While
the western half of Madagascar
Island is dry, the eastern half is wet enough for
rainforests to grow.
So the eastern half used to
be covered in rainforestst.
While
there are still some rainfroests left, 90% of the original forests have
been destroyed. This is alarming as Madagascar is one of the world's
hotspots for endemicplants
and animals.
Having
been isolated from the
rest of the world since
Gondwana
breakup, it has been the place where many species that have
gone lost elsewhere, have survived.
About 80% of its 7000 - 12,000 plant
species are endemic. Some of the more famous ones are the baobabs, and
the island's 170 species of palms and 900 species of orchids.
Animal life
is also unique. As
opposed to the rest of Africa, where lions, rhinos, elephants, giraffes
and zebras live, Madagascar is dominated by much smaller animals. The
most famous ones are its endemic lemurs
- relatively primitive primates
that were replaced by chimpanzees and Gorillas on mainland Africa. But
there are many other, smaller mammals, amphibians and reptiles that are
unique to the island. Most of world's chameleons
live in Madagascar, as
do many unique frogs and geckoes.
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
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