【042】Madagascar

　　Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. Madagascar and Africa are divided by the Mozambique Channel. The capital of Madagascar is Antananarivo, Antananarivo is also the biggest city of Madagascar. The population of Madagascar is about 22,000,000 by the end of 2011 and is almost the same population with Taiwan also with Shanghai, the population of Taiwan and Shanghai are both about 23,000,000. Madagascar comprises the island of Madagascar, as well as numerous other smaller islands. The island of Madagascar is the fourth-largest island in the world. The area of Madagascar is about 590,000 square kilometers, however the area of Taiwan is only 36,000 square kilometers, and the most incredible thing is that the area of Shanghai is just 6,340 square kilometers. The first-largest island of the world is the island of Greenland, and the second-largest island is the island of New Guinea located to the north of Australia, and the third-largest island locates to the west of New Guinea, its name is very uncommon, (it comprises three countries, they are Indonesia、Brunei and Malaysia)~

         Most areas of Madagascar are located in the tropical zone. The island is divided by the middle highlands from the north to the south. The eastern area faces Indian Ocean and is very wet and hot, there are tropical rain forests in this part. The west area faces Mozambique Channel and is much drier compared with the east area, there are two seasons in this area – dry season and wet season.

         Madagascar split from India around 88 million years ago, this allows plants and animals on the island to evolve in complete isolation. Consequently, Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot in which over 90% of its wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth. Over 80% of Madagascar's 14,883 plant species are found nowhere else in the world, including five plant families that are only found on the island. The island's diverse ecosystems and unique wildlife are threatened by human settlement.

         A kind of very small monkey, it’s just as big as our finger, in Chinese we call it finger monkey, but in English its name is very strange and is daubentonia or aye-aye. The aye-aye's shaggy fur, huge ears and long, thin fingers make it one of the world's strangest animals

        A kind of strange tree, its name is monkey bread and another name is baobab tree. Some species of baobab trees can live for a thousand years, reaches a height of 25 meters and a diameter of 12 meters.