Montagne d'Ambre 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 ...
in the
Diana Region
Diana is a region in Madagascar at the northeast part of the island. It borders the regions of Sava to the southeast and Sofia to the southwest. It covers an area of 19,266 km2, and had a population of 889,736 in 2018. The regional capital i ...
of northern
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 park is known for its
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 ...
flora and fauna, water falls and crater lakes. It is north of the capital,
Antananarivo
Antananarivo ( French: ''Tananarive'', ), also known by its colonial shorthand form Tana, is the capital and largest city of Madagascar. The administrative area of the city, known as Antananarivo-Renivohitra ("Antananarivo-Mother Hill" or "An ...
and is one of the most biologically diverse places in all of Madagascar with seventy-five 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, twenty-five 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, and fifty-nine species of
reptiles
Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the Class (biology), class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsid, sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, Squamata, squamates (lizar ...
known to inhabit the park.
Geography
The park covers an area of on an isolated volcanic massif, of mostly
basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
ic rock, above the surrounding dry region.
Attractions include spectacular waterfalls and several crater lakes. There are numerous rivers and streams and the park is a water catchment area for the town of
Antsiranana
Antsiranana ( mg, Antsiran̈ana ), named Diego-Suárez prior to 1975, is a city in the far north of Madagascar. Antsiranana is the capital of Diana Region. It had an estimated population of 115,015 in 2013.
History
The bay and city originally u ...
, which is surrounded by dry, sparse forests and semi-desert with succulent plants. Annual rainfall in the park is compared with around the town.
The area is named after the deposits of
copal
Copal is tree resin, particularly the aromatic resins from the copal tree ''Protium copal'' (Burseraceae) used by the cultures of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica as ceremonially burned incense and for other purposes. More generally, copal includes re ...
, a soft form of amber.
Amber is one of the most accessible parks in northern Madagascar. Bush taxis travel to
Joffreville daily from Antsiranana, taking about 45 minutes. On the trip up the mountain to the entrance of the park there are a few small villages and there is a lodge for guests at Joffreville.
Living in and around the park are the
Sakavala and
Antankarana
The Antankarana (or ''Antakarana'') are an ethnic group of Madagascar inhabiting the northern tip of Madagascar, around Antsiranana. Their name means "the people of the ''tsingy''," the limestone rock formations that distinguish their traditiona ...
peoples.
Flora and fauna
Most of the park is covered
montane rainforest
Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...
with trees up to tall and covered in
lianas
A liana is a long- stemmed, woody vine that is rooted in the soil at ground level and uses trees, as well as other means of vertical support, to climb up to the canopy in search of direct sunlight. The word ''liana'' does not refer to a ta ...
, orchids and ferns such as bird's-nest fern (''
Asplenium nidus
:''See bird's-nest fern for other plants with this common name.''
''Asplenium nidus'' is an epiphytic species of fern in the family Aspleniaceae, native to tropical southeastern Asia, eastern Australia, Hawaii (''ʻēkaha'' in Hawaiian), Poly ...
''). The forest is isolated from other rainforests by the surrounding
dry forests
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 ...
. There are plantations of
Eucalyptus
''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as euca ...
and exotic conifers, pines, ''
Araucaria
''Araucaria'' (; original pronunciation: .ɾawˈka. ɾja is a genus of evergreen Conifer, coniferous trees in the family Araucariaceae. There are 20 extant taxon, extant species in New Caledonia (where 14 species are endemism, ende ...
'' and an
invasive alien bush, ''
Lantana camara
''Lantana camara'' (common lantana) is a species of flowering plant within the verbena family (Verbenaceae), native to the American tropics. It is a very adaptable species, which can inhabit a wide variety of ecosystems; once it has been introduc ...
''.
Over one thousand species of plants are recorded.
Of the twenty-five species of mammals in the park, endemics include eight species of
lemur
Lemurs ( ) (from Latin ''lemures'' – ghosts or spirits) are Strepsirrhini, wet-nosed primates of the Superfamily (biology), superfamily Lemuroidea (), divided into 8 Family (biology), families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 exist ...
, the
ring-tailed mongoose
The ring-tailed vontsira, locally still known as the ring-tailed mongoose (''Galidia elegans'') is a euplerid in the subfamily Galidiinae, a carnivoran native to Madagascar. It is the only species in genus ''Galidia''.
Classification and ety ...
(''Galidia elegans'') and the
Malagasy civet
The Malagasy or striped civet (''Fossa fossana''), also known as the fanaloka (Malagasy, ) or jabady, is an euplerid endemic to Madagascar. It is the only species in genus ''Fossa''.
The Malagasy civet is a small mammal, about long excluding ...
(''Fossa fossana''). Thirty-five of the seventy-five species of birds are endemic including the
Amber Mountain rock thrush (''Monticola sharpei erythronotus'') which is only known from one area on the Amber Mountain massif.
The park is also known for its amphibians and reptiles such as the Amber Mountain leaf chameleon (''
Brookesia tuberculata''), which is one of the smallest reptiles in the world. There are thirty-five species of frog.
See also
*
List of national parks of Madagascar
This list of national parks of Madagascar includes all officially recognized protected areas as of 2015. The protected areas network of Madagascar is managed by the Madagascar National Parks Association (PNM-ANGAP). The network includes three typ ...
References
Sources
Official website (in French)
{{authority control
Diana Region
1958 establishments in Madagascar
Amber Mountain
Protected areas established in 1958
Madagascar subhumid forests
Important Bird Areas of Madagascar