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Masoala Peninsula, Madagascar
The Masoala Peninsula as become one of Madagascar's top conservation priorities for its extensive rainforest (by Madagascar standards) and high biodiversity of plant and animal life. In the late 1990s, the 410,000ha Masoala National Park was created. Today the Masoala can only be reached by boat.
Despite the high number of animal species, wildlife in the rainforest can be exceedingly difficult to spot. Nevertheless you may find the red-ruffed lemur, white-fronted brown lemur, aye-aye, greater hedgehog tenrec, fosas, fanaloka, falanouc, and a number of bird species. Look carefully for chameleons and relatively abundant Uroplatus geckos. There are also lots of insects including mosquitoes.
Watch where you swim -- the Gulf of Antongil is notorious for sharks. During my first visit we saw quite a few as we made our way across stormy seas.
A sampling of mammal species found on the Masoala Peninsula:
| Eastern fork-marked lemur | | Phanerfurdfer furdfer |
| Weasel sportive lemur | | Lepilemur mustelinus |
| White-fronted brown lemur | | Eulemur fulvus albifrons |
| Red ruffed lemur | | Varecia variegata rubra |
| Greater hedgehog tenrec | | Setifer setosus |
| Aye-aye | | Daubentonia madagascariensis |
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