Ranomafana

Declared in 1991, its creation as a national park is directly linked to a scientific find: in 1986 the American primatologist Patricia Wright discovered in this area a lemur species believed extinct for decades, the golden bamboo lemur, whose discovery generated such international scientific interest that it directly drove official protection of the forest it lived in barely five years later. Its name means where there is hot water in Malagasy, after the natural hot springs beside the village at its entrance, and its montane tropical rainforest climate — far wetter than other Malagasy parks — makes it one of the richest sanctuaries for amphibian and reptile diversity on the whole island.