The
majority of Madagascar
animals are endemic to the island.
Madagascar Lemurs
The most famous ones are lemurs
- mostly nocturnal primates totally endemic to Madagascar Island.
There
used to be lemurs in central African rainforests, but they were
replaced by higher forms of primates such as gorillas and chimpanzees.
Today,
lemurs are endangered
both because habitat destruction, and
because superstitious humans kill some species, such as aye-ayes.
Other Mammals
Other
mammals include mongoose, fossas, civets, fanaloucs, tenrecs
(hedgehog-like animals), moles, rats, mice and bats.
It is very common
on islands that there are no large mammals, and bats and rodents make
up a large part (if not all) of native mammal species.
Birds
It
is also quite common on islands that there is a large variety of birds.
Madagascar's birds include different species of asity, babbler, baza,
buttonquail, buzzard, coua, emu-tail, flufftail, flycatcher, fody,
goshawk, greenbul, ground-roller, harrier, harrier-hawk, hawk-owl,
heron, hoopoe, ibis, jacana, jery, kestrel, kingfisher, lark,
magpie-robin, munia, newtonia, nightjar, pelican, plover, rail,
rock-thrush, sandgrous, scops-owl, serpent-eagle, shearwater,
sparrowhawk, spoonbill, starling, sunbird, swamp-warbler, swift,
tetraka, vanga, wagtail and weaver.
Chameleon Lizard
Other classic Madagascar animals are chameleons.
Although chameleons are found in many other parts of the world too, the
vast majority of species are only found on Madagascar Island. Although
some species inhabit deserts and grasslands, most of them live in
rainforests, and are, as lemurs, threatened by rainforest
destruction.
Other Reptiles
Other Madagascar reptiles include many species of harmless colubrid
snakes, and some boas, such as Madagascar ground boa and
Madagascar
tree boa; Nile Crocodiles, four species of turtles (including the
famous Angonoka,
Geochelone yniphora;
and many
species of skinks,
geckoes and
iguanids.
Amphibians
Madagascar
also has about 300 species of frogs and almost all of them are endemic
to the island. Madagascar's frogs include the colourful mantella frogs
(aka Golden frogs); the less colourful Mantidactylus
frogs; many species
of tree frogs, and genus Dyscophus
(Tomato Frogs).
Insects and Spiders And
finally, there are millions
of species of spiders and insects.
Spiders include orb spiders, thorn spiders, trapdoor spiders, pelican
spiders, wandering spiders, sac spiders, wolf spiders, tarantula
spiders and many more.
As
many Madagascar's
spiders, many insects (such
as butterflies, praying mantids, moths and others) also grow quite
large. This is often the case with rainforest
insects.
Note:
This site uses British English, which is the English we use in
Australia. Disclaimer:
This website is about interesting facts about rainforests.
It
is not
trying to be comprehensive. Although best efforts
have been made to
ensure
that all the information on this
site is correct, rainforest-facts.com
is
not to
be blamed should
there be a mistake. Copyright
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