Madagascar is the largest island in the Indian Ocean and is famous for its endemic lemurs.
Madagascar lies off Africa’s southeastern coast, separated from Mozambique by the Mozambique Channel. It covers about 587,000 square kilometres, making it the world’s fourth-largest island. Its long isolation helped produce an unusually distinctive ecosystem.
Lemurs evolved naturally only in Madagascar, although the island also has chameleons, fossas, baobab trees, and many endemic birds and plants. Madagascar is sometimes confused with Mauritius or the Seychelles, but those island countries are much smaller and lie farther east. The capital, Antananarivo, is in the central highlands.