List of mammals of Madagascar
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This is a list of the native wild mammal species recorded in Madagascar. As of June 2014 (following the IUCN reassessment of the lemurs) there are 241 extant mammal species recognized in Madagascar, of which 22 are critically endangered, 62 are endangered, 32 are vulnerable, 9 are near threatened, 72 are of least concern and 44 are either data deficient or not evaluated. All of the critically endangered species are lemurs.[note 1]
The mammalian fauna of Madagascar is highly distinctive and largely endemic. The extant nonmarine, nonchiropteran taxa constitute (as of June 2014) 168 species, 40 genera and 9 families; of these, besides a probably introduced shrew,[note 2] endemic taxa make up all the species,[note 3] all the genera, and all but one of the families.[note 4] This endemic terrestrial fauna, consisting of lemurs, tenrecs, nesomyine rodents and euplerid carnivorans, is thought to have colonized the island from Africa via four (or five, if aye-ayes arrived separately) rafting events. The other historic terrestrial or semiterrestrial mammal group, the extinct hippopotamuses, is thought to have colonized the island possibly several times, perhaps via swimming.
Earlier in the Holocene, Madagascar had a number of megafaunal mammals: giant lemurs such as Archaeoindris which at over 200 kg was comparable in mass to the largest gorillas, as well as the hippopotamuses. The island also hosted flightless elephant birds weighing up to 700 kg, the largest known birds of all time.[note 5] All of these went extinct following the first appearance of humans about 2000 years ago.[8][9][note 6] Today, the largest surviving native mammals of the island, such as the indri[11] and fossa,[12] have weights only approaching 10 kg. Most if not all of the 29 listed extinct species are believed to have died out in prehistoric times; none of these are known to have survived into the post-European contact period.
The following tags are used to highlight each species' conservation status as assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature; those on the left are used here, those in the second column in some other articles:
EX | Extinct | No reasonable doubt that the last individual has died. |
EW | Extinct in the wild | Known only to survive in captivity or as a naturalized population well outside its historic range. |
CR | Critically endangered | The species is in imminent danger of extinction in the wild. |
EN | Endangered | The species is facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild. |
VU | Vulnerable | The species is facing a high risk of extinction in the wild. |
NT | Near threatened | The species does not qualify as being at high risk of extinction but is likely to do so in the future. |
LC | Least concern | The species is not currently at risk of extinction in the wild. |
DD | Data deficient | There is inadequate information to assess the risk of extinction for this species. |
NE | Not evaluated | The conservation status of the species has not been studied. |