The Cats of Madagascar

Not Quite Your Cuddly House Cat

Let’s get the lay of the land first, shall we? Where exactly is Madagascar?

Located off the east coast of Africa, Madagascar is the world’s fifth largest island; at 144 million acres, it’s almost the size of Texas. Madagascar’s climate is tropical along the coast, temperate inland, and arid in the south. The island harbors lush rain forests, tropical dry forests, plateaus and deserts. It has more than 3,000 miles of coastline and over 250 islands. Madagascar has some of the world’s largest coral reef systems and most extensive mangrove areas in the Western Indian Ocean.

But to me, here is the most AMAZING fact about Madagascar: It is home to about 25,000 species of animals. THE MAJORITY OF WHICH CANNOT BE FOUND ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD!

You’ll see ‘Fossa’ in the above graphic. That is the species name for the Cats of Madagascar. And no, they’re not very cute, are they? But hey, they’re cats, so I am compelled to write about them.

Fossa are about the size of a large house cat. They often sleep on tree branches as much as 100 feet above the ground — no fear of heights with these guys.

And over half their diet consists of eating Lemurs . . .

And this is why I’m having trouble embracing the Cats of Madagascar — Lemurs are just so darn cute!

Not only that, but by odd coincidence, the Lemur is the logo pic on my publication, Short and Snarky . . .

Here’s the thing . . . both Fossa and Lemurs are found ONLY on the island of Madagascar. Makes you wonder why the Lemurs don’t just charter some ships and get the hell off that island.

Sounds like a plan to me.