What animals live on the island of Madagascar. Extinct giant animals of Madagascar. "Traveler Tree" - Madagascar miracle

When, in 1658, Admiral Étienne de Flacourt published The History of the Big Island Madagascar”, which summed up his long stay in this corner of the Earth, it contained a lot of the most incredible information, perceived as fables of travelers, and their veracity was established only after centuries.

Speaking of the birds "inhabiting the forests," Flacourt, for example, wrote: "Vurupatra is a large bird that lives in Ampatras, lays its eggs, like an ostrich, in the most deserted places."

After Flacur, other travelers wrote about the huge bird, and they too were called dreamers. And she also laid eggs, larger than those that "produce" ostriches, and the locals used them as dishes.

Here is what Ferdinand von Hochstacker writes:

“Madagascarians came to Mauritius to buy rum. The container they brought with them was egg shells, eight times larger than ostrich ones, and 135 times larger than chicken ones; they held more than 9 liters. They said that these eggs are sometimes found in desert areas, and birds are occasionally seen.

It is clear that all this was perceived as anecdotes. If an ostrich 2 meters 50 centimeters high was considered a giant monster bird, then what can we say about a giant who laid eggs eight times larger than an ostrich?

Orientalists believed that these rumors were nothing more than an echo of the legend of the Rukh bird from the tales of the Thousand and One Nights, a terrible creature that earned a dubious reputation among Arab sailors. She is so huge, they said about her, that when she appeared in the sky, a shadow appeared: the wings covered the sun. And she is so strong that she can grab an elephant and lift it into the air, and impale several animals on the horn at once. It used to be that she carried away entire ships with crews ...

During his second journey, Sinbad the Sailor met this bird after he found the egg. It was 50 paces wide!

When Herodotus wrote about giant African birds, their size seemed more modest: Egyptian priests told him about a race of flying giants that lived on the other side of the source of the Nile, and they had the power to lift a person. Recall that the largest eagle is able to lift a creature no larger than a rabbit ...

Marco Polo in the fourteenth century from the lips of Kublai Khan heard echoes of the same tale. The Asiatic ruler showed him the feathers of a bird “about 20 meters long” and two eggs of considerable size. And he added that Rock comes from the island of Madagascar on the south side.

Thus, the stories about the Rukhh bird and the Malagash legends coincided in time and space. But it seemed incredible that a bird weighing several hundred kilograms could take to the air. But it was believed that if a bird - must certainly be able to fly. And the bird Rock, she is a vurupatra, was declared a fable.

epiornis eggs

Years passed, and in 1834 the French traveler Goudeau picked up halves of shells of incredible size on the island, serving as bottles for local residents. He made a drawing and sent it in 1840 to Paris ornithologist Jules Verro. He, based on the appearance of the egg alone, called the bird that laid it, epiornis, "big bird."

A few years later, this name, which initially aroused suspicion, was legalized when Dumarel saw a whole egg in the vicinity of Diego Suarez in 1848. "It held 13 bottles of liquid."

And in 1851, it was finally officially recognized that giant birds were found on the island: the captain of the merchant ship Malavois brought two eggs 32 centimeters long and 22 wide to the Paris Museum. They mixed in about eight liters (8 ostrich and 140 chicken eggs). From one such testicle you can make an omelette for 70 people.

A few years later, the famous traveler Alfred Grandidier took out of the swamps of Ambalistra an indeterminate type of bones that, at first glance, belonged to some thick-skinned man. But studies have shown that these are bird bones ("elephant birds"). To be honest, ornithologists were not very surprised, because a few years before that, R. Owen described moa from bone remains from New Zealand. Based on the available material, Isidore Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire described the species Aepyornis maximus.

In fact, epiornis is not at all larger than a moa in height (a moa's height is 2 meters 50 centimeters). The Paris Museum has a restored epiornis skeleton - 2.68 meters. But this is a very big increase.

epiornis eggs

To be honest, there is no direct connection between the growth of a bird and its egg. Remember the kiwi from New Zealand: its eggs are comparable to ostriches, and the bird itself is no larger than a chicken. And by weight, the following data are obtained: 440 kilograms for the largest epiornis and 329 for medium-sized moas.

When do giants disappear?

A study of the epiornis bones showed that, unlike the legendary Ruhh, this - real - bird could not fly. Like other keeled birds, its relatives are cassowary, moa, emu ... Their wings were underdeveloped.

But did Flacur designate the same bird under the name vurupatra? Eggs that were found in the sand in the dunes of the south and southeast, or in the mud of the swamps, were suspiciously fresh, as if they had just been laid. And the bones didn't look like fossils...

They began to question the residents. They answered that birds are found in the remote corners of the island, but they see them very, very rarely. But naturalists, still under the influence of Cuvier, do not want to believe this, so no one today not only searched for the bird, but also did not study the reasons for its disappearance.

Epiornis skull

One thing is clear: a person could not be the only cause of her death, in contrast to the story with moa vurupatru, or vorompatru, they were not exterminated for the sake of meat. There is not a word about this in the legends (and the Maori were happy to talk about hunting moa with simple stone-tipped pikes).

In an attempt to explain the death of epiornis, they reached asphyxiation caused by gas releases in certain areas of the island. But isn't it too difficult? Most likely, the matter is in the habitats themselves. The climate changed, man drained the swamps, the last refuges disappeared.

Giant swamps dried up in the highlands of Antsirabe and Betafo. Epiornis climbed further and further into the bogs and died there, not finding food. This is proved by their remains found in peat bogs. It is clear that man hastened the end of the vorompatra, it survived until recent times, until 1862 (when the inhabitants clearly saw it), not reaching quite a bit to our days.

Other giants of Madagascar

Various factors contributed to the death of not only epiornis, but also other species, such as Mullerornis, the giant cassowary of the Ankaratra region, centornis and many others. But isn't it too early to bury them?

As well as on the neighboring islands - Seychelles and Mascarene - there was a giant tortoise Testudo grandidieri weighing up to one ton. She apparently fell victim to the drought. But according to Raymond Decary, an expert on the fauna of Madagascar, the extermination of the tortoise was not widespread.

“There are rumors about the presence in some caves of the southwest of a mysterious creature that may turn out to be a giant tortoise - are we talking about the last representatives of Testudo grandidieri?” the zoologist writes.

Turtle shell Testudo grandidieri

Another view: giant crocodiles were found in Madagascar, the skull of which reached 80 centimeters in width. There is evidence that they are still here.

The total drainage of swamps led to the disappearance of hippos on the island. Previously, there were giants reminiscent of the Pleistocene hippos of Africa. Was it not about them that the great wanderer Dumont d'Urville wrote in 1829 in the book "Traveling Around the World" when he sailed along the Madagascar rivers?

On the other hand, there is an assumption that it was the hippopotamus, or rather, its image, transformed by the legend, that served as the basis for the myth of tsogombi or ombirano - a water bull, half-mule, half-horse with a hump.

If we are talking about a hippopotamus, then it has changed a lot in the legends, because the tsogombi has huge hanging ears. In addition, he was "gifted" with a cry that terrifies anyone, as well as aggressive cannibalistic habits. The Mahafali and Anthrandon tribes, according to R. Dekari, attribute eggs to him, which actually belonged to epiornis.

There are also rumors about railalomena, which means "father or ancestor of the hippopotamus." He supposedly lives in swamps, and has a horn in his forehead. All this is very reminiscent of the famous "Dinosaur from the Congo" ( ). Maybe the Bantu invaders who appeared here brought with them descriptions of a mysterious creature from the continent.

Both hypotheses have a right to exist, and in both cases there is a resemblance to the Congolese reptile - the body of a hippo, horn, hanging ears (which in fact may be fleshy growths along the edges of the head and are visible on the dragon from the portico of Ishtar), egg production, talking about a reptile , swamp habitat, aggressive nature and, finally, wild cries.

If this creature lived in Madagascar, then it certainly could have been one of the first victims of the drying up of swamps and lakes. Unless, of course, it's a giant tortoise. Or a crocodile guest performer from the continent...

Tretretretre and the man with the dog's head

Madagascar is called the land of semi-fossil animals. No other island can be such a showcase of ancient history. The remains of animals, birds, reptiles often turn out to be so fresh that many people wonder: are their "owners" alive?

Often legends and oral traditions claim that people knew them until relatively recently. Let us recall Gennep's principle, according to which memories of events are lost in two centuries where there is no oral tradition. Therefore, the interest in the memories of travelers is so great.

Flacourt, in addition to epiornis, wrote about another mysterious animal: “Tretretretra, or tratratratra, the size of a bull and with a human face. It is reminiscent of the Tanakht of Ambroise Pare. It is a solitary animal, and the inhabitants of that country are afraid of it and flee from it...”

The first reaction of naturalists of that time was, of course, unequivocal - a myth. Nothing like this has ever lived in Madagascar, and there have never been real monkeys there. Especially such an amazing view. So, someone repeated the naive fables of Marco Polo and Ctesias?

The first camouflage was removed when the indri (Indris brevicaudatus), the largest living lemur, fitting the description of a "dog-headed man" was discovered. He is about a meter high, almost without a tail (stump), often stands on his hind legs, being on the ground, surprisingly reminiscent of a man. Its elongated muzzle looks more like a fox than a dog.

Looking at him, you understand why the members of the Betsimaraka clan both killed him and deified him, calling him babakoto (father-child), considering him a descendant of a man who retired to the forests. We add that all lemurs for the Malagasy are fadi (taboo), because it is believed that this is another incarnation of man.

And at the end of the 19th century, the remains of a huge fossil lemur, which was called megaladapis, were found in Madagascar. The growth of an adult megaladapis was comparable to the growth of a short person, the weight was supposedly up to 70 kilograms (for Edwards megaladapis even up to 200 kilograms).

It is believed that megaladapis died out as early as the 10th millennium BC, but there are radiocarbon dates according to which Edwards' megaladapis still lived in Madagascar by the time the Europeans arrived there in 1504.

Megaladapis

In the same years, the remains of Paleopropithecus were discovered in Madagascar. Paleopropithecus is a genus of subfossil lemurs that lived in Madagascar from the Pleistocene to historical time. Paleopropitecus were also large primates, weighing from 40 to 55 kilograms.

Paleopropithecus definitely lived in Madagascar at the time of the appearance of man there (the latest remains from the Ankiliteo deposit, according to radiocarbon dating, date back to the 14th-15th century AD). They could also be what was called tretretretre.

The fading heart of Gondwana

Logically, one could look for the same part of Gondwana in Madagascar as on the African continent. In fact, the island is not an African zoological province. Malgashian animals are characterized, on the one hand, by the originality of their forms, and, on the other hand, they are related to the forms of South America and the Indo-Malay region.

Among the typical forms of Madagascar are lemurs, which differ from other primates in a number of anatomical features. It was for this appearance that scientists gave them the name "lemurs", as the Romans called the phantoms of dead people. But lemurs live not only in Madagascar. Some are common in Africa - galago, potto and angwantibo, and in Malaysia - lorises and slow lorises.

But in Madagascar live forms completely unknown in Africa. Moreover, they are known in... the Antilles! And in South America. This whole cocktail is explained by the presence of the once huge continent of Gondwana.

The study of the fossil remains of lemurs showed that even in a recent era there were a great many of them. Magaladapis were real rhinos that climbed trees. They did this despite their size, thanks to tenacious fingers. And there were many others. And looking at them, you think that Flacur's descriptions do not seem so fantastic.

Who is tocandia - a "four-legged jumper" that lives in trees and makes human sounds? And who are the Colonoros, the Malgash gnomes?

“All tribes,” writes Dekari, “believe in some kind of our dwarfs, brownies and gnomes. Their names change by region: bibialona, ​​kotokeli, and so on. Colonoro is something like an amphibian. On Lake Alkatra, they live like sirens or mermaids with long fluffy hair, live in the water, stretch their hands to pies, grab children.

According to betsileo beliefs, the colonoro, on the contrary, is a land creature two cubits high, covered with long hair, he has a wife named kotokeli, lives in caves. She steals children from people and replaces them with her own.

In the Kinkong Lake area, the Sakalawa have a different concept of colonoro. This is a male creature that lives along the banks of ponds. Dimensions are less than a metre. He has a sweet female voice, eats fish, walks around the neighborhood in the evenings. Meets a person, speaks to him and lures him into a pond.

Strange legends spread throughout the island, fresh bones found in the southwest, and the conditions of their occurrence indicate that the hadropithecines (another ancient species of lemurs) could survive until recent eras in the region of Bara, Ankazoabo.

Many areas of Madagascar are still completely unexplored, and giant lemurs could survive on these million hectares of forest. Remember the okapi - he lived incognito for a long time.

The largest island in the Indian Ocean - Madagascar - is often called by geographers "the mainland in miniature".

This is explained, firstly, by the extraordinary diversity of its landscapes, and secondly, by the peculiar flora and fauna that distinguishes it from nearby Africa and from other parts of the world.

The combination of tropical rain forests, tall grass savannahs and even semi-deserts, mountain ranges, plateaus and coastal plains, extinct volcanoes and coral reefs, swampy lagoons and mangroves, monsoon and trade winds determines the existence of a wide variety of landscapes on the island, and the animals and plants of Madagascar, three a quarter of which are found only here, are not at all like Africans, and if they have relatives, then usually in Indo-China and Indonesia, and even in South America.

Madagascar is a mountainous country. Almost half of it is occupied by the High Plateau, stretching across the entire island from north to south.

On the east coast, where the trade winds bring moisture from the Indian Ocean, it rains, stormy and plentiful, almost every day. Due to the strong wind that accompanies them, shower jets are directed almost horizontally, and no umbrellas and canopies can save them from them.

Strictly speaking, a distinction is made between the wet season and the dry season.

But the latter, which lasts from May to November, differs only in that occasionally there are days without precipitation.

In July, at the height of winter, the thermometer shows plus sixteen, and in February the temperature reaches thirty-four degrees.

On the steep slopes of the plateau grow evergreen forests of ferns, tamarinds, palms and other tropical trees, entwined with vines and decorated with bright orchids.

There are many valuable species of trees in these forests. In different types of rosewood, for example, wood is purple, pink and even black. There are also rubber plants here. And lacquer is made from the resin of the copal tree.

But of all Madagascar trees, the most famous is the equal.

In appearance, it looks like a banana, only the banana leaves grow directly from the ground, and the Ravenala has a real trunk, from the top of which diverge, like the spokes of a wheel, huge leaves, torn by the wind along the edges.

Where the leaf cuttings are going to the trunk, there are special containers containing several liters of water.

Having met a revenant, a tired traveler can always quench his thirst. No wonder it is also called the "tree of travelers".

Creepers of Madagascar are unique. The pod of one of them, the entada creeper, reaches two meters in length and one and a half in width!

Several of these pods, split in half, make an excellent roof for a hut. They make ropes from vines, weave baskets and mats.

And from some, especially durable, they build houses, since they are the only plants on the island that termites do not touch.

In the west, where the mountains do not let rain clouds through, the savannah reigns, and in some places, in the south, a hot semi-desert, since precipitation here is rare and falls only in winter.

In the dry season, not a drop of moisture spills for months, and the temperature rises to forty degrees!

Forests in the west are found only in river valleys, and the savannah is overgrown with brush-hard grass, and only in some places small baobabs and fan palms rise.

Trees in the western part of the island shed their leaves for the winter so as not to evaporate moisture during the dry season.

The fauna of Madagascar in its originality can only be compared with the Australian one.

The main treasure of the island's fauna is, of course, lemurs.

These funny animals, resembling a cross between a monkey and a cat, live in forests and are nocturnal.

They have large, glowing eyes and a piercing voice, reminiscent of the whimsical cry of a child.

The largest of the lemurs are the indri.

They are easily tamed, and the inhabitants of the island - the Malagasy - often use them for hunting instead of dogs.

Another genus of lemurs with a fox head and a long tail is the maquis.

They are very lively and mobile, stay in flocks and are often seen in the evenings when they jump through the trees in search of tasty fruits.

The complete opposite of them is the fat loris.

This clumsy and clumsy baby is slow, like an Australian koala.

Also interesting is the ah-ah, or rukonozhka, an angry flat-headed lemur with huge ears and a long tail.

He lives in bamboo forests, feeds on the core of bamboo and sugar cane, and also does not disdain beetles and larvae.

With its long fingers, the aye-aye easily extracts the contents from the trunks of bamboo and reeds. This gourmet is very afraid of the light. As soon as the sun rises, he falls asleep with his head between his legs and wrapped around it with his long tail.

The Malgash consider lemurs to be sacred animals. There is a legend that once upon a time they were people, and then, living in the forest, overgrown with wool and turned into animals.

When meeting a lemur in the forest, the hunters always politely greet him, and the animals that accidentally fell into a trap will certainly be released and released into the wild.

Of the predators on the island, only the reddish-black fossa is found - the ferret cat.

It is about the size of a large dog, but is small in stature, since its paws are short.

Malgasi are very afraid of fossa. There are many legends and hunting stories about her bloodthirstiness and strength.

It is found in Madagascar and the mongoose is the main exterminator of snakes.

And in the mountain forests live shy and timid eared hedgehogs - tenrecs (lat. Tenrecidae).

These rather large (from a rabbit) animals come out of their holes only at dusk and busily begin to look for food - small insects.

In winter they hibernate.

The Madagascar bird world is bright and unusual.

Green parrots, bright red cardinals, blue doves and sultan chickens, ibises and guinea fowls are found here.

Once upon a time, huge, similar to giant cassowaries, epiornis birds lived on the island.

The growth of these giants reached five meters! They died out quite recently, since Marco Polo mentioned them in his book. And later, in the 18th century, sailors who sailed to the island heard the cries of these birds.

The giant epiornis egg was 150 ostrich eggs in volume. The Malgash used them to make vessels that could hold eight liters of water.

There are no poisonous snakes in Madagascar, and the only truly dangerous animals here are crocodiles. They literally teem with swamps and lakes of the island.

And among European collectors, the amazingly beautiful butterflies of Madagascar enjoy special respect.

Goliath - the largest of them - is not difficult to mistake for a bird.

This is a brown butterfly with a pink belly. Urania is amazingly picturesque, rightly considered the most beautiful butterfly in the world.

Her wings shimmer, it seems, with all possible colors. The Madagascaria butterfly also strikes with a bizarre pattern on the wings.

There are a lot of chameleons of various sizes on the island.

Because of their unattractive appearance, the Malagasy consider them vicious and harmful creatures, although in fact they are of great benefit, exterminating flies and other annoying insects.

The chameleon, in fact, is a relative of lizards, but nature has clearly deprived him of agility.

Sometimes it seems that in his veins it is not blood, but carpentry glue - his movements are so viscous and slow.

And only the tongue of the chameleon is thrown forward with lightning speed when the prey is within reach.

The chameleon is known primarily for its extraordinary ability to change color to match the color of the surrounding background, which makes it completely invisible in the forest.

Unusual animals and plants of Madagascar are widely known, but there is an amazing place in the west, about the nature of which even the inhabitants of the island themselves know little.

This is the Bemaraha Plateau, located in the Manambolo River basin near the coast of the Mozambique Channel. Everything is amazing here: a fantastic relief, animals and plants, perhaps the last untouched corner of the wild nature of Madagascar has been preserved here.

The limestone plateau of Bemaraha rises 400 meters above the Manambolo Valley. The river cut through it a grandiose gorge with white layered walls. And around the gorge stretched ... stone forest!

The rocky ridges - karrs, fancifully carved by karst processes - bristled with thousands of sharp peaks, between which the water made deep cracks, and turned each boulder into a sharp jagged sword.

A huge rocky labyrinth is almost impassable: limestone towers and walls overgrown with thorns formed a network of natural bastions throughout the plateau, reliably protecting it from aliens.

The Bemaraha region is poor in precipitation: the dry season here lasts up to eight months. And in the fissured limestones, even the moisture brought by rare rains quickly sinks into the depths, so that only plants well adapted to drought can survive here.

An ebony tree, for example, turns green only during the rainy season, and the rest of the time it stands bare, saving water.

And the baobab, on the contrary, accumulates water in its clumsy and powerful trunk, up to nine meters in thickness, and thanks to this it survives in the dry season.

Bizarre creatures inhabit the stone forest of Bemaraha.

It is an armored chameleon resembling a small dragon or dinosaur with its prickly spines on its spine and spiky bumps on its head.

There is also a kind of Madagascar rat with big ears.

If you do not notice the long tail, it may well be mistaken for a rabbit.

And on the trees that have grown in the crevices of the rocks, the arms and poppies live, enlivening the desert rocky landscape with their funny jumps and piercing screams.

Groups of remnant rocks formed by karst processes are also found in other places in the world, for example, in the Chinese region of Qingling or in Ha Long Bay in Vietnam.

But there these limestone pillars and towers always have a rounded or flat top. And only here, in Madagascar, such an amazing pointed stone forest arose.

The attractiveness of this corner lies also in the fact that not a single person has yet visited the depths of the plateau, and one can only guess what discoveries await scientists there.

The nature of Madagascar still holds many secrets that will be revealed only to inquisitive travelers who have managed to overcome all the difficulties that the pioneers of the mountains, jungles and mysterious rocky labyrinths of this unique island face.

In 1500, thanks to pure chance, the island of Madagascar was discovered. The team of the Portuguese navigator Diogo Dias was caught in a storm that forced them to land on the only land nearby. Thus, an island with extraordinary nature and rich fauna was discovered.

Unique island

Madagascar is located off the coast of East Africa, from which it separated over 160 million years ago. Its unique landscape, which includes mountains, lakes, desert areas, jungles, has contributed to the conservation of a huge number of animal species. There are more than 250 thousand of them on the island, and most of them are endemic, that is, they are not found in other areas of the globe. The fauna of Madagascar is unique. It is mainly represented by small animals and reptiles.

Many species of island fauna are now on the verge of extinction. People extract minerals, cut down the jungle, causing animals to suffer.

Recently, the number of reserves and specially protected territories has increased, where all conditions are created for the free existence of the unique fauna. Scientists work by tracking various animal populations and fighting for their prosperity.

Madagascar - the kingdom of lemurs

The largest part of the island fauna are such animals of Madagascar as lemurs. The indigenous people treat them with special respect, because they believe that the souls of the dead move into the body of the semi-monkeys. More than 20 species of these animals live on the island.

Lemurs are kept by families in which the female dominates. These cute creatures look like their ancestors - monkeys, but have shorter limbs and a pointed muzzle. Nature has perfected their appearance by adding big eyes. This mechanism allows you to perfectly navigate the extraction of food. The animals eat mainly insects and vegetation. They are very friendly, brave and curious.

Lemur species

The kata lemurs are distinguished by the most striking appearance. They are distinguished by a white muzzle with dark "glasses" and a long striped tail. In size, representatives of this species barely exceed the domestic cat. Due to the almost complete absence of predators, animals of Madagascar, such as kata, are most widespread.

The smallest primate, the mouse lemur, lives in Madagascar. The body length of the baby is about 9 cm, with a tail - 27 cm. This species was discovered in 2000.

Another interesting representative is the handle. Another name for the animal is ah-ah. It lives in trees and obtains its food using excessively long and tenacious fingers. The animal taps the trunks for larvae, using echolocation. His appearance is not particularly attractive: shaggy hair that sticks out in all directions, yellow wide-spaced eyes and large semi-circular ears.

Indri is one of the largest lemurs. Its weight reaches 10 kg, and its height is 90 cm. Despite its large dimensions, the beast deftly climbs trees. Each family has a strict range, which it guards by making loud noises.

Swamp tenrec

The most elusive animals of Madagascar, strangely adapted to life in water. The limbs of the tenrec are equipped with membranes and a large amount of muscle tissue. The animal deftly runs in shallow water, catching tadpoles and fish. For hunting, he uses vibrissae - sensitive antennae, which, like a locator, pick up vibrations in the water. The appearance of the tenrec is also interesting: its size is about 15 cm, and a mixture of wool and needles covers the entire body. In appearance, the animal looks like a small hedgehog, but in fact it belongs to the shrews.

rare birds

The island is also rich in birds - there are about 150 species of them, of which a third are endemic. Most Madagascar from the class of birds - red-headed divers. Lack of food and drying up of water bodies due to human activities have put this species of ducks at risk of extinction. It was believed that these birds disappeared forever, but in 2006 a small population of 20 individuals was discovered. For 8 years of successful and painstaking work of zoologists, it was possible to increase it by 4 times. The dive is very beautiful, it has a red-brown body, a gray beak and a white belly.

The real unique is the blue cuckoo. The bird has an incredibly attractive appearance with rich blue plumage. Unlike relatives, she incubates offspring on her own. Due to its remarkable appearance, this endemic species has come under the threat of complete extermination by poachers.

Fossa

Who would have thought that the largest island predator reaches only 1.5 m in length, half of which is occupied by a long tail. Strong muscular beasts have a reddish-brown coat. Outwardly, these animals of Madagascar are similar to a cat and a marten, but belong to the viverrid family. The tail of the fossa, coupled with retractable claws, allows her to deftly climb sheer cliffs and trees in search of prey. The population of these predators is very small and is on the verge of extinction.

Amphibians

The island of Madagascar is replete with a huge number of amphibian species, among which the main ones are frogs, lizards and chameleons.

Rare and endangered species include Due to their incredible appearance, they easily avoid prying eyes. The amphibian reaches a length of 13 cm and has a tail barely distinguishable from a dried leaf. The body of an amphibian is covered with skin resembling tree bark.

Panther chameleons are distinguished by their bright coloration, which is easily changed due to the special structure of body cells. They use their skill for disguise and communication. This species is notable for its ability to simultaneously observe with two eyes different objects of hunting. Before throwing out a sticky tongue, the chameleon focuses on the target.

The tropical rainforests of the island are home to many frogs. The most notable are the tomato narrow-mouths. Females of this species have a rich color of ripe tomato and black stripes on the sides of the body. When danger arises, their skin releases an irritating secret.

The vast territory of Madagascar has not yet been fully explored. Every year new species of animals are discovered. Scientists are achieving good results in increasing the population of endangered endemics of the island.

A British photographer has led an epic 20-year foray into one of the world's strangest ecological systems. Nick Garbutt, 46, from Cumbria, has made 25 trips deep into the forests of Madagascar. He has visited the island every year since 1991. Over the course of two decades, Nick has created an unusual collection of photographs of the island's unusual and colorful landscapes.

An adult female fossa (Crytoprocta ferox) hunts prey in a forest in Kirindy Park in western Madagascar.

A male comet moth (Argema mittrei) drying its wings in a thicket in the Mantadia National Park, Madagascar.

Adult male fossa (Crytoprocta ferox) roams a deciduous forest, western Madagascar.

The island was cut off from the African mainland 160 million years ago. But the inhabitants of the island developed functions that are not found anywhere else. Many of the animals featured in Nick's photographs can only be found in Madagascar.

Verro sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi) skips through open space into spiny forests, southern Madagascar.

There is concern that a large number of the animals in these photographs could disappear in the next 20 years. Poor local communities are cutting down forests to make way for crops like rice. A huge amount of wood harvested from the destroyed forest is used to produce charcoal. Nick said: "In its pristine state, Madagascar was 85% forested and now only 8% is left. Even more shocking is that 50% of the forest loss has occurred in the last 50 years and I have seen this mass destruction. Since I I started coming here since 1991, I don’t have high hopes for a revival. ”

Male spear-nosed chameleon (Calumma Gallus) in lowland rainforest near Mantadia, eastern Madagascar.

Although the number of national parks on the island is growing, environmentalists fear that this is not enough to save many of the animals. “When I first visited Madagascar, there were only two national parks,” Nick says. “Now that number has grown to 20, and they serve as an animal sanctuary where cutting trees is illegal, but in practice this does not always work.”

An adult black and white ruffed lemur (Varecia variegata) hangs from a branch in Andasibe-Mantadia National Park, eastern Madagascar.

"It's inevitable that all national parks will be run by people living on the island, and this still equates to the loss of animals," he says. "A large number of individuals will simply disappear and there will be no one left in the parks to protect. We need to slow down the rate of destruction and preserve the amazing diversity.”

Ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) bask in the sun at dawn, Berenty Private Reserve, southern Madagascar.

Nick Garbutt with an orphaned ring-tailed lemur near Tsimanampetsotsa National Park in November 2009.

Nick Garbutt in Ranomafana National Park in May 1991 during his first visit to the island.

Pygmy stump-tailed chameleon (Brookesia peyrierasi) on a finger in the Nosy Mangabe Nature Reserve, northeast Madagascar.

A male Giraffa weevil (Trachelophorus Giraffa) in the Vohiparara rainforest, Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar.

A leaf-tailed gecko (Uroplatus fimbriatus) climbs a tree trunk in Nosy Mangabe Park, northeast Madagascar.

Nick Garbutt photographs a panther chameleon in Masoala National Park in October 2009.

Painted mantella frog (Mantella madagascariensis) in Mantadia National Park, eastern Madagascar.

A male panther chameleon (Furcifer pardalis) searches for prey in vegetation on a peninsula beach in Masoala National Park, northeast Madagascar.

Amazing bird Helmet Vanga (Euryceros prevostii) near its nest in NP Masoala, northeast Madagascar.

Male Parsons chameleon (Calumma parsonii) in the rainforest, Masoala National Park, Madagascar.

Huge baobabs (Adansonia grandidieri) at dusk, near Morondava, western Madagascar.

A white-lipped tree frog (Boophis albilabris) sits in the rainforests of the Ranomafana National Park, southeast Madagascar.

On his exciting journeys, Nick also photographed a strange aye-aye. Having an average long finger, he is able to rummage in the bark of a tree like a "fish" in the water, looking for larvae and a scoop there.

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Are you looking for this? Perhaps this is what you could not find for so long?

The fourth largest among the islands. The territory of Madagascar is almost 600,000 square kilometers. Approximately the same amount is occupied by the Arkhangelsk region. Out of almost 90 regions of Russia, it is in 8th place.

Madagascar was also once part, but not of the country, but of the ancient continent of Gondwana. However, another 160,000,000 years ago, the island broke away. Isolation and, at the same time, an abundance of food, fresh water, led to the development of the animal world.

Evolution took him in a special way. Bottom line: - more than 75% of the animals of Madagascar are endemic, that is, they are not found outside the republic. Madagascar gained sovereignty in the 1960s. Prior to that, the island belonged to France.

It was discovered by the Portuguese Diego Diaso. This happened in the 16th century. If you haven't been to Madagascar since then, it's time to discover the world of its inhabitants.

white-fronted indri

Represents the Indriaceae family, which includes 17 species. All of them live only in Madagascar. The white-fronted, for example, occupied the forests from the north of the Mangoro River to the Anteinambalana River.

The animal belongs to the wet-nosed primates. Accordingly, it resembles a monkey with a wet nose. More specifically, the endemic is the lemur. This is a transitional stage from lower mammals to primates.

Indri is named white-fronted due to its color. The fur on the body of the lemur is white, but the forehead area is accentuated by a black collar on the neck and a dark muzzle. The length of the animal reaches a meter. This is with the tail. The weight of an indri is 7-8 kilograms.

Pictured lemur indri

crowned lemur

This animal weighs only 2 kilos with a length of up to 90 centimeters. Slenderness allows you to jump long distances, from branch to branch. The tail helps to plan. The lemur owes its name to the dark spot on its head.

The main color is orange. Like all lemurs, crowned ones live in packs. They are led by females. So King Juklian from the famous cartoon is a character that is doubly fictional.

Pictured is a crowned lemur

lemur vari

Vari is one of the largest animals living in Madagascar. I mean lemurs. Among them, the vari giant with a body length of about 120 centimeters. At the same time, the animals weigh only 4 kilos and eat, like their small counterparts, fruits, berries, nectar.

Vari has a contrasting color. The muzzle is framed by white whiskers. On the paws and back, the hair is also light. The rest of the areas are filled in with black. You can see vari in the east of the island, in the mountains. Their height is approximately 1,200 meters above sea level.

On the photo lemur vari

ring-tailed lemur

These animals of madagascar not only as tall as a cat, but also with ears similar to it. The tail of the representatives of the species is powerful, in black and white rings. The body is gray, pinkish or brownish on the back.

In the cartoon "Madagascar", by the way, Julian represents the "cat" family. On the screen, he keeps his tail upright. In nature, this is done to appear taller, to scare off enemies.

The second position of the tail is not described in the cartoon. The organ serves as the 5th leg, supporting the animal while standing on its hind legs, walking along thin branches.

Pictured is a ring-tailed lemur

Gapalemur

The primate is distinguished by large big toes. The color of the animals is brown. The fur is dense and short. Brown eyes on a round head with almost invisible ears give the impression that the lemur was in a hurry. Therefore, representatives of the species are often called meek. The total length of the bodies of the hap does not exceed 80 centimeters, and the weight is 3 kilograms.

Gapa differ from other lemurs in their propensity to swim. Representatives of the species settled in bamboo thickets near Lake Alautra, in the northeast Madagascar. Animals in the photo often found in water rather than in trees.

However, hapalemurs still feed on vegetation. The stomachs of animals are able to neutralize the cyanides contained in bamboo shoots. Therefore, like pandas in China, gapas are not poisoned by the plant.

Pictured hapalemur

Sifaka walnut

In general, the arm is a most curious creature, which thousands of tourists are eager to see. The animal, however, is nocturnal. Under the shadow of darkness, it digs with its long fingers from under the bark and stones.

Pictured is a Madagascar bat

Fossa

Fosses hunt lemurs, live alone on the ground. For lemurs, however, you have to climb trees. The hunter can give out a uterine growl, reminiscent of a cat.

Pictured is a fossa animal

Madagascar rat

saying What animals are in Madagascar are endemic, I would like, as long as possible, to mention the giant. The species is dying. The habitat is only 20 square kilometers north of Morondava.

This is one of the cities of the republic. Driving away from him, you see rats the size of and somewhat similar to them. So, the animals have muscular hind legs. They are needed for jumping. The ears are elongated. Animals press them to the head when they jump almost a meter in height and 3 in length.

The color of giant Madagascar rats is closer to beige. In nature, they live in burrows and require the same in captivity. The first offspring outside the habitat was obtained in 1990. Since then, attempts have been made to replenish the population artificially.

Pictured is a Madagascar rat

striped tenrec

Pictured is a tenrec animal

Madagascar comet

This is not about a cosmic body, but the largest in the world. She is classified as a peacock. All members of the family have bright, round patterns on their wings that resemble pupils.

The comet inhabits only the island of Madagascar and its animals not averse to feast on the fleshy body of an insect. However, the butterfly lives only a couple of days. Comets are starving using the resources accumulated in the caterpillar stage. Enough supplies for a maximum of four days.

The butterfly was called a comet because of the elongations on the hind wings. "Drops" at their ends reach 16 centimeters with a wingspan of 20 centimeters. The general color of the insect is yellow-orange.

Pictured is a comet butterfly

Madagascar cuckoos

From the cuckoo family, 2 endemics live on the island nearby. The first is the gigantic view. Its representatives reach 62 centimeters. The second type of endemics is highlighted in blue. True, the size of the birds is slightly inferior to the giant relatives. Blue cuckoos reach 50 kilos, and can weigh about 200 off.

In the photo Madagascar cuckoo

The total number of birds in Madagascar is limited to 250 species. Nearly half of them are endemic. The same goes for insects. Butterfly comet - just one wonderful creation of the island. There are also giraffes.

beetle weevil giraffe

Their noses are so long and curved that they resemble a long neck. The body of insects, at the same time, is compact, like that of. A tomato frog can eat such a charm. She is orange red.

tomato frog

It's hard to eat it on its own. The endemic secretes a sticky substance that glues the predator's mouth and causes allergies. By the way, Madagascar itself is also called red. This is due to the color of local soils. They are stained with clay. So, tomato frogs on the "tomato" island is the place.