Sources & photo credits

About this guide

A growing, species-first field guide to the wildlife of Madagascar: mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians. This edition lists about 1,350 species, about 200 of them with photographs. Species descriptions are still being written.

How the species list was built

Mammals come from the Mammal Diversity Database, whose ranges include Madagascar. Reptiles come from the Reptile Database distribution text. Birds come from the AviList v2026 ranges plus common species in GBIF occurrence records (at least 50), and amphibians from GBIF records of frog genera that live only on Madagascar. Species with few records, which can be vagrants, escapes or misidentifications, are held back until they have been checked by hand. Malagasy taxonomy changes quickly: lemurs, mouse lemurs, chameleons, geckos and mantellas are being split often, so recently described or renamed species may be missing or listed under an old name. Common names follow the same lists, then the other Wildlife of Everywhere guides, then Wikipedia; many frogs and geckos have no English name yet, so their scientific name is shown.

Conservation status

No conservation status is shown yet. Malagasy statuses change often (lemur categories in particular are revised every few years), so a status will only be added with the assessment year and its source named.

Reference sources

• Mammal Diversity Database: mammal names and ranges (CC BY 4.0)
• AviList: bird names and ranges (CC BY 4.0)
• The Reptile Database: reptile distribution
• Catalogue of Life: reptile and amphibian taxonomy (CC BY 4.0)
• GBIF — Madagascar: occurrence records used to build the lists

Planning a visit

Many reserves need permits and local guides, some can only be reached by boat, small plane or long rough roads, and roads change with the wet and dry seasons (cyclones are possible from January to March). Check with the park or your operator before you travel rather than relying on the details here.

Wildlife sightings are never guaranteed. The species listed for each place are what is realistically possible there, not what you should expect on a given day.

Your plans and sightings

Your trip plan and sightings are saved in this browser, on this device only. We never see them. Clearing your browser data will clear them too, so download the PDF if you want a copy to keep. Email buttons open a draft in your mail app; nothing is sent until you send it.

Species descriptions

Species accounts are our own paraphrased summaries of published, openly accessible sources, mainly Wikipedia species accounts, and for snakes and other reptiles also The Reptile Database (reptile-database.reptarium.cz), with national checklists and Red Lists where cited. Each account names its source in brackets. Some are general to the species and are not specific to this country; a short entry means the sources said little, not that we left something out. We use no IUCN Red List data.

Photo credits

Photographs come from iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA licences, or were taken by the Wildlife of Everywhere team. Each one keeps its photographer's name, licence and a link to the original.

Photographs are chosen to show the species clearly, so many were taken elsewhere in its range rather than in Madagascar. Tap the i on any photograph to see who took it. The full list is below.

View all photo credits