Wildlife of
Madagascar

Below you can find a complete list of Madagascar animals. We currently track 200,000 species of animals in Madagascar and are adding more every day!

The island of Madagascar harbors one of the most unique ecosystems on the planet. Anchored off the eastern coast of Africa, it is the world’s fourth-largest island – nearly reaching the same size as Texas – with about 3,000 miles of coastline. The island is home to abundant rainforests, dry forests, deserts, and coastal reefs, which incubate a rich diversity of wildlife. Isolated from the mainland, about 90% of the island’s plant and animal species are native to the island and found nowhere else in the world. This has earned it the designation of a biodiversity hotspot. However, much of this rich biodiversity is being lost to human activity. Let’s have a closer look at some of these famous Madagascar animals below!

The Official National Animals of Madagascar

The two national animals of Madagascar are the zebu and the ring-tailed lemur. The lemur is a type of long-limbed arboreal primate found exclusively on the island, while the zebu is a subspecies of cattle originating from India and specifically adapted to endure hotter and drier climates. Just like a camel, its hump can store nutrients for when food is scarce. The zebu basically fulfills the same role as the taurine cattle elsewhere in the world. As a source of meat and milk, it has been a lynchpin of the local economy for thousands of years. This has given the zebu an important status in Madagascar society.

Where to Find the Top Wild Animals in Madagascar

The best place to discover Madagascar’s rich natural wildlife is the many national parks and protected areas spread across the country. The largest destination is the Masoala National Park in the northeast. It contains more than 900 square miles of rainforests, marshes, mangroves, and flooded forests, where you can find a variety of different lemurs, geckos, frogs, and birds.

Other important parks include the Andasibe-Mantadia National Park in the east, the sandstone landscape of Isalo National Park in the southwest, and the Amber Mountain Reserve near the northern tip.

The Most Dangerous Animals in Madagascar Today

Madagascar is home to many unique species, but surprisingly few of them are dangerous to humans. The island has almost no big carnivorous, aggressive snakes, or other highly toxic animals. Some species like the Malagasy tree boa may look intimidating but actually pose little threat to people. Here are a few you should look out for, however.

• Nile Crocodile – This species actually isn’t unique to Madagascar at all. It is found all over sub-Saharan Africa. But Madagascar does seem to have its own unique variation that lives in freshwater habitats and caves. Unfortunately, years of hunting have diminished the number of crocodiles on the island.
• Black Widow – Madagascar is home to its own unique species of black widow spider, whose venom may cause muscle pain, cramping, and sometimes seizures. Death is relatively rare though.
• Scorpions – Southwest Madagascar harbors a genus of large scorpions with a painful sting. Fortunately, it’s not often encountered by people.
• Golden Frogs – This is a genus of around 16 brightly colored poisonous frog species that goes by the name of Mantella. The golden frog isn’t really dangerous at all until a predator tries to eat it. Then it produces a toxin that can cause nausea and sickness, although it is not yet known to cause deaths.

The Largest Animal in Madagascar

The largest animal in Madagascar is the Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus). The smaller, but no less imposing cousin of the saltwater crocodile whose range extends throughout central, eastern, southern, western Africa and western Madagascar, is capable of growing to 2,400 lbs and over 20 feet.

The highly adaptable reptile is capable of making itself feel at home in a wide range of habitats ranging from dams, to estuaries, to rivers, and swamps. Although its numbers were once teeming, they have since plummeted owing to these reptiles being hunted for their skins. They can be foound in locations such as the Ankarana Nature Reserve where they live in caves.

The Rarest Animal in Madagascar

The aye aye, known for its trademark stare and its habit of using rather long digits to extract nourishing grubs from wood, is one of the rarest animals in Madagascar. As a matter of fact, the mammal which is 12-16 inches long with a 22-inch tail, was once believed to be extinct until a chance discovered almost 70 years ago.

The arboreal omnivore which is found on the island’s east coast, prefers to go searching for food by night. It generally spends it daylight hours ensconced in a spherical nest woven from twigs and leaves and carefully placed in the fork of tree branches. In addition to grubs, the primate also enjoys coconut flesh and various types of fruit. It is also partial to honey.

However, this primate with a rather disconcerting scarlet-eyed stare and a wide triangular face, and an untidy dark coat, has a few strikes against it, survival-wise. One is the belief in its being a harbinger of evil in certain customs, another is deforestation. It has adjusted to the latter challenge by making itself at home in cultivated areas. The former challenge has become a thing of the past since they are legally protected.

Endangered Animals in Madagascar

The Madagascar ecosystem is in a perilous state. A great deal of the animal species, including many of the primates, are now threatened by human activity from slash and burn agricultural techniques, deforestation, and even illegal hunting. Here are a few of biodiversity jewels that are in danger of being lost:

• Ring-Tailed Lemur – The iconic ring-tailed lemur is perhaps the most well-known species native to Madagascar. It spends most of its life navigating the trees with its limbs, but unlike many other arboreal primates, the tail is not prehensile and merely provides balance and communication. As of 2017, it was estimated that only about 2,000 remain in the wild.
• Indri – Native to the island’s eastern rainforests, the Indri is one of the largest lemurs in the world. It is characterized by a short, rudimentary tail, big fuzzy ears, and black and white fur. Like other species of lemur, the Indri congregates together in a complex society. Its group vocalizations, which travel more than a mile in the air, sound something like an air horn.
• Aye-aye – This unusually named lemur has a unique arboreal hunting strategy. In order to search for food at night, the aye-aye will patiently tap on the barks of trees. Once it has found a hollow space, it will gnaw a hole in the wood with its forward-facing incisors and then pull out the grub with its long, spindly middle finger. The aye-age was thought to be extinct by the 1930s but was rediscovered a few decades later.
• Silky Sifaka – Also known as the angel of the forest for its white, silky fur, this lemur is one of the rarest mammals on the planet. Less than a thousand individuals remain in the wild.
• Ploughshare Tortoise – Home to a small stretch of territory in the northwest, the ploughshare tortoise can be identified by the unique growth rings projecting from the shell. Numbers have diminished quickly due to habitat loss and poaching (a single turtle can fetch around $200,000 on the exotic pet market). Only about a thousand of these animals remain.
• Humblot’s Heron – Named after the French naturalist Leon Humblot, this species of large, long-legged waterbirds are found along the north and west coasts of Madagascar. The loss of wetlands has caused this species to decline.

Incredible Native Plants in Madagascar

Madagascar has a vibrant and diverse flora, with over 75% of species being endemic to the island. From fascinating octopus trees, wild banana trees, and palms pollinated by nosy lemurs, there’s something for everyone to admire. While many of these trees are now classified as endangered due to deforestation and other human activities, Madagascar is still a top destination for those interested in exploring the island’s beautiful landscape.

Madagascar is home to six of the world’s nine baobab subspecies and the Madagascan periwinkle also used to treat cancer. It is also home to the traveler’s palm, recognizable by its beautiful fan-like foliage, its ability to hold rainwater, and its habit of growing on an east-west axis.

Fish Found in Madagascar

Located off the coast of southeast Africa, Madagascar sits in the Indian Ocean just across the Mozambique Channel from the mainland of Africa. As an island, it has beautiful fauna, including unique-looking fish such as reef stonefishes, coelacanths, and many more.

Madagascar is also known for its orange-backed angel fish with its colors of orange and deep blue and the white-spotted bamboo shark, a slender carpet shark with alternating bands of black with white spots, and gray. It is also home to the melon butterfly fish which is covered in blue bands that fade to yellow, alternating with pale blue, as well as slashes of black, yellow, and orange.