Geography: Island Fever! National Parks

Most of Madagascar's landforms are islands. They include the Europa island, names after the country that colonized it, the Glorioso island the Île aux Nattes named for its french heritage, Tsarabanjina, Île Sainte-Marie and the Nosy Be. Nosy Be is the largest island off the coast of Madagascar. It is the most visited tourist location. In the language of the ancient Malagasy tribe "Nosy Be" means "Big Island." On the island there is the Lokobe Reserve where the rare black lemurs live. There are many permanent settlements on this island. The last island is callled Nosy Mangabe. It does not have settlements on it because the entire island is the Masoala National Park. It is only two km from the shore of Madagascar. It was made a national park because of the endangered species of the aye-aye. the aye-aye is a small monkey that eats like a woodpecker and has nests in the trunks of banana trees.