Kirindy Forest Reserve

Kirindy Forest Reserve, 50 km northeast of the town of Morondava, is a forest privately managed by a Swiss company dedicated to a selective and sustainable logging. It comprises one of the most outstanding and threatened wildlife habitats in Madagascar: the dry deciduous forest, whose amount has been reduced to 3 per cent of their original extent. Dominated by majestic baobab trees and a forest canopy of 14 m altitude, this protected area of approximate 100 sqkm is the only place where the world’s smallest known primate, the giant jumping rat, occurs. This animal can hop like a miniature kangaroo, but is also seen walking on all four limbs. The Sakavala people living here are mainly proud zebu herders.

This forest is the best place to observe the elusive and unusual-looking fossa, a strange “mix” between a cat and a dog. It also home to seven species of lemur. The most common are the common brown lemur and the Verreaux’s sifaka. These long-legged, seven-pound lemurs, white with dark patches, leap among tree trunks high in the canopy, propelled by their powerful hind legs but continually maintaining an upright posture.

The remaining species are nocturnal: the rare Coquerel’s giant mouse lemur and pygmy mouse-lemur, fork-crowned lemur, gray mouse lemur, western fat-tailed dwarf lemur and red-tailed sportive lemur. Several bats, tenrecs, mongooses and rodents complete the mammal population. Some 40 bird, 50 reptile and 15 amphibian species are also found in this forest.