Schlagwort-Archiv: rainforest

As early as 1802, French colonialists in Madagascar discovered a unique, white-flowering orchid whose waxy blossom had a diameter of a good 12 cm. They had never seen anything like it, and so it was also a Frenchman named Du Petit-Thouars, who 20 years later wrote down a description of the peculiar flower for the first time. He called it …

Masoala: Masoala means “eyes of the forest”. The national park owes this name to the Aye-Aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis), whose eyes ghostly glow like two large yellow spheres in the light cone of the torch at night. Unfortunately, night walks in national parks are currently forbidden, so that only the name testifies to this magnificent experience. Location: The Masola National Park …

The Verreaux’ Sifakas (Propithecus verreauxi) lives in the south of Madagascar and belongs to the few lemurs that successfully colonize the hot and hostile spiny forests. It is a very adaptable species that can survive even in very small forest areas. It can even be found in some lowland rainforests in the southeast of the eighth continent. In the northwest, the …

The Diademed Sifaka (Propithecus diadema) is with a total length of 105 cm and a weight between five and seven kilograms one of the largest lemurs of Madagascar and because of its unusual fur colors also one of the most beautiful. His face is framed by long white fur, which looks a bit like a tiara and gave these lemurs …

Ranomafana: Ranomafana owes its name to its thermal springs, which constantly pump warm water (in Malagasy rano mafana) into the valley. Location: Ranomafana National Park is located between the two regions of Haute Matsiatra and Vatovavy-Fitovinany, about 420 kilometers south-east of the capital Antananarivo. For the journey via the RN7 from the capital, you need about one and a half …

Once upon a time in a small village in Madagascar, a Bezanozano man (a tribe living in the east of the country) prepared a small basket. He asked his little son Koto to come with him and together they wandered deep into the jungle to find honey. After a few hours they found a bee hive on a high rosewood …

A small but very pretty gecko lives well camouflaged in the rainforests of the central east and southeast in the highlands of Madagascar: the Satanic Leaf-Tailed Gecko (Uroplatus phantasticus). The little guy got his name from biologist George Boulenger as early as 1888. The Belgian first described the species and chose the name because of the bizarre appearance of the …

Marojejy: Marojejy National Park is one of the most biodiverse and beautiful in Madagascar, but also one of the most difficult to travel to. An “advanced paradise”! The Malagasy words maro and jejy have various meanings, including “many stones” and “much rain”, but also “many animals” and “many ancestral spirits”. Location: Marojejy National Park is located in the northeast of …

Andasibe: Formerly, this national park and the village Andasibe had the french name Périnet, which derived from French Henri Périnet, who built the train station nearby at the beginning of the 20th century. Today it is a complex of national parks wearing the Malagasy name Andasibe-Mantadia. The Malagasy name Andasibe means as much as “big camp”, which points to the …