Madagascar has its share of beautiful beaches and magnificent coral reefs. The Northwest is the domain of the bays, white-sandy beaches and some coral islets with names such as Nosy Komba, Sakatia, Iranja, Mitsio, Tanikely and indeed Nosy Be. These islands, lost to the outside world, are only visited by fishermen on board their pole pirogues. From June to September, the humpback whales come back from the Antarctic to reproduce and give birth around Sainte Marie Island, formerly a pirate’s colony.

Madagascar has been separated from Africa mainland and India for 160 million years. This long history of isolation and over water colonisation has meant that numerous groups of mammals have not made it to the island. Of all the different groups of mammals on the island, lemurs have been studied the most intensively and have received much attention from the conservation community and tourists. Among the 35 varieties the Propitheque of Tattersall and the Hapalemur have only been discovered recently.


 

How to speak in a few lines about 19000 listed vegetal species, among them 1 000 varieties of orchids, knowing that this is not the final list? The invertebrates count over 100 000 specials, at least 3 000 of them are butterflies. Descendants of antediluvian monsters, the Malagasy chameleons represent two thirds of the species known in the world