The “Eighth Continent”?
Madagascar is so different from the rest of the world that it almost deserves to be considered as its own continent! As Russell Mittermeier says in The Eighth Continent, by Peter Tyson : “Madagascar is a living laboratory unlike anyplace else on Earth…In simple terms, most of Madagascar’s wonderfully unique species are found nowhere else…”
Unique species?
The lemurs make up a whole sub-order of primates, and are only found here. The most popular lemurs are Ring-tailed Lemur, and the Indri indri, which is like a big black-and-white teddy bear that sings whale songs! But lemurs aren’t the whole story… there is a bounty of unique birds, bizarre reptiles, various other small critters that will surprise you by their unicity. Only in Madagascar can you find tenrecs ... And added to all that … 2/3 of the world’s species of baobabs, thousands of species of orchids, and plants such as the Octopus tree and the Pachypodiums are only found in Madagascar.