47 Fun Facts About Madagascar

Madagascar lies in which body of water?

Madagascar lies in the Indian Ocean off Africa's southeastern coast, separated from Mozambique by the Mozambique Channel, about 420 km wide at its narrowest.

By area, Madagascar ranks where among the world's islands?

Madagascar is the fourth-largest island on Earth at about 587,000 km²; only Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo are bigger, and among island countries only Indonesia is larger.

What is the capital and largest city of Madagascar?

Antananarivo, called Tananarive under French rule and shortened locally to Tana, is Madagascar's capital and by far its largest city, home to well over a million people.

Roughly what share of Madagascar's wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth?

Over 90% of Madagascar's wildlife is found nowhere else: the island separated from mainland Africa in the Jurassic, well over 150 million years ago, and its species have evolved in isolation since.

Which two languages are official in Madagascar?

Madagascar's two official languages are Malagasy and French: Malagasy is an Austronesian language, and French is a legacy of more than six decades of colonial rule.

The Malagasy language is most closely related to a language still spoken on which island?

Malagasy's closest relative is Ma'anyan, an East Barito language of southern Borneo, spoken some 7,300 km from Madagascar.

In which year did Madagascar gain independence from France?

Independence came on 26 June 1960, and the country joined the United Nations that September.

Which people, from the central highlands, are the most numerous of Madagascar's ethnic groups?

Merina nobles united most of the island in the 19th century as the Kingdom of Madagascar.

Which 19th-century queen banned Christianity in Madagascar and pushed most foreigners out?

Ranavalona I, who reigned from 1828 to 1861, outlawed Christianity in 1835 and drove out most Europeans, isolating the kingdom while forced labour sustained an army of some 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers.

What is the name of Madagascar's currency?

Madagascar's currency is the ariary, which replaced the Malagasy franc as the official unit in 2005 and divides into five iraimbilanja rather than a decimal subunit.

'Bourbon vanilla', the type grown in Madagascar, takes its name from the former name of which island?

It was on Réunion in 1841 that a 12-year-old enslaved boy, Edmond Albius, worked out how to hand-pollinate the orchid.

How many baobab species are found only in Madagascar?

Six baobab species are endemic to Madagascar, among them Grandidier's baobab; mainland Africa and Australia account for the handful of others in the genus Adansonia.

The famous Avenue of the Baobabs runs along a road near which western town?

The Avenue of the Baobabs lies on the dirt road between Morondava and Belon'i Tsiribihina in western Madagascar, where some 20 to 25 Grandidier's baobabs line a 260-metre stretch.

The Malagasy name for the baobab, 'renala', translates as what?

Renala, or reniala, the Malagasy name for the baobab, means 'mother of the forest' (reny, mother; ala, forest), recalling the dense forests that once surrounded the trees.

About half of all species of which reptile are found only in Madagascar?

Chameleons: roughly half of the world's 200-odd chameleon species are endemic to Madagascar, including Brookesia nana, a leaf chameleon described in 2021 and one of the smallest reptiles known.

The word 'lemur' comes from a Latin word meaning what?

Lemures were the ghosts of the restless dead in Roman belief, placated at the Lemuria festival; Linnaeus borrowed the name for the animals' silent, nocturnal, ghost-like habits.

Which Madagascan animal is the world's smallest primate?

Madame Berthe's mouse lemur, at about 30 grams with a body under 10 cm, is the smallest primate known; at the other extreme, Madagascar's extinct Archaeoindris was gorilla-sized.

Which lemur finds grubs by tapping on trees, then digging them out with a thin middle finger?

The aye-aye taps bark, listens for hollows, gnaws in with ever-growing rodent-like incisors and hooks grubs out with its thin middle finger; it is the largest nocturnal primate.

Which of these lemurs is famous for having only a rudimentary tail?

The indri, or babakoto, has only a stub of a tail a few centimetres long, unusual among lemurs; it is among the largest living lemurs and sings choruses lasting up to three minutes.

Male ring-tailed lemurs settle disputes with what kind of contest?

In 'stink fights', male ring-tailed lemurs rub scent from their wrist and shoulder glands onto their tails and waft them at rivals until one backs down.

What is the largest mammalian carnivore native to Madagascar?

The fossa, up to about 10 kg and 1.5 m from nose to tail tip, is Madagascar's largest native carnivore; it looks like a small cougar but belongs to the mongoose-related family Eupleridae and preys mainly on lemurs.

How does the Madagascar hissing cockroach make its signature sound?

Unusually for a cockroach it has no wings, so the hiss is its main defence.

Which extinct flightless giant of Madagascar may have been the largest of its kind that ever lived?

The elephant bird (Aepyornis and the even bulkier Vorombe) stood up to 3 m tall and weighed several hundred kilograms, the heaviest birds known; it died out after humans settled the island, alongside giant lemurs and dwarf hippos.

Madagascar's first permanent settlers are thought to have arrived by outrigger canoe from which region?

Madagascar's first settlers were Austronesians from present-day Indonesia, who crossed the Indian Ocean by outrigger canoe in the first millennium AD; Bantu speakers from East Africa followed centuries later.

What is Maromokotro?

Maromokotro, at 2,876 metres in the Tsaratanana Massif in the north of the island, is Madagascar's highest peak.

The highland custom of famadihana involves doing what?

It is a festive family reunion as much as a rite, and Christian ministers are sometimes invited to consecrate it.

Which sport is considered the national sport of Madagascar?

Rugby union is widely regarded as Madagascar's national sport, with the national side, the Makis, drawing tens of thousands to Mahamasina Stadium in Antananarivo; on the coasts, bare-knuckle moraingy also draws big crowds.

The valiha, Madagascar's most emblematic instrument, is what kind of instrument?

The valiha is a bamboo tube zither: strings run along the outside of a bamboo tube and are plucked; it descends from the tube zithers of maritime Southeast Asia, and similar instruments survive in Indonesia and the Philippines.

The name of Madagascar's capital is usually translated as what?

Antananarivo means 'City of the Thousand': King Andriamasinavalona renamed the hill town, founded around 1610 by Andrianjaka, in honour of the thousand soldiers Andrianjaka had garrisoned there.

Roughly how high above sea level does Madagascar's capital sit?

Antananarivo sits about 1,280 metres above sea level on Madagascar's central highlands, giving it a mild subtropical highland climate far cooler than the coasts.

Ilakaka's deposits made Madagascar the source of half the world's supply of which gem in the late 1990s?

The island also holds one of the world's largest reserves of ilmenite, the ore of titanium.

What name is given to the 1947 revolt against French rule in Madagascar?

The Malagasy Uprising of 1947-48 began on 29 March 1947 and was crushed with great loss of life; France's own wartime occupation had shattered the colonial administration's prestige.

Which cattle are central to Malagasy farming, wealth and ritual?

Zebu, the humped cattle brought to Madagascar from East Africa around a thousand years ago, are a measure of wealth and the focus of sacrifice and cattle-raiding traditions; early herders burned much forest into grassland for them.

In the 2005 DreamWorks film Madagascar, which zoo do Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria escape from?

The four are stars of the Central Park Zoo in Manhattan; Marty the zebra bolts on his tenth birthday, hoping to catch a train from Grand Central to Connecticut.

Who voices Alex the lion in the Madagascar films?

He was the first actor the directors approached; they wanted a big performing lion with a vulnerable side.

Which comedian voices King Julien, the ring-tailed lemur?

Sacha Baron Cohen voices King Julien; the lemur king was written with only a couple of lines until Baron Cohen improvised minutes of dialogue at his audition, winning the role a major expansion.

In the 2005 film, the penguins hijack the ship and steer it toward which continent?

The penguins commandeer the freighter carrying the crated zoo animals and steer it toward Antarctica; the crates slide overboard on the way and wash up on Madagascar.

Which Madagascar co-director's temp track became Skipper's voice after Robert Stack died?

McGrath modelled Skipper on Stack's clipped delivery in The Untouchables.

'I Like to Move It', the franchise's recurring song, was originally recorded by which act?

Sacha Baron Cohen's cover, in character as King Julien, became the theme of the whole series.

Which film is the highest-grossing entry in the DreamWorks series?

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012) took about $747 million worldwide, ahead of Escape 2 Africa's $604 million; the Penguins of Madagascar spin-off underperformed and forced a write-down.

The spin-off series All Hail King Julien premiered in 2014 on which platform?

All Hail King Julien premiered on Netflix in December 2014 as one of DreamWorks' first original series for the streamer; the earlier Penguins of Madagascar TV series, by contrast, aired on Nickelodeon.

Roughly how long ago did Madagascar break away from the Indian subcontinent?

Madagascar separated from India about 88 million years ago, roughly 90 million years, in the Late Cretaceous; it had already parted from Africa far earlier, as Gondwana broke apart in the Jurassic.

Which traveller's garbled account is thought to have given Madagascar its name?

Marco Polo's account describes an island 'Madeigascar' south of Socotra, apparently a muddle with Mogadishu on the African mainland; Renaissance mapmakers preferred his name to the Portuguese 'São Lourenço'.

Which king united the central highlands in the 1790s and set out to conquer the island?

Andrianampoinimerina, king of Imerina from about 1787 to 1810, united the highland kingdom and declared 'the sea is the boundary of my rice field'; his son Radama I carried the conquest across most of the island.

What is the largest lake in Madagascar?

Lake Alaotra, in the northeastern highlands near Ambatondrazaka, is Madagascar's largest lake and the heart of its biggest rice-growing basin; its reed marshes are home to the Alaotran gentle lemur, found nowhere else.

In which year did France formally annex Madagascar as a colony?

France annexed Madagascar on 6 August 1896 after the 1895 invasion; Queen Ranavalona III was deposed the next year and exiled to Réunion and then Algeria, while the Menalamba revolt dragged on for two more years.

Who was the first president of independent Madagascar, serving from 1960 to 1972?

Philibert Tsiranana, a Tsimihety from the north, led Madagascar from independence in 1960 until student and worker protests forced him to hand power to General Gabriel Ramanantsoa in 1972.