If you ask people what they know about Madagascar the majority will talk about the wildlife, and with good reason, because Madagascar is one of the world's biodiversity ‘hotspots’.  Everyone has heard of the lemurs, but did you know that 80% of Madagascar's plants are endemic?  There are 170 species of palm, which is more than

The indri is the largest of the lemurs.  It has a call that can be heard over a mile away

three times the number found in the whole of Africa, and nearly a thousand different species of orchid.  More than half the world's chameleons are found here and there are probably about 300 species of frog, of which all but two are endemic.  A new species of frog is discovered, on average, every eight weeks.  120 species of birds are found only in Madagascar.
     Lemurs are primates that evolved before the monkeys.  Elsewhere in the world the more skilful monkeys quickly replaced the lemurs but some of them survived in Madagascar, when it split off from the continent of Africa, and the 51 species of lemur that exist today are the result of 35 million years of evolution on the island with little competition and few predators.
     Madagascar contains an enormous variety of habitats from tropical rainforest to the unique spiny forest of the south.  If you want to know more about the wildlife, or any aspect of Madagascar, the “Bradt Travel Guide to Madagascar” is an invaluable and fascinating source of information.

Wildlife
A new species of bat with suckers on its feet has been discovered in dry deciduous forest in the west of Madagascar. Up to now the rare sucker-footed bats have only been found in the eastern rainforest, but this one was discovered clinging to the leaf of a travellers palm, which is one of the first plants to colonise degraded habitats, so these bats may not be as rare as had been thought.

Three new species of mouse lemur have recently been discovered in the eastern rainforest.