Madagascar

📖 In short

Madagascar is a country on a big island in the Indian Ocean, near Africa's east coast. It's the fourth-biggest island in the world. Its capital is Antananarivo, and it has amazing animals and plants found nowhere else!

🤩 Did you know?

Madagascar gained independence from France in 1960.
Madagascar lies about 400 kilometers from the African coast.
About 80% of Madagascar's people work in farming and herding.
Almost half of the world's chameleon species live in Madagascar.

🗂️ Fact file

🔎 Find out more

🌟 A world apart

Madagascar split off from the continents millions of years ago, so animals all its own evolved there, like the ring-tailed lemur and many kinds of colorful chameleons.

🔍 Baobab trees

Madagascar has huge baobab trees whose very thick trunks store water, and whose branches at the top look like roots, so they seem to have been planted upside down!

💡 Rice and vanilla

People in Madagascar eat a lot of rice, at almost every meal. Vanilla is grown there too, and it's one of the world's biggest producers.

🎯 Protecting nature

Many of Madagascar's forests have been cut down, and many animals are in danger. So reserves have been set up to protect lemurs, chameleons and rare birds.