Madagascar is the world's 4th large island a few hundred miles of the east coast of southern Africa. It is about 1,000 miles long and ranges up to 350 miles wide. It has been isolated for millions of years. It was part of Godwana and separated along with India from Africa 150 million years ago, and then further separated from India about 90 million years ago. Because of this exceptional isolation, about 90% of the plant and animal life is endemic to Madagascar, meaning they are found nowhere else in the world. The most famous of course are the lemurs, with about 113 distinct species identified to date. In addition, there are many endemic species of palm (175), birds (180), and reptiles (245). The island is also home to ⅔ of the world's chameleon species. While there has been significant extinction because of the clearing of the land, the numbers above represent the current living species, many of which can be found in the remaining forests. We were fortunate to be able to visit many of these sites as well a a few special reserves, where we hiked during the day to locate species often in the trees, and at night to find some of the many nocturnal animals. The other famous inhabitant is the baobab tree, which inhabit the dry deciduous forests. There are 6 species endemic to the island, plus 2 in Africa, and one in Australia.