Which ocean is Madagascar in?
Quick answer
Madagascar lies in the Indian Ocean, about 400 km off the southeast coast of Africa, across the Mozambique Channel. It’s the world’s fourth-largest island. Isolated for tens of millions of years, it’s home to animals and plants found nowhere else, including about 100 species of lemurs.
Key facts
- Ocean
- Indian Ocean
- Area
- About 587,000 km², the 4th-largest island
- Capital
- Antananarivo
- Languages
- Malagasy and French
How Madagascar became isolated
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| About 165 million years ago | Madagascar, with India, separates from Africa |
| About 88 million years ago | India breaks away and drifts north |
| Since then | Madagascar’s wildlife evolves in isolation |
This long isolation explains why roughly 90% of its wildlife lives nowhere else. See what Pangaea was for the breakup of the supercontinents.
Unique wildlife
| Animal or plant | Notes |
|---|---|
| Lemurs | Found only in Madagascar; the smallest, the mouse lemur, weighs about 30 g |
| Fossa | A cat-like predator related to mongooses |
| Chameleons | About half of the world’s species, including some of the smallest |
| Baobab trees | Six of the world’s eight species grow only here; the Avenue of the Baobabs is famous |
| Aye-aye | A lemur that taps on wood and fishes out grubs with a long middle finger |
People of Madagascar
Madagascar was settled relatively late, around 1,500 years ago, by people from Borneo and other parts of Southeast Asia, who later mixed with East African arrivals. The Malagasy language is related to languages spoken in Borneo; see which island three countries share.
Facing challenges
Deforestation, farming and climate change threaten Madagascar’s forests and wildlife. Many lemur species are endangered.
The Indian Ocean’s islands
| Island | Country |
|---|---|
| Madagascar | Madagascar |
| Sri Lanka | Sri Lanka |
| Mauritius | Mauritius |
| Maldives | Maldives |
| Seychelles | Seychelles |
The Indian Ocean is the world’s third-largest; see the largest ocean. For the world’s largest island, see what the largest island in the world is.
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