Baie de Baly National Park is a

National Park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

Geography

Baie de Baly National Park or Baly Bay National Park is situated in the region of

Boeny Boeny is a region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interacti ...

, District of Soalala, close to

Soalala Soalala is a rural municipality in western Madagascar. It belongs to the district of Soalala, which is a part of Boeny Region. The population of the commune was estimated to be approximately 15,000 in 2001 commune census. Soalala is served by a ...

and

Ambohipaky Ambohipaky is a town and commune ( mg, kaominina) in Madagascar. It belongs to the district of Soalala, which is a part of Boeny Region. The population of the commune was estimated to be approximately 7,000 in 2001 commune census. Only primary sc ...

, approximately to the next major city Mahajanga. The Tsingy de Namoroka National Park borders this park. Vegetation consist of

dry deciduous forest The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest is a habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature and is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Though these forests occur in climates that are warm year-round, and may receive ...

s, scrub-shrub or bamboo shrub,

mangroves A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in several ...

, lakes and swamps mixed with

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

. Its southern border is formed by the Kapiloza River and the Andranomavo River crosses the park. It is bordered in the north by the Mozambique Channel and in the east by the Bay of Marambitsy.

Flora and fauna

The Baie de Baly National Park is the only known natural habitat of the critically endangered

Angonoka tortoise The angonoka tortoise (''Astrochelys yniphora'') is a critically endangered species of tortoise severely threatened by poaching for the illegal pet trade. It is endemic to Madagascar. It is also known as the angonoka, ploughshare tortoise, Madag ...

or ploughshare tortoise (''Astrochelys yniphora''). Other rare animals found in this park is the Madagascan sideneck turtle ('' Erymnochelys madagascariensis''), as well as the

dugong The dugong (; ''Dugong dugon'') is a marine mammal. It is one of four living species of the order Sirenia, which also includes three species of manatees. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest m ...

, a marine mammal and the

Madagascar fish eagle The Madagascar fish eagle (''Haliaeetus vociferoides'') or Madagascar sea-eagle (to distinguish it from the ''Ichthyophaga'' fishing-eagles), is a large bird of prey in the family Accipitridae which also includes many other diurnal raptors such a ...

. There are also thirteen species of

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

s, (six

primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...

s), 37

reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...

species, eight

amphibian Amphibians are tetrapod, four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the Class (biology), class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terres ...

species and 122 species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

s. There is also the ''

Perrierbambus ''Perrierbambus'' is a genus of Madagascan bamboo in the grass family. The genus name of ''Perrierbambus'' is in honour of Joseph Marie Henry Alfred Perrier de la Bâthie (1873–1958), a French botanist who specialized in the plants of Madaga ...

madagascariensis'', an endemic bamboo. The poisonous tree, ''

Erythrophleum couminga ''Erythrophleum couminga'' is a species of leguminous tree in the genus ''Erythrophleum''. It is endemic to the western coastal region of Madagascar, occurring in the Baie de Baly National Park. The bark is used in traditional medicine and the br ...

'' (locally named komanga) is also endemic to this region and can be found in and outside the park. It is a very hard wood but cannot be used for cooking as its fumes contain a poison. Madagascarfisheagle

References

{{authority control 1997 establishments in Madagascar Bays of Madagascar Boeny National parks of Madagascar Protected areas established in 1997 IUCN Category VI Madagascar dry deciduous forests Important Bird Areas of Madagascar

Geography

Flora and fauna

See also

References