Madagascar What's So Special?
African Birdlife|March/April 2021
A typical person knows nothing about Madagascar beyond an awareness of the animated movies of that name and a resulting conviction that the country gives refuge to penguins. Africans do slightly better.
Ken Behrens
Madagascar What's So Special?

Most of them know that Madagascar is a big island off the east coast. But those who visit can be baffled by the place, finding that the wildlife they’re familiar with on the mainland is not replicated here. A suite of ferocious predators has been swapped for a family of odd, mongoose-like carnivorans; in place of the herds of herbivores are gentle, arboreal lemurs. Most travelling birders are aware of the island’s several endemic bird families, including species that are drastically different from anything on the African mainland.

Madagascar is profoundly unique and rich, so different from the rest of the world that it’s sometimes called ‘the eighth continent’. Not only does it have the high level of endemism characteristic of islands, but it also boasts remarkable diversity, which for some groups approaches that more typical of a continent. Despite having only 0.4 per cent of the earth’s land area, Madagascar holds about three per cent of the global tally of plant and vertebrate species, and the vast majority of these are endemic. The island is a treasure trove of biodiversity and a ‘laboratory of evolution’, much like Galápagos but on a grander scale. Visiting it is almost like travelling to a parallel universe, in which evolution has been free to run wild on a completely different course. If only Darwin had made it to Madagascar…

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة March/April 2021 من African Birdlife.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة March/April 2021 من African Birdlife.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

المزيد من القصص من AFRICAN BIRDLIFE مشاهدة الكل
EXPLORING NEW HORIZONS
African Birdlife

EXPLORING NEW HORIZONS

Keith Barnes, co-author of the new Field Guide to Birds of Greater Southern Africa, chats about the long-neglected birding regions just north of the Kunene and Zambezi, getting back to watching birds and the vulture that changed his life.

time-read
5 mins  |
May/June 2024
footloose IN FYNBOS
African Birdlife

footloose IN FYNBOS

The Walker Bay Diversity Trail is a leisurely hike with a multitude of flowers, feathers and flavours along the way.

time-read
6 mins  |
May/June 2024
Living forwards
African Birdlife

Living forwards

How photographing birds helps me face adversity

time-read
10 mins  |
May/June 2024
CAPE crusade
African Birdlife

CAPE crusade

The Cape Bird Club/City of Cape Town Birding Big Year Challenge

time-read
5 mins  |
May/June 2024
water & WINGS
African Birdlife

water & WINGS

WATER IS LIFE. As wildlife photographer Greg du Toit knows better than most.

time-read
1 min  |
May/June 2024
winter wanderer
African Birdlife

winter wanderer

as summer becomes a memory in the south, the skies are a little quieter as the migrants have returned to the warming north. But one bird endemic to the southern African region takes its own little winter journey.

time-read
1 min  |
May/June 2024
when perfect isn't enough
African Birdlife

when perfect isn't enough

Egg signatures and forgeries in the cuckoo-drongo arms race

time-read
5 mins  |
May/June 2024
Southern SIGHTINGS
African Birdlife

Southern SIGHTINGS

The late summer period naturally started quietening down after the midsummer excitement, but there were still some classy rarities on offer for birders all over the subregion. As always, none of the records included here have been adjudicated by any of the subregion's Rarities Committees.

time-read
4 mins  |
May/June 2024
flood impact on wetland birds
African Birdlife

flood impact on wetland birds

One of the features of a warming planet is increasingly erratic rainfall; years of drought followed by devastating floods. Fortunately, many waterbirds are pre-adapted to cope with such extremes, especially in southern Africa where they have evolved to exploit episodic rainfall events in semi-arid and arid regions. But how do waterbirds respond to floods in areas where rainfall - and access to water - is more predictable? Peter Ryan explores the consequences of recent floods on the birds of the Western Cape's Olifants River valley.

time-read
5 mins  |
May/June 2024
a star is born
African Birdlife

a star is born

It’s every producer’s dream to plan a wildlife television series and pick the right characters before filming.

time-read
2 mins  |
May/June 2024