Madagascar Wildlife-Part 1.
I will admit it…I have a long standing, terrible obsession with lemurs!
I had the opportunity to complete the #1 item on my bucket list by spending 19 days in amazing Madagascar, experiencing the country and photographing its unique wildlife, especially the lemurs. This post will set the scene, focusing on the country and its people. In the future, I will delve into the wildlife. Come and escape with me to the magical island of Madagascar.
Disclaimer: I am not much of a travel photographer, and a majority of the photos in this post were taken with my iPhone.
Clicking on the images in this post will enlarge them for a better viewing experience.
Madagascar is an island in the Indian Ocean about 250 miles off the southeast coast of Africa along the Mozambique Channel.
It is the world’s fourth largest island after Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo at 995 miles long and 360 miles wide (at its widest point) for a total of 226,658 square miles. The image to the left provides scale when superimposing the island on a map of the United States. Madagascar is the second-largest island country and the 46th largest country in the world.
Geographically, Madagascar’s topography is composed of three longitudinal zones—a zone of low plateaus and plains in the west, a central highland plateau, and an eastern coastal strip. Clicking on the image will make seeing the zones more clear.
Madagascar can be divided into four climatic eco regions which possess four different forest types. In the east (green), is the moist largely tropical forest; the west (yellow), contains small amounts of mostly dry forest; in the south, (red) there is spiny forest; and a small area of mangrove forest exists on the upper West coast (blue). We visited three of the eco regions (not the mangrove area), and each had its own characteristic flora and fauna.
Although Madagascar possesses only about 0.4% of earth’s landmass, it is home to 5% of the earth’s biodiversity. Over 90% of its wildlife and 80% of its plants are endemic (found nowhere else on earth) to the island. Also notable are the conspicuously absent species – lions, tigers, giraffes, zebra, etc. – those large animals that roam in nearby Africa today. Madagascar’s unique biodiversity is a result of plate tectonics and isolation.
A Bit of History
About 170 million years ago (mya), the land that is now Madagascar was landlocked in the middle of a supercontinent called Gondwana. The tectonic plate on which the land that eventually became Africa and South America moved westward breaking away from the supercontinent about 135 mya leaving “Madagascar” attached to the future India.
As the plate containing the future India floated eastward, a small piece of it broke off about 88 mya becoming stranded as an island (the future Madagascar). “India” continued northward until it smashed into Asia (forming the Himalayan Mountains in the process). The left-behind island of Madagascar has existed in isolation for 88 million years, and its unique biodiversity is largely a result of geographic isolation. Most of the ancestors of Africa’s large animals had not evolved before Madagascar broke away from Africa (why they don’t exist there) while its distinctive flora and fauna evolved after it became an island.
Despite being separated from Africa by only 250 miles, the people of Madagascar, the Malagasy, do not consider themselves to be African. In fact, language, some cultural elements and DNA studies, point to a significant Asian component in their makeup. Approximately 90% of the vocabulary of the native Malagasy language stems from the language found in southeastern Borneo while only 10% derives from African languages.
The reliance on using highland rice terraces rather than African methods of rice farming as well as the use of outrigger canoes are cultural clues to Indonesian derivation. Recent DNA studies have shown a mixture of Asian and African heritage.
It is thought that the first settlers arrived on the island from the east between 350 and 550 AD, establishing themselves in the highlands growing rice which they brought with them.
Arab spice traders used Madagascar as a trading hub during the 8th and 9th centuries, and during the 11th century, migrants arrived from southeastern Africa. These groups settled in the coastal areas. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Portuguese and French established trading posts on the island.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, the eastern coast of Madagascar served as a perfect safe haven for pirates. It was located near the lucrative shipping routes of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, had few laws and possessed sheltered harbors, a supply of fresh produce, water and friendly natives. During the late 1600s, there were reported to be as many as 1,500 pirates living on Madagascar.
For most of the 19th century, the island was ruled by kings and queens from the Merina highland tribe. In 1883, France invaded the island and declared it a French colony in 1896. This brought French culture to the island, and today Madagascar is bilingual with both Malagasy and French as official languages. After World War II, the Malagasy Uprising began the fight against French rule, and in 1960, the island won its independence forming the Republic of Madagascar. Since independence, the country has experienced a lot of political instability, including changes of government via coups, violent unrest and disputed elections. There have been high levels of corruption in the judicial system, law enforcement and in the trade, mining, industry, environment, education and health sectors. Although possessing a bounty of natural resources, and a tourism industry powered by its unique environment, Madagascar is one of the world’s poorest countries and is heavily dependent on foreign aid.
In 2019, The World Bank estimated that 75% of Madagascar’s population was living on less than the U.S. equivalent of $1.90 per day; 85% of homes do not have access to electricity; and one in 16 children die before the age of five. Our in-country guide told me that many people live on the equivalent of $1/day.
Although a majority of Malagasy do not have electricity, most have cell phones. There are about 16 million cell phone subscriptions in Madagascar. Other electronic services are also being introduced. During our drive from the Indian Ocean coast back to Antananarivo, we saw a trench that stretched for many miles along the side of the road that was intended for fiber optic cable. What was interesting was how the trench was being dug – not with modern excavation machinery, but by many people welding picks and shovels. These people had apparently walked many miles from rural homes to dig this trench!
I had never been to a third world country before, and the poverty was shocking.
Demographics
Madagascar has a population of 28.8 million with the majority living on the eastern half of the island.
The eastern section of the central plateau contains almost all of the major cities and towns. Nearly 4 million of the population live in Antananarivo (“Tana”), the capital. Next in population density is the eastern coastal plain, followed by the eastern forest zone and northeastern coast. The western two-thirds of the island is sparsely populated as you can see on the map to the right.
Madagascar has a youthful population with a median age of 20.3 years and 60% under age 25. The island’s population is predominately poor and rural. About 60% of Malagasy are rural inhabitants. The current population growth rate is above the global average at 2.22% with each woman averaging 3.6 children. Families are large, malnutrition is common, and health care is an issue for most of the population not living in cities. The country has 0.16 physicians per 1,000 individuals and that number includes the density in non-rural areas. Life expectancy is below the global average at 68.5 years.
The literacy rate in Madagascar for those 15 years and above is about 77%. Education is compulsory for children between the ages of 6 and 14. Almost all children attend primary school from ages 6-11, and the number who continue through secondary education drops significantly particularly in rural areas despite what is legally required. Everyone speaks Malagasy while only 23.6% have reasonable fluency in French which is problematic as many of the higher paying jobs require reading and/or speaking French. Only about 8.2% of the population is conversant in English which is why we needed an in-country guide who served as our intermediary during the entire trip.
Life in Madagascar
Transportation is a bit of a nightmare in Madagascar. Only the very lucky are able to own cars or trucks. There are about 800,000 passenger and commercial vehicles. Madagascar has one of the least developed road networks found anywhere in the world. There are three types of road systems: routes nationales or national roads, routes provinciales or provincial roads, and routes communales or communal roads.
The nationales roads are the “superior” roads and lead from Antananarivo like spokes to the main economically important areas. These roads have potholes that can be a foot or more deep and are jammed with big trucks that can only drive very slowly (like at 20 miles per hour!). Everything has to be transported by commercial truck since the national railway system is defunct. Often these main roads are very curvy, and you have to hold your breath as you pass the slow moving commercial trucks. This video is just a taste of a tiny section of one of the better roads we drove on.
Roads, in general, are narrow, barely two lane affairs with one lane bridges. The national roads are more or less paved, and the others are “two lane” dirt tracks of varying quality. We were driven by special professional drivers whose only job is to drive passengers on these roads. It is not recommended that you drive yourself. Rental cars often include a driver as part of the rental. For long distance travel, we flew on Air Madagascar, which was its own experience, as driving anywhere would have taken forever. For example, our drive from the Indian Ocean coast back to Antananarivo was only a little over 100 miles and took something like 6 hours on the national road (the video was from this trip)!
In the towns, people have several ways to get around – walk or ride in either a Tuk-Tuk or a cyclo-pousse.
The Tuk-Tuk is a motorized rickshaw that can fit up to three people. These are good for in town driving but not really for distances between towns. A Tuk-Tuk ride typically costs the equivalent of about $0.50. I did not get to ride in one of these.
A cyclo-pousse is a bicycle powered rickshaw. These are very common in towns for short distance travel. The rates for a ride are dependent on the weather, distance traveled and time of day. Typically, fares are between the equivalent of $0.20 and $0.60. I did get a short ride in one of these.
Only 11.4% (or about 17 million) of the rural population lives within 1 or 2 miles of an all-season passible road. We passed this group of women and girls heading either to or from a market. I have no idea where that destination would have been as we were miles from anything resembling a town!
Moving goods from place to place is often done using man-powered carts. We saw many sizes and types of these carts.
For those fortunate enough to be able to afford a bicycle, it can be used to transport goods fairly long distances. We passed many of these men hauling sacks of charcoal up and down steep grades in the highlands. Charcoal is the main fuel source of rural Madagascar.
In fact, we saw all sorts of goods being transported on bicycles. Yes, this pig was very much alive! The photo was taken out of our car window by one of my tour mates.
There are few supermarkets in Madagascar, and those are mainly found in big cities like Antananarivo.
In the larger towns, there are large markets where you can obtain all types of goods. These shots are from the market in Morondava.
In rural areas, food and other goods are sold out of small booths along the road, often in front of a house. This establishment appeared to be the Madagascar equivalent of a “fast food” joint for travelers.
Much of Madagascar lacks decent water and sanitation access. Rivers provide the only source of water for nearly half the population. Bathing is done in rivers as is the washing of clothes right along side the watering of animals.
Most Malagasy are involved in agriculture with about 80% of the population being subsistence farmers.
Rice is the principle crop of the island and its largest export. It is mainly grown in paddies in the central highlands. On the northern part of the island, there are large plantations of sugarcane. Other important export products grown are coffee, cloves, and vanilla. Madagascar is well known for producing fine vanilla.
The term paddy comes from the word “padi” which means rice plant. Rice is very important to the Malagasy people. When we think of rice consumption, we usually think of the Chinese whose average per capita annual consumption is 170 pounds. However, this is far less than the consumption in Madagascar which is second only to Vietnam in per capita consumption. The average Malagasy person eats about 265 pounds of rice per year while the amount is 308 pounds for the Vietnamese.
Rice is a major part of all three meals of the day in Madagascar. In the morning, it is consumed as potage (a French soup harkening back to colonial days), and for lunch and diner it is often served with zebu (a type of cattle), chicken or vegetables. The amount of rice served with our meals was at least double or triple the amount that one would eat with a meal in the U.S. Unfortunately, rice does not provide all the essentials of good nutrition and reliance on it when additives are scarce leads to a high incidence of malnutrition among the rural poor. I like rice, but, by the time I left Madagascar, I could have killed for a french fry!
The growing of rice is not mechanized in Madagascar. The planting, cultivation and harvesting is all done by hand. Paddies typically are plowed using zebu power.
Zebu is the type of cattle raised in Madagascar, and yes, the zebu pictured here are fairly typical of Malagasy herds. In the past, a person was rich if he owned zebu.
Zebu are the Malagasy beasts of burden, being used as plow animals and also to pull carts. They are a staple of the diet. Dinners often had zebu on the menu, but it is not like eating tasty beef here at home. I found it to be not very palatable, tough and chewy much of the time.
Subsistence farming in Madagascar (like that of Indonesia) has traditionally used a technique called “tavy” in which the farmer cuts a portion of the forest, burns it, and plants rice that will be irrigated by rainfall. Ideally, after harvesting the rice crop, the field is left fallow long enough for the forest to regenerate on that field which adds nutrients to keep the soil fertile. However, this process can take many years to rejuvenate the land.
Today, much of the farming is done in a slash and burn manner in which forest is cut, partially burned to produce the charcoal used for household fuel, but not left to regenerate after harvest. This same field is used over and over until it no longer supports rice growth.
Since much of the rural population has no access to electricity, an average rural household may consume as much as 220 pounds of charcoal a month for cooking, heating and lighting. The production of charcoal is an important part of farming practice. The photo is of charcoal being transported for sale.
Deforestation is one of the greatest environmental concerns in Madagascar. It is a complicated issue between saving the unique environment and providing essential food for the poor. It is estimated that 80% of the island’s pre-human habitation forest is now gone, and deforestation of what remains has increased at alarming rates. Half of the forest loss has occurred since the late 1950s. Current estimates are that 1-2% of the remaining forest is being destroyed annually by slash and burn agriculture. In addition, rare, fine hardwoods such as rosewood and ebony are being illegally cut and smuggled out of the country. These trees are rapidly disappearing and not being replaced.
Fortunately, one endemic species that is not being destroyed is the Grandidier’s Baobab. This stand called the Avenue of the Baobabs contains trees up to 800 years old that are the legacy of a dense tropical forest that thrived here at one time. Originally, these trees did not tower in isolation over this landscape of scrub, but stood surrounded by trees in a dense forest.
Baobabs locally are called “reniala” which means “mother of the forest” and are considered sacred by many Malagasy. We visited the Avenue of the Baobab which is now a preserve and is a prime tourist destination. You can more clearly see the avenue in the photo earlier in this post.
When driving in the highlands, we saw the smoke of slashing and burning everywhere. Deforestation is an environmental disaster for Madagascar that results in reduced watershed quality, soil erosion, increased carbon dioxide emissions, loss of critical habitats for the island’s unique flora and fauna, and, sadly, is endangering my beloved lemurs.
I’m afraid this became a fairly lengthy post, but I hope you learned a little about the land and culture of Madagascar. I found the people to be wonderful, cheerful and friendly despite the many challenges that face them. After touring Madagascar, I would not suggest that one go without being part of a knowledgeable tour group. I went with ORYX Photo Tours on the recommendation of a fellow photographer. The tour leader was professional photographer Dale Morris who was awesome as was our in-country guide. Dale has been leading photo expeditions to Madagascar for many years, and his knowledge of both the country, wildlife, and techniques of photography made for a great experience. I will do a future post on the fascinating wildlife that drew me to travel so far off the beaten path. Stay tuned for Part 2!
Resources:
https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/madagascar/