Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 54
The fossas,
Cryptoprocta ferox
and its relatives, are the only current predators
of lemurs except for humans and the species that we have introduced. With its orange eyes
and wicked teeth, this fossa in Andranomena Reserve in western Madagascar looks like a
nightmare out of a Hieronymus Bosch painting. Fossas that were much larger and undoubt-
edly even more fearsome once thrived on Madagascar but are now extinct.
The fi rst lemurs to arrive in Madagascar found themselves on an island
populated by an eclectic collection of other accidental arrivals that have since
evolved into species found nowhere else on Earth. On my travels around
the island I encountered leaf-tailed geckos, wildly decorated Plataspid bugs,
colorful chameleons, and shy hedghog-like tenrecs, along with many other
wonders.
All these creatures have been dignifi ed with distinct genus and species
names. But, as we saw, the distinctions among closely related species are
sometimes dii cult to draw. The bamboo-eating lemurs of these dense for-
ests are easy to misidentify, especially in the near-darkness of the forest even
