Tulear



Anja community reserve



Lizard



Golden Mantella (Mantella aurantiaca)



Parson's chameleon (Calumma parsonii) [yellow and orange]



Amber Mountain chameleon (Calumma ambreense)



Nosy Mangabe coastline



Fire creeping across the savanna in Madagascar



Oustalet's chameleon walking across sand near Isalo



Mossy Leaf-tail Gecko (Uroplatus sikorae)



Madagascar day gecko (Phelsuma madagascariensis)



Peacock Day Gecko (Phelsuma quadriocellata)



Purple flower



Spearpoint Leaf-tail Gecko (Uroplatus ebenaui)



Andringitra



Ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta)



Andringitra landscape



Pink and orange spider



Verreaux's Sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi) on the lookout



Rainforest Chameleon (Furcifer balteatus) [female]



Satanic Leaf-tail Gecko (Uroplatus phantasticus)



Bismarck Palms (Bismarckia nobilis) and savanna near Isalo



Baobabs



Metallic click beetle



Baobabs (Morondava)



Tomato frog



Excited ring-tailed lemur



Furcifer pardalis chameleon



Moss covered tree in Ranomafana river (Ranomafana N.P.)



Baobabs at sunset (Morondava)



Uroplatus fimbriatus gecko



Tampolo Marine Park



Male mongoose lemur (Eulemur mongoz)



Female mongoose lemur (Eulemur mongoz)



Coquerel's sifaka (Propithecus coquereli) in a tree



Madagascar crocodile



Fossa



Female Malagasy Paradise Flycatcher (Terpsiphone mutata)



Lepilemur edwardsi sportive lemur



Lavaka of Ankarokaroka



Broad-billed Roller (Eurystomus glaucurus)



Unidentified Dragonfly



Girl selling mangos alongside a road



Madagascar spiny tailed iguanid (Oplurus cuvieri)



Adansonia madagascariensis baobab



Coquerel's sifaka (Propithecus coquereli)



Nile crocodile



Cave in Western Ankarana



Bats



Ankarana dry forest



Crowned lemur (Eulemur coronatus) scavenging a campground



Female crowned lemur (Eulemur coronatus)



Male crowned lemur (Eulemur coronatus)



Madagascar giant day gecko (Phelsuma madagascariensis grandis)



Madagascar giant day gecko (Phelsuma madagascariensis grandis)



Lepilemur ankaranensis lemur



Tsingy bridge



Crested coua



Madagascar dry forest



Diego Suarez Baobab (Adansonia suarezensis)



Diego Suarez Baobab (Adansonia suarezensis)



Giant Madagascan Hognose Snake (Leioheterodon madagascariensis)



Baobabs on the shore of Diego Suarez Bay



Uroplatus sikorae



Panther chameleon (Furcifer pardalis)



Parson's chameleon (Calumma parsonii)



Rainforest on Nosy Mangabe



Uroplatus fimbriatus gecko



Birdnest fern



Gephyromantis webbi frog



Beach on Nosy Mangabe



Bamboo in Madagascar




Recent Madagascar conservation news

Five percent of ploughshare tortoise population perishes after botched smuggling attempt
(05/14/2013) In March, two people were caught attempting to smuggle 54 ploughshare tortoises (Astrochelys yniphora) into Thailand. Listed as Critically Endangered, the tortoises' wild population is down to approximately 400-500 animals in its native Madagascar, meaning the smugglers were attempting to move over 10 percent of the total population. Now, the Scientific American blog Extinction Countdown reports that nearly half of the smuggled tortoises have died of unknown causes.


Aquarium launches desperate search to save a species down to 3 individuals
(05/10/2013) Aquarists at ZSL London Zoo have launched a worldwide appeal to find a female mate for a fish species that is believed to have gone extinct in the wild.


Lemur has unexpectedly wide range, diversity of color variations
(05/05/2013) An endangered lemur has a larger range than originally believed but is still at risk due to forest fragmentation and land clearing, reports a study published in the journal Primate Conservation.


Acting Madagascar president breaks pledge not to stand in election
(05/04/2013) President Andry Rajoelina broke his pledge not to run in Madagascar's upcoming presidential election, once again throwing the political stability of the island nation into question.


Hibernating primates: scientists discover three lemur species sleep like bears
(05/02/2013) Bears do it, bats do it, and now we know lemurs do it too: hibernate, that is. Since 2005, scientists have known that the western fat-tailed dwarf lemur hibernates, but a new study in Scientific Reports finds that hibernation is more widespread among lemurs than expected. At least two additional lemur species—Crossley's dwarf lemur and Sibree's dwarf lemur—have been discovered hibernating. So far lemurs, which are only found on the island of Madagascar, are the only primates known to undergo hibernation, raising curious questions about the relationship between lemur hibernation and more well-known deep sleepers.


World's rarest duck on the rebound in Madagascar
(05/01/2013) After a final sighting in 1991, the Madagascar pochard was thought to have vanished for good. But this diving duck was rediscovered in 2006 when a flock of 22 individuals was found on Lake Matsaborimena in northern Madagascar by conservationists during an expedition. Soon after Madagascar pochard eggs were taken and incubated in a joint captive breeding program by Durrell, the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), the Peregrine Fund, Asity Madagascar, and Madagascar government, which recently announced that the population—both captive and wild—has nearly quadrupled.


Madagascar swamped by locust invasion
(04/17/2013) More than 60 percent of Madagascar is suffering from a massive locust infestation that is threatening crops and livestock, potentially increasing risks to native wildlife and forests from hungry farmers, warns the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).


Featured video: in-depth look at Madagascar's Ranomafauna National Park
(04/03/2013) A new film Nosy Maitso takes a look at the people, researchers, and wildlife connected to Madagascar's Ranomafauna National Park. Apart of a World Heritage Site, the park was established in 1991 after a new species of lemur, the golden bamboo lemur (Hapalemur aureus), was discovered in its forests in the 1980s. The golden bamboo lemur is currently listed as Endangered by the IUCN Red List.


Scientists discover new wasp species in a field box from the 1930s (photos)
(04/03/2013) Searching through materials at the Natural History Museum in Paris, Simon van Noort recently came across a long-neglected field box of wasp specimens. Collected 80 years earlier by André Seyrig in Madagascar, the box contained several specimens of wasp in the Paramblynotus genus. The big surprise: wasps in this genus had never before been seen in Madagascar.


Madagascar's chameleons came from African mainland
(03/29/2013) Madagascar's color-changing chameleons originated in Africa and crossed over to the island some 65 million years ago, concludes a study published this week in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.


2 'giant' yet tiny mouse lemurs identified in Madagascar
(03/27/2013) Scientists have discovered two new species of mouse lemurs in Madagascar, bringing the total number of diminutive primates known to science to 20.


Researchers sequence Aye-aye genome - lemur is more genetically diverse than humans
(03/26/2013) Scientists sequenced the genome of the aye-aye, a bizarre lemur species, for the first time. The research is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).


Over ten percent of a species' total population found in smuggler's bag
(03/25/2013) On Friday, March 15th Thai authorities arrested a 38-year-old man attempting to collect a bag containing 54 ploughshare tortoises (Astrochelys yniphora) and 21 radiated tortoises (Astrochelys radiata) in Suvarnabhumi International Airport. Found only in Madagascar both species are listed as Critically Endangered and protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), but have become lucrative targets for the black-market pet trade given their scarcity and beauty.


Deforestation in key Madagascar park accelerated after 2009 coup d'etat, finds satellite analysis
(03/18/2013) Deforestation and forest disturbance in Madagascar's largest national park increased significantly less than a year after a coup displaced the country's democratically-elected president in 2009, finds a new study that analyzed forest cover in Masoala National Park.


Dozens of tropical trees awarded new protections at CITES
(03/12/2013) Numerous species of rosewood and ebony from Madagascar, Latin America, and Southeast Asia were granted protection today at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Bangkok, Thailand. The ruling comes one day after CITES granted the first protections ever to sharks and manta rays.


Frogs radio-tracked for first time in Madagascar
(03/01/2013) Researchers have radio-tracked frogs for the first time in Madagascar. Attaching tiny radio transmitters weighing 0.3-0.35 grams (1/100 of an ounce) to 36 rainbow frogs (Scaphiophryne gottlebei), the research team tracked the movement of the colorful frogs through rugged canyons in Madagascar's Isalo Massif. They found that the frogs have a short breeding period that occurs after the first intense rainfall at the start of the rainy season.


Travel in Madagascar: strange wildlife and stunning landscapes
(02/27/2013) The promise of lemurs, lizards, and a bouquet of biodiversity brought mongabay.com founder Rhett Butler to Madagascar sixteen years ago. He was not disappointed by what he found and was inspired to return, many times to experience the wildlife, landscapes, and people of the dynamic island. In 2004, Rhett founded wildmadagascar.org, a site that highlights the spectacular cultural and biological richness of Madagascar and reports on environmental news for the Indian Ocean island nation.


Madagascar and Malaysian Borneo nature pictures go online
(02/17/2013) Yesterday I posted over 10,000 new photos I took during late 2012 in Madagascar and Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. The pictures are available in the picture section of mongabay.com: travel.mongabay.com.


UK authorizes guns for Madagascar despite threat of lemur extinctions
(01/27/2013) Britain has authorized the export of thousands of guns to Madagascar, according to TanaNews.com, sparking concerns that the firearms could be used for hunting endangered lemurs.


Bloodsucking flies help scientists identify rare, hard-to-find mammals
(01/16/2013) Last year scientists released a study that is likely to revolutionize how conservationists track elusive species. Researchers extracted the recently sucked blood of terrestrial leeches in Vietnam's remote Annamite Mountains and looked at the DNA of what they'd been feeding on: remarkably researchers were able to identify a number of endangered and rarely-seen mammals. In fact two of the species gleaned from these blood-meals had been discovered by scientists as late as the 1990s. In the past, trying to find rare and shy jungle animals required many man hours and a lot of funding. While the increasing use of remote camera traps has allowed scientists to expand their search, DNA sampling from leeches could be the next big step in simplifying (and cheapening) the quest for tracking the world's mammals.


Madagascar's Rajoelina pledges not to run in presidential election
(01/16/2013) Madagascar's president Andry Rajoelina on Tuesday pledged not to run in the presidential election scheduled for May, raising hopes democracy will return to the island nation, which has suffered from stagnation and political turmoil since he took after a 2009 coup.


Photo: Subterranean 'Moby Dick' mermaid lizard discovered in Madagascar
(01/16/2013) An international team of scientists have described a bizarre new species of worm-like lizard that lives underground. Strangely, they named it the 'Moby Dick' mermaid skink.


Troops in Madagascar free miners held hostage by local protesters
(01/16/2013) Troops in Madagascar last weekend freed nearly 200 employees of Rio Tinto who were trapped inside by a mine by local people protesting the project, reports AFP.


Picture gallery of the day: Day geckos
(01/07/2013) Day geckos are the jewels of the gecko family.


The year in rainforests
(12/31/2012) 2012 was another year of mixed news for the world's tropical forests. This is a look at some of the most significant tropical rainforest-related news stories for 2012. There were many other important stories in 2012 and some were undoubtedly overlooked in this review. If you feel there's something we missed, please feel free to highlight it in the comments section. Also please note that this post focuses only on tropical forests.













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Copyright Rhett Butler 1994-2012

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