Andringitra

With its dramatic peaks, waterfalls, and unusual landscape, Andringitra is often called Madagascar's most scenic national park. Andringitra is also known for its biodiversity, including 78 species of amphibians, 50 species of reptiles, 54 species of mammals, 108 species of birds, and more than 1,000 species of plants.

Several operators offer camping tours in the park. Be prepared for long hikes and cold temperatures, especially at night.

Province: Fianarantsoa

Area: 31,160

Protected area status: National park

Year established: 1999

General location:

Location and Access: 47 km south of Ambalavao, 120 km south of Ranomafana

Climate: Wet tropical to montane forest to high altitude vegetation

Average temperature: 10-25°C*

Elevation: 650 to 2658 m

Precipitation: 130-400 cm*

Description: Andringitra is characterized by high mountains (peak 2658m), deep valleys, and ridges. Andringitra, one of the most biodiverse parks in Madagascar, is made up of three distinct ecozones: 1) low altitude rainforest, 2) montane mountain, and 3) highland vegetation/forest.

FAUNA
Birds: 106
Reptiles: 34
Frogs: 55
Mammals: 54
   Lemurs: 13
   Rodents: 11
   Insectivores: 16
   Bats: 11
Crustaceans (Crayfish): 7
Lemur species:

FLORA:
Elevation 650-800 m: Wet tropical forest with canopy of 25-30 m and dominated by Canarium madagascariense (Burseraceae) and Sloanea rhodantha (Elaeocarpaceae).
Elevation 1000 and 1200 m: transition zone between low altitude forest and montane forest (characterized by the presence of Podocarpus madagascariensis).
Elevation 1200-1625 m: Montane sclerophyllous forest characterized by 5-10 m canopy and an abundance of foams and lichens. Thickets of bamboos, Arundinaria and Nastus, along with Podocarpus madagascariensis (Podocarpaceae), Weinmannia (Cunoniaceae), Pandanus (Pandanaceae), and Symphonia (Clusiaceae) are found in this zone.
Higher elevation: Forests is replaced with a mosaic of stunted montane vegetation, lichens and rock exposures.
Families: 130
Species: 1057

Dominant ethnic group(s): Betsileo

Official web page

Additional notes: Due to its elevation, Andringitra climate is variable and between August and May, the temperatures can fill below 0ş.

Accomodation:

Tsara Camp
The Tsara Camp lies in the Tsaranoro Valley with the Tsaranoro Mountain (800m) on one side and the giant mountain chains of Andringitra National Park on the other side. Accommodation is provided in ten tents, each with two simple beds, bedside-table and possibility to hang up clothes.

MAP/Satellite Picture

Girl looking out a window of a hut in a village in the Tsaranoro Valley	Kids in an Antanifotsy Valley village	Kids in a Tsaranoro Valley village
Andringitra	Andringitra landscape	Rutted granite atop Andringitra's Chaine de Montagne Ampiadrianombilahy
White flower	Rock face of the Ampiadrianombilahy mountain chain	Andringitra camp site
Lizard	Girl in a Tsaranoro Valley village	Church in the Tsaranoro Valley
Creek and burned grass in Andringitra	Andringitra landscape	Girl in a Tsaranoro Valley village
Boy in the Antanifotsy Valley	Church in the Tsaranoro Valley	Rice fields in the Antanifotsy Valley
Grooved granite atop Andringitra's Chaine de Montagne Ampiadrianombilahy	Red-orange insect	Flowers
Andringitra sunset	Ferns illuminated in the late afternoon sun	Rice fields in the Antanifotsy Valley
Andringitra landscape	Yellow flowers emerging from charred earth	Antanifotsy Valley
Andringitra landscape	Carpet Chameleon (Furcifer lateralis)	Girl in a Tsaranoro Valley village
Yellow flowers emerging from charred earth	Ferns emerging from charred earth	Zebu cattle in Madagascar
Camping in the Antanifotsy Valley	Giant hissing cockroach pollinating a purple flower	White flower
Tsaranoro Valley	Cattle grazing on the edge of Andringitra	Tsaranoro Mountain
Girl in the Antanifotsy Valley	Blue dragonfly	Kids in an Antanifotsy Valley village
Kids in a Tsaranoro Valley village	Rice fields in the Antanifotsy Valley	Antanifotsy Valley
Flooded terraced rice fields in the Antanifotsy Valley	Andringitra landscape	Andringitra plant

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 -->

Pictures on this site were taken with a Konica Minolta

WILDMADAGASCAR.ORG
WildMadagascar.org aims to raise interest in Madagascar, a land of cultural and biological richness

Madagascar Madagascar Pictures Madagascar News People of Madagascar

About the site Educational materials Help Madagascar In French

SUPPORT
You can help support wildmadagascar.org by using this link to buy from Amazon.com.

Beautifully illustrated with full color photographs throughout, Madagascar Wildlife is a celebration of the unique fauna of a remarkable island and the perfect accompaniment to Bradt's popular general travel guide, Madagascar.

RECENT NEWS
Picture: Shaq poses with tiny lemur

(05/18/2012) One of the world's most recognizable professional basketball players has used his stature to highlight one of the world's smallest primates: the mouse lemur from Madagascar. Shaquille O’Neal, a NBA legend who retired last year and earned a doctorate degree in education from Barry University earlier this year, posed with a mouse lemur at Zoo Miami in March. The diminutive primate, which measures only five inches and weighs two ounces, was dwarfed by the 7’1” 325-pound Shaq.


Mad frog bonanza: up to 36 new frogs discovered in tiny Madagascar forest

(04/19/2012) A forest less than half the size of Manhattan sports an astounding number of frogs, according to a new paper in Biodiversity Conservation. Two surveys of Madagascar's Betampona Nature Reserve, which covers 2,228 hectares, has uncovered 76 unique frogs, 36 of which may be new to science. To put this in perspective: the U.S. and Canada combined contain just 88 frog species, but cover an area nearly a million times larger than Betampona.


Baby boom: 18 of the world's rarest duck born

(04/06/2012) The global population of one of the world's rarest birds just increased 43 percent. The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust is reporting that 18 Madagascar pochards — the world's rarest duck — hatched and are now being reared at a facility in Madagascar. The breeding program is a joint effort between Durrell, the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), the Peregrine Fund, Asity Madagascar and the Government of Madagascar.


Madagascar originally colonized by small group of Indonesians

(03/22/2012) Madagascar was first colonized by a small group of Indonesians who crossed the Indian Ocean some 1,200 years ago, reports a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.


Appeal for help as death toll in Madagascar tops 110 from tropical storm

(03/11/2012) More than 110 are dead and 330,000 homeless after two tropical storms battered Madagascar over the past month, says the island nation's disaster management agency.


Madagascar lifts rosewood ban. Or does it?

(03/01/2012) Madagascar's transitional government lifted its ban on exports of rosewood, ebony and other precious wood last month, but the decision is now under review due to concerns about foreign dominance of the trade, say local sources. Environmentalists are nonetheless concerned that a loosening of restrictions on old-growth timber could ignite another logging frenzy in the country's rainforest parks, which are renowned for their biodiversity.


Cute baby animal photos of the day: twin Malagasy giant jumping rats born at London Zoo

(02/28/2012) Twin Malagasy giant jumping rats (Hypogeomys antimena) were born in the Zoological Society of London's (ZSL) zoo in London this month. Found only on the island of Madagascar, also home to the world's lemurs, these rodents are the biggest on the island. These large rodents take the ecological place of rabbits in Madagascar, but unlike other rodents they form lifelong monogamous pairs and reproduce very slowly.


Scientists recommend marine protected areas for Madagascar

(02/27/2012) With the government of Madagascar planning to increase marine protected areas by one million hectares, a group of researchers have laid out flexible recommendations in a new study in the open access journal PLoS ONE. The researchers employed four different analyses in order to highlight a number of different conservation options, however the different analyses pointed to the need to protect certain areas with high biodiversity, including the Barren Islands' reefs, the reefs of Juan de Nova, the Banc de Leven, and the shallow banks of the Cap Sainte Marie.


Madagascar - The Last Inheritor of Gondwana: Documentary Review

(02/20/2012) Madagascar split from the supercontinent of Gondwana about 150 million years ago. As a result, most of the living creatures in Madagascar are unique to the ecosystems in the island. Madagascar: The Last Inheritor of Gondwana is a documentary that does an excellent job of showing Madagascar’s magnificent biodiversity, but falls short in delivering Madagascar’s "clear" and "urgent" message.


Innovative conservation: wild silk, endangered species, and poverty in Madagascar

(02/20/2012) For anyone who works in conservation in Madagascar, confronting the complex difficulties of widespread poverty is a part of the job. But with the wealth of Madagascar's wildlife rapidly diminishing— such as lemurs, miniature chameleons, and hedgehog-looking tenrecs found no-where else in the world—the island-nation has become a testing ground for innovative conservation programs that focus on tackling entrenched poverty to save dwindling species and degraded places. The local NGO, the Madagascar Organization of Silk Workers or SEPALI, along with its U.S. partner Conservation through Poverty Alleviation (CPALI), is one such innovative program. In order to alleviate local pressure on the newly-established Makira Protected Area, SEPALI is aiding local farmers in artisanal silk production from endemic moths. The program uses Madagascar's famed wildlife to help create more economically stable communities.


More news

GEAR