Like a giant Noah's ark breasting the ocean, Madagascar is packed with every imaginable creature. Madagascar's dwindling forests are home to an enormous variety of unique animal life, including half the world's chameleon varieties, 300 species of butterfly, 28 kinds of bat, 150 types of frog and 260 different reptiles, and 32 species of primates which are all endemic to Madagascar. Of the 201 resident bird species, half are found only on Madagascar. Apart from the scorpions, Madagascar has no beast which are dangerous to humans.

The fauna of Malagasy mammals is very remarkable by present species but also by absent groups. So, among carnivore only species of Viverridae are found. Rodents, very diversified somewhere else are represented by only one family, those of Nesomyinae. This surprising imbalance of Malagasy fauna come certainly from the earlier isolation of the island.