Ankarana sportive lemur (photo)
Nov13

Ankarana sportive lemur (photo)

Ankarana sportive lemur in Ankarana National Park, Madagascar. A number of lemur species are threatened by logging in Northeastern Madagascar. The majority of lemurs are considered at risk of extinction. More lemur photos.

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White sand beach in Madagascar (photo)
Nov02

White sand beach in Madagascar (photo)

Beach near Tampolo Marine Reserve on the Masoala Peninsula in Madagascar. More photos from beaches in Madagascar.

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A strange lemur for Halloween (photo)
Oct31

A strange lemur for Halloween (photo)

The aye-aye is one of the world’s strangest animals. Found only in Madagascar, this lemur aye-aye befuddled early naturalists with its unusual appearance and behavior. More pictures of the aye-aye.

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World lemur day is today (photo)
Oct30

World lemur day is today (photo)

Red-fronted lemur in Madagascar for World Lemur Day (#worldlemurday). See more photos of lemurs

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Colorful chameleon (photo)
Oct26

Colorful chameleon (photo)

Male panther chameleon (Furcifer pardalis). More pictures from Madagascar.

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Thank You, Madagascar: Conservation Diaries of Alison Jolly – book review
Mar03

Thank You, Madagascar: Conservation Diaries of Alison Jolly – book review

By Gabriel Thoumi In Thank You, Madagascar: Conservation Diaries of Alison Jolly, Dr. Jolly tells the riveting, personal, and often heroic tale of Madagascar conservation. For over fifty years, from her first steps in Madagascar in the early 1960s to her most recent visit before her untimely passing February 2014, she takes the reader step-by-step through Madagascar’s conservations successes and challenges as the countries careens...

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Master of Disguise: Oustalet’s Chameleon
Apr01

Master of Disguise: Oustalet’s Chameleon

These masters of disguise are endemic to Madagascar and can be found in a variety habitats ranging from urban to rural landscapes and moist to dry areas at various elevations.  Oustalet’s Chameleon (Furcifer oustaleti) are known as the words longest chameleon maturing to nearly 70cm in length. Due to this widespread range there are listed as Least Concern on the IUCN’s Red List. They mainly feed on insects which they catch with...

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Pictures of baby animals with their mothers for Mother’s Day

Mother tarsier and baby on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Mother and baby orangutan in tree in Sumatra. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Mother Panamanian golden frog with green baby. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Southern Tree Hyrax with baby in Kenya. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Baby crowned lemur clinging to its mother in Madagascar. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Mother Agouti (Dasyprocta punctata) with babies...

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Conservation on the ground: how traditional fishermen saved sharks in Madagascar

Malagasy family helping fisherman take his boat out to sea . Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Or, Guitarfish a Go-Go- Bribes and barrages in Belo-sur-Mer By: Brian Jones, Blue Ventures Conservation in Belo-sur-Mer, Menabe, Madagascar. YOU’VE got to admire the mettle of people who, despite the cards being seemingly insurmountably stacked against them, can still stick to their guns and stand up for what they believe in. I didn’t give...

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Photos: the end of the radiated tortoise?
Apr18

Photos: the end of the radiated tortoise?

Like the American bison or the passenger pigeon the radiated tortoise (Astrochelys radiata) has gone from super-abundant to nearly extinct. The species could be gone by 2030 warn researchers. Photo by Robert Walker. Once one of the world’s most abundant tortoises, numbering in the millions, Madagascar’s radiated tortoise is on the very brink of extinction. Killed for their meat by one of the world’s most impoverished...

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Photos: the gentle lemur

The world’s bamboo lemurs are also known by the more evocative name, the gentle lemurs. Currently these lemurs are separated into five species, all of which are threatened with extinction. These photos are of the Eastern Lesser Bamboo Lemur which is classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. More photos of bamboo...

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Photo: baby goat
Feb24

Photo: baby goat

Baby goat, known as a kid, in Madagascar. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

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Photo: world’s prettiest grasshopper looks like something out of Avatar
Feb22

Photo: world’s prettiest grasshopper looks like something out of Avatar

Native to Madagascar, the incredibly colored Rainbow Milkweed Locust (Phymateus saxosus) is toxic due to its propensity to eat milkweed. The stunning colors and wild patterns make this species look like it belongs on Pandora, the alien moon setting of James Cameron’s film Avatar. Photo by: Rhett A....

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Video: giant leaf-tailed gecko hunting at night

Footage from the BBC’s new program Madagascar. The giant leaf-tailed gecko (Uroplatus fimbriatus) is found on the islands of Nosy Mangabe (mongabay.com’s namesake) and Nosy Bohara. To see photos of Uroplatus fimbriatus and other Malagasy geckos: Leaf-tailed geckos of...

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Video: bizarre tenrecs communicating through ‘stridulation’

Footage from the BBC’s new program Madagascar. Native only to the island of Madagascar, the bizarre tenrec communicate in a way no other mammal in the world does: stridulation. This is the scientific term for communication by rubbing body parts together, such as crickets producing sounds by rubbing their legs against one another. In this case, tenrecs are capable of communicating by rubbing special spines on their back. To read...

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Video: lemur evolution

From the Science Channel show Mutant Planet, this episode on Madagascar looks at the bizarre turns evolution takes on one of the world’s most unique islands. To find out more information and see more videos from the production: Mutant Planet:...

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Photo: not tic-tacs, but millipedes
Feb08

Photo: not tic-tacs, but millipedes

While it may look like someone spilled a a container of dark green tic-tacs, these are actually a swarm of young Malagasy emerald pill millipedes. Photographed in Madagascar these millipedes are classified in the order of Sphaerotheriida. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Click to see more photos of millipedes (and...

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Pictures: Falling water on six continents
Jan27

Pictures: Falling water on six continents

NORTH AMERICA Waterfall in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. Photo by Rhett A. Butler Forest waterfall in Arenal, Costa Rica. Photo by Rhett A. Butler SOUTH AMERICA Waterfall on the summit of Auyantepui, Venezuela. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Jungle waterfall in Suriname. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. EUROPE Waterfall near Skogar in Iceland. Photo by Tina A. Butler. ASIA Tad Lo waterfall in Laos. Photo by Rhett A. Butler....

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What happens when you cross a giraffe with a beetle?
Jan24

What happens when you cross a giraffe with a beetle?

You get the giraffe-necked weevil (Trachelophorus giraffa) of course! This strange insect is native to Madagascar. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Click to see more photos of the giraffe-necked weevil (Trachelophorus...

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The view from the air

Angel Falls in Venezuela. Photo by Rhett A. Butler River in the lowlands of Gabon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Rice fields in Madagascar. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Mountains in Western China. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Flowering trees in the Peruvian Amazon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. African buffalo in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. Photo by Jeremy...

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