Destination Madagascar

Madagascar, also called the naturalists' paradise, is a true botanical garden where can be seen a large variety of plants and animals whose major parts (cf table below) are specific to the island. The extreme diversity of the Malagasy relief and climate plays a large part in this exceptional fauna and flora.

When the Island broke away from the African continent around 160 million years ago, mammals were still at a primary  evolution stage. Some of them crossed the Mozambic channel which was still narrow at that time. Later, the channel widened and the species which found refuge in the island did not have any more reasons to evolve. In the absence of large predators and thanks to a dense forest which ensures an abundant food to them, the original fauna could preserve its primitive characteristic. In the African continent, many species became exctinct while others evolved to adapt to their environment. It is the case of the monkeys, the descendants of the lemurs, ancestral primates which still exist in Madagascar. Thus, a great number of the animals identified in the island nowdays appear like true alive fossils.

Madagascar, unlike the African continent, doesn't have any monkeys, deer and elephants ; but it has the most primitive and strange specimens. Contrary to other tropical countries, no dangerous animal is found in this country.

But the natural balance which supports this fauna and flora becomes threatened by the disastrous action of men (deforestation, bushfire) and the damaging effects of the climate (global warming). To reverse the situation, the Government with the support of International Organizations created many protected areas everywhere in the island.