The Tsingy de Bemaraha 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 ...

located in Melaky Region, northwest

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 ...

. The national park centers on two geological formations: the ''Great Tsingy'' and the ''Little Tsingy''. Together with the adjacent

Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve is a nature reserve located near the western coast of Madagascar in Melaky Region at . The area was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990 due to the unique geography, preserved mangrove forests, a ...

, the National Park is a

UNESCO World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

. It is crossed by the

Manambolo River ''For the rural municipality, see Manambolo (disambiguation)'' The Manambolo River is a river in the highlands of western Madagascar of 370 km. It crosses the Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve and the Maningoza Reserve. The unpaved Rou ...

Background

The ''Tsingys'' are

karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...

ic plateaus in which groundwater has undercut the elevated uplands, and has gouged caverns and fissures into the

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

. In several regions on western Madagascar, centering on the park and adjacent Nature Reserve, the superposition of vertical and horizontal erosion patterns has created dramatic "forests" of limestone needles. The word ''tsingy'' is indigenous to the

Malagasy language Malagasy (; ) is an Austronesian language and the national language of Madagascar. Malagasy is the westernmost Malayo-Polynesian language, brought to Madagascar by the settlement of Austronesian peoples from the Sunda islands around the 5th ce ...

as a description of the karst

badlands Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded."Badlands" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 47. They are characterized by steep slopes, m ...

of Madagascar. The word can be translated into English as ''where one cannot walk barefoot''.

Biology

The unusual

geomorphology Geomorphology (from Ancient Greek: , ', "earth"; , ', "form"; and , ', "study") is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features created by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or n ...

of the Tsingy de Bemaraha World Heritage Site, which encompasses both the National Park and the adjacent Strict Nature Reserve, means that the Site is home to an exceptionally large number of

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

species of plants and animalsGriffiths, O.L. & Herbert, D.G. 2013. New species of land snails (Mollusca: Gastropoda) from two isolated karst formations in central western Madagascar: Tsingy Beanka and Antsingimavo, with additional notes on other regional endemics. ''

African Invertebrates ''African Invertebrates'' is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal that covers the taxonomy, systematics, biogeography, ecology, conservation, and palaeontology of Afrotropical invertebrates, whether terrestrial, freshwater, or marine. I ...

'' 54 (1): 1-4

/ref> that are found only within extremely small niches within the ''tsingys''. For example, the summit, slope, and base of a tsingy's limestone needle form different ecosystems with different species clinging to their exceptionally steep slopes.

References

External links

* {{authority control National parks of Madagascar Melaky Geography of Madagascar World Heritage Sites in Madagascar Madagascar dry deciduous forests Important Bird Areas of Madagascar First 100 IUGS Geological Heritage Sites

Background

Biology

See also

References

External links