Madagascar, the naturalist’s paradise

Geographic location

Madagascar lies 400 km off the East African coast, in the Indian Ocean, separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by the Mozambique Channel and bisected by the Tropic of Capricorn at the level of Tuléar. It is the fourth largest island in the world after Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo, with 592,000 km² — the equivalent of France, Belgium and Luxembourg combined — and 5,000 km of coastline.

Geology

Understanding where Madagascar’s fauna and flora came from means understanding its geological history. One hundred and seventy million years ago the island was landlocked in the middle of the supercontinent Gondwana, sandwiched between the land that would become South America and Africa and the land that would become India, Australia and Antarctica. Through the movement of the Earth’s crust, Madagascar and India first split from Africa and South America, then from Australia and Antarctica, and headed north. India eventually smashed into Asia, raising the Himalayas; Madagascar broke away from India and was marooned in the Indian Ocean. Its species are a mix of lineages that have been living and evolving there for tens of millions of years.

Fauna & flora

Madagascar is called the naturalist’s paradise because it holds one of the highest rates of biodiversity on the planet: roughly 90% of its plant and animal species are endemic, and Conservation International classifies the island as a biodiversity hotspot. All seven of its carnivore species are endemic; the most emblematic animals are the lemurs, with around a hundred species. Several families among the 285 inventoried bird species are endemic, and 95% of reptiles and amphibians occur nowhere else. Two thirds of the world’s known chameleons live here. Invertebrates are just as rich — all terrestrial snail species are endemic.

The flora is equally astonishing: more than 80% of Madagascar’s plants are found nowhere else. The west is the realm of the baobab, with seven species; the east is home to palms, ferns and bamboo; the south-west grows spiny forest. Four fifths of the world’s Pachypodium are endemic here, three quarters of the island’s 860 orchid species are unique to it, and around 170 palm species grow here — three times as many as in all of mainland Africa.

Population

The Malagasy people are broadly a mix of two ancestral groups, Indonesian and East African, with an Asian and Arab element reflecting centuries of merchant contact — the ancestors of the Antaimoro in the east, the Sakalava in the west. The Malagasy language carries Bantu and Swahili words. Today some eighteen ethnic groups live on the island, sharing a common culture practised with regional variation. Despite dialectal differences, Malagasy is the national language, and the dialect of the Merina of the highlands became the official one. Madagascar also belongs to the French-speaking world, which is why guiding in French comes naturally here.

When to come

The dry season, from April to November, is the travel season: clear skies, cool nights in the highlands, and the best months for trekking and wildlife. Humpback whales pass Sainte-Marie from July to September, and the west — Tsiribihina, Tsingy de Bemaraha, Makay — is only reachable between May and November. Read our guide on when to visit Madagascar, then browse our tours.