Tsingy de Bemaraha: Mitsingytsingyna is the Malagasy term for “walking on tiptoe” and gives its name to the needle-pointed rocks that make up the National Park. Location: Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park is located in western Madagascar in the Melaky region. It is about 250 km north of Morondava, from where taxis run to the National Park. However, an off-road …

Antsirabe (“where there is a lot of salt”), is located about 170 km south of the capital Tana in the highlands in the province Antananarivo. It is easy to reach via the RN7. Antsirabe is one of Madagascar’s largest cities with over 200,000 inhabitants and a lot of sights. Economically Antsirabe is one of the most important cities in the …

Lake Tritriva is an emerald green lake, located about 15 km from Antsirabe in Madagascar’s central highlands. The next town is Belazao, which is easy to reach via RN34 by 4×4. The lake is of volcanic origin, approximately 160 m deep and part of the eponymic mountain Vakinankaratra region. People of lake Tritriva tell the legend of Rabeniomby and Ravolahanta, …

Lemurs are probably Madagascar’s most famous mammals – not for nothing because they originally exist only there and nowhere else in the world. They belong to the strepsirrhine primates and are divided into about 100 different species. The word lemures comes from Latin and refers to the spirits of the dead of ancient Rome, who have little resemblance to the …

Madagascar is the reptile paradise per se and especially known for its chameleons. 92 of all 213 up to date described chameleon species only occur in Madagascar. They seem to be fabulous creatures with their strange tongue, the independently from eacht other movable eyes and feet and hands transformed into grapsing forceps. Unfortunately, those beautiful animals aren’t very popular with …

Especially the rainforests of Madagascar offer an abundance of different frogs for observation and discovery. Almost 4% of the world’s amphibian fauna is found on the island. Especially in the rainy areas on the east coast, you can find countless different species in a small area. In the rainy season, the croaking, chirping, and chirping of the courtship males can …

Originally, Madagascar has no big mammals like buffaloes, zebras, hippos, lions or other large animals you can meet all around Africa. Ruminants, which settle nearly all regions worldwide, lack in Madagascar completely. The now everywhere kept Zebus were introduced to the island as domestic cattle and don’t occur in the wild. The Indian Civet is another animal introduced by humans, …

Almost 300 different bird species inhabit Madagascar, half of them are endemic. The country’s flagship species, the Madagascar fish eagle or Ankoay (Haliaeetus vociferoides), is a bird of prey. It’s the biggest one in Madagascar and critically endangered, not even more than 100 pairs are known to breed on the island. Other birds of prey are the Madagascar serpent eagle …

Presumably, the largest wealth of species of Madagascar can be found in insects, arthropods and arachnids. Several thousand species could it be, rather more – especially since many of them are neither discovered nor described yet. Famous and bizarre at the same time is the giraffe-necked weevil. The males of this species got red wings and have a long, giraffe-like, …

The Lake of Crocodiles is located in northern Madagascar between the cities of Antsiranana (Diego Suarez) and Ambilobe. The next town west of the lake is called Anivorano North, is accessible via the RN6 and belongs to the Antsiranana region. The lake itself is actually called Antagnavo, is of volcanic origin and is known for its countless crocodiles (Crocodilus niloticus …