"Fousa" is a fictional character in Dreamworks' film MADAGASCAR. Fousa is based on a real-life animal found in Madgascar called the Fossa (pronounced "foo sa").
Fossa picture by Julie Larsen Maher / WCS
The fossa is a carnivore that is related to a mongoose and looks like a cross between a puma and a dog. Fossas that hunt almost any animal including insects, reptiles, rodents and lemurs. They also prey on chickens in and around Malagasy villages and are hunted by local people as vermin.
Fossa are active both in trees and on the ground and are excellent climbers using their long tail for balance and retractable claws for climbing straight up and down tree trunks.
Fossa were first classified as cats but later taxonimists realized that they are closely related to the mongoose.
An adult fossa may weight 22-to-26-pounds.
Fossa are found in deciduous to moist forest habitats throughout Madagascar but are somewhat rare.
The fossa is Madagascar's largest predator.
fusa / fussa
Find a mistake? Want to submit pictures or content? Contact WildMadagascar.org
Almost all pictures on this site were taken with a Konica Minolta
Recent articles
Madagascar fires mapped with Google Earth in real-time Every year as much as one-third of Madagascar, one of the planet's most biodiverse islands, goes up in flames. Now a new tool gives scientists the ability to monitor and track Madagascar's fires in real-time through the Internet.
UNESCO lists rainforest parks of Madagascar as Heritage sites (7/2/2007) UNESCO has listed six rainforest parks in Madagascar as World Heritage sites. The announcement comes as the Indian Ocean island nation has moved aggressively to protect its biologically-rich forests from further degradation.
Conservation is saving lemurs and helping people in Madagascar (5/7/2007) Madagascar, an island nation that lies off the coast of southeastern Africa, has long been famous for its unique and diverse species of wildlife, especially lemurs--primates found nowhere else on the planet. In recent years, the island country has also become world-renowned for conservation efforts that are succeeding in spite of extraordinary pressures from a poor population that relies heavily on forest burning for basic subsistence. A large part of this success is due to the early efforts of Patricia Wright, a primatologist who has been working in the country for more than 20 years. Wright led the effort to launch the country's leading protected area and helped Madagascar become a leading global example of conservation despite its economic adversity.
