Environment - Madagascar - page 406

The Eighth Continent: Life, Death and the Discovery in the Lost World
of Madagascar , by Peter Tyson, is a scientific travelogue that guides
readers through the island's unique natural history and biodiversity.
A chain of mountains runs down the eastern seaboard, forming a steep escarpment and
trapping moisture that helps create the island's rainforests, which are rich in biodiversity.
There is no modern volcanic activity on the island, although volcanoes previously erupted
in the central highlands.
The island's highest point is 2876m Maromokotro, an extinct volcanic peak in the
Tsaratanana massif, followed by the 2658m Pic Imarivolanitra (formerly known as Pic
Boby) in Parc National d'Andringitra.
Mineral Beauty
Going east from the western coastline, limestone is replaced by sandstone, which rises into
majestic formations in places such as Parc National de l'Isalo.
The BBC's seminal three-part series Madagascar , narrated by Sir David
Attenborough, makes for an inspirational introduction to the great island.
It features the island's iconic fauna and flora, as well as its more obscure
specimens, in fascinating details and stunning images.
Northern and western Madagascar host impressive limestone karst formations - jagged,
eroded rocks that contain caves, potholes, underground rivers and forested canyons rich in
wildlife, such as crocodiles, lemurs, birds and bats. Karst is known locally as tsingy , and is
protected within one of Madagascar's three World Heritage Sites, Parc National des Tsingy
de Bemaraha, as well as in the Parc National de l'Ankarana.
GOING, GOING…BACK AGAIN!
The last century saw several Malagasy bird species pushed perilously close to
the brink of extinction. Waterbirds have fared particularly badly: the Alaotra
Grebe was last seen in the 1980s and was declared extinct in 2010.
All three of the country's endemic duck species are rare. One, the Madagas-
car Pochard, had last been observed in 1994 when a female was rescued by a
conservation worker from a fisherman's net on Lac Alaotra. The rescuer kept
the bird alive in a bath in the hope that a mate would be found, but it succumbed
and the Madagascar Pochard was presumed extinct. But in 2006 the unthinkable
happened: nine adult Madagascar Pochards were discovered with young on a re-
mote lake in the Alaotra basin in northern Madagascar. In a desperate effort to