Madagascar

A community portal about Madagascar with blogs, videos, and photos. According to Wikipedia.org: Madagascar or Malagasy Republic, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, off the southeastern coast of Africa. The main island, also called Madagascar, is the fourth largest island in the world, and is home to five percent of the world's plant and animal species, (more than 80 percent of which are indigenous to Madagascar.) Most notable are the lemur infraorder of primates, the carnivorous fossa, three endemic bird families and six endemic baobab species. The adjective for Madagascar is Malagasy (pronounced "mal-la-gas-ee" or "mal-a-gash"), and the official national language is the Malagasy language.

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109: rare tortoises rescued

Written by eazibee on

From: reasonstobehopeful.blogspot.com

I found this heartening story from Madagascar on BBC online today, about the numbers of rare and endangered tortoises that have been rescued from smugglers of late.

In one of the most recent seizures, a single Nigerian man was arrested with 300 tortoises in his possession! Most smuggled tortoises find their way into the exotic pet trade, selling for as much as $10,000. However, experts believe that the rarest species, the ploughshare tortoise (pictured here), could be extinct within 10 years if smuggling continues at its present rate - there are just 1000 left in the wild. So the success of the Madagascan authorities' recent efforts is critical, though it must be sustained if these beautiful creatures are to survive.

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