Handbook of Mammals of Madagascar

by Nick Garbutt

Madagascar is home to one of the most remarkable assemblages of mammals on earth. Millions of years of isolation has resulted in the evolution of a suite of species that are exceptional for two major reasons. Firstly, every native non-volant species (approximately 210 species) is endemic. No other island or place on earth boasts such a combination of species richness and endemism. And secondly, these mammals have evolved an extraordinary diversity of body forms and lifestyles often displaying significant convergence with forms elsewhere but also at times evolving utterly unique features.

Handbook of the Mammals of Madagascar describes all 217 native species, including bats, tenres, mice and lemurs, and a small number of introduced, non-native species. Species accounts are subdivided into sections covering description and identification, habitat and distribution (including distribution maps), behaviour and where to see. Over the past 15 years, major advances in research have been made into the island's mammal fauna and species accounts include all the latest information.

Supporting chapters cover the island's regions and habitats, threats to mammals, conservation and important mammal watching sites. There is also a section covering the bizarre extinct mammal fauna.

Throughout, the book is illustrated with exceptional, high-quality photography, often featuring species rarely photographed previously.

448 pages, Hardcover

Published February 28, 2023

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first came across Lemurs when I went to Jersey Zoo (or Durrell as it was back then), and they had a number of different species that they were breeding to hopefully be able to return to the wild. They are beautiful animals and were the flagship species that they were using to promote all sorts of conservation and recovery programmes that they were undertaking in the islands of Madagascar.

This huge island off the coast of Africa is pretty unique. It has been isolated for millions of years that the evolutionary paths that the animals have taken to fill the niches that all habitats have generated richness and diversity of animals that exist nowhere else on earth. It sounds like an amazing place.

However, these animals are threatened. Partly by climate change as it slowly wreaks its havoc on global weather patterns, but mostly by humans. Yep, us. Again. So most of the 217 species that are covered in the book have some sort of habitat degradation or fragmentation, or it has just been removed wholesale because of logging and mineral extraction.

There are several sections to the book, with details on regions and habitats, places to go and see some of these fantastic mammals and even a section on those strange and often huge animals that have sadly been lost because of extinction. However, the majority of the book is about the species that can still be found there.

There is an incredibly dense amount of information in here. It is subdivided into tenrecs, bats, lemurs and carnivores. Each species has a section to itself and contains a wealth of information on the location, how threatened they are, habitat, population size and then details on where to find them should you wish to make the arduous journey to some of the more remote parts of the island.

It did take me quite a while to get through, as there is so much detailed information within. It does read like an academic journal, which is hardly surprising, really. I couldn’t quite believe how many lemur species there were! But alongside this mass of up-to-date information are wonderful photos of the species being written about, some of which are rarely photographed, given their remote location on the island. Well worth reading if you are interested in the fauna of Madagascar at any level.