Ranomafana National Park

A World Natural Heritage Site

Explore the wonderful rainforest of Ranomafana; a conservation success story in many ways. Today Ranomafana plays a crucial role in education and scientific research with the help of Centre ValBio Research Centre. Ranomafana National Park’s success is because of one woman’s vision and dedication to preserve the nature and wildlife. Dr. Patricia Wright is considered to be one of the world’s foremost experts on lemurs, Wright is best known for her 26-year study of social and family interactions of wild lemurs in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar.

Ranomafana is a rainforest and spreads over 41,601 hectares in the high altitudes. There are many different forest types, from lowland rainforests to cloud forests and high plateau forests. It was classified a World Natural Heritage site of Atsinanana in 2007. It shelters a big wealth of endemic biodiversity with challenges. You can see the rare species and seriously threatened lemurs. The park is also the genetic reservoir of some rare and endemic plant species. There are many rivers and streams passing through the forest. Several animal species have been recorded, 12 species of lemurs, including golden bamboo lemur, greater bamboo lemur, Milne-Edward’s shifaka, red bellied lemur plus 115 species of birds. About thirty amongst them exist exclusively in the primary forest of the park. There are also 90 species of butterflies, 98 species of amphibian and 62 species of reptiles; chameleons, lizards and fish.

Your specialist park guide will explain to you the circuits available to you based on your fitness, expectation and the circuits. The shortest trek, Circuit Varibolomena, takes about 2-3 hours. This soft circuit is about 3 kilometres long but there are also medium to hard circuits to choose from.

During the evening there are lectures about conservation in the ValBio Centre. You can also visit the centre during the opening hours.

When it gets dark, take a night walk with a guide to observe the nocturnal lemurs (active only during night time).