Mammals of the Eighth Continent

Nothing quite prepares you for the magic of Madagascar. As you explore its unique but threatened forests, each walk reveals a new cast of surprising, fascinating, and truly bizarre flora and fauna. At times it can feel like you have entered another world.

Being the fourth-largest island on Earth with many climatic zones, Madagascar's diversity of habitats and wildlife is truly spectacular, but it's the island's long isolation from the rest of the world that has led to its distinctiveness.

On our new Madagascar's Rare Mammals small group tour we go in search of some of the island's most iconic, sought-after, and peculiar mammalian species, whilst also taking in the many endemic reptiles, frogs, birds and invertebrates also found in each habitat.

The dry deciduous forest found on the island's arid western side may not have the staggering diversity of its eastern rainforests, but it will surprise you with its wildlife. Being based at a simple lodge just outside the Kirindy Forest Reserve, surrounded by huge baobab trees, we explore the network of trails here in search of key mammals.

This is the best location in Madagascar for an encounter with the charismatic fosa, the largest member of the island's unique family of carnivores. These long-tailed, weasel-like predators are regularly seen here, with several individuals partially habituated and even sometimes seen mating or drinking close to the lodge.

In addition to the enigmatic fosa, we can enjoy getting up close and personal with our first lemurs, including the aerobatic Verreaux's sifaka and inquisitive red-fronted brown lemur.

At night we'll seek out nocturnal residents of the forest including giant jumping rats and tenrecs as well as fork-marked, dwarf and sportive lemurs. We'll also make a special effort to track down the elusive Madame Berthe's mouse lemur, which holds the title as the world's smallest primate.

From here we travel to Andasibe to discover the lush eastern rainforests. Waking at dawn, as the chorus of chirping frogs comes to an end, the songs of the colourful endemic birds are soon overtaken by a much louder and unforgettable mournful wail that echoes through the forest up to two kilometres. This is the song of the indri. In the quiet and primeval-looking forest reserves of Maromizaha and Andasibe, family groups of indris make seemingly daredevil leaps from tree to tree sometimes even passing overhead.

In addition to the magnificent indri, we can also spend time with the beautiful diademed sifaka, the charming eastern bamboo lemur, common brown lemur and track habituated red-bellied and black-and-white ruffed lemurs to name a few. We'll also return to Maromizaha after nightfall to seek nocturnal lemurs hopefully including the incomparable aye-aye that often visit fruiting trees in this reserve.

Our final destination, the Palmarium Reserve, provides a memorable finale to our time in Madagascar. From just a few metres away we can watch as habituated semi-wild aye-ayes feed on a small, forested island. Although a slightly more contrived setting, this location provides our best views of this most bizarre of all lemurs.

Madagascar is a destination of spectacular wildlife experiences, and this new itinerary enables us to immerse ourselves in two contrasting ecosystems where some of its rarest mammals can be found.

Discover Madagascar's Rare Mammals for yourself. Speak to our expert team to book your place, or view all our wildlife holidays to Madagascar.