Research: Madagascar

Tropical dry forests are disappearing at an alarming rate.

Madagascar’s tropical dry forests (TDF) span a gradient from riverine gallery forests to deciduous dry forest and xeric spiny thicket and occur in western and southern regions of the island. These ecosystems provide essential services to local communities yet are among the island’s most threatened, facing escalating pressures from agricultural expansion, grazing, fuelwood extraction, selective logging, and hunting.

Research Activities

MENABE REGION

Analyzing changes in forest cover using satellite remote sensing
Evaluating how shifts in forest phenology drive population dynamics in Verreaux’s sifaka
Linking baobab phenology to small mammal consumption of fruits and flowers with an integrated two-level camera setup

GRAND SUD REGION

Assessing the efficacy of thermal UAV imagery for monitoring lemurs in tropical dry forests
Evaluating carnivore presence, occupancy, and community diversity
Analyzing soundscapes across forests of varying grazing intensity

KIRINDY MITEA NATIONAL PARK, MENABE REGION

Forest Loss at KMNP, 1993-2023

The yearly rate of forest loss within Kirindy Mitea National Park (KMNP) in western Madagascar (2.1%) was less than half the rate of loss in a buffer just outside the Park (5.5%). KMNP lost nearly a third of its tropical dry forest between 1993 and 2023, but losses outside the park were double that at 63%. If those rates continue, all forest cover in the buffer may be lost by 2042. KMNP could see complete forest loss by 2071 if the pace of forest loss doesn't decline (Romanello et al. 2025).

Carnivores in Community Forests

In 2023, our team documented the presence of juvenile in a small community forest near the Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve. Prior to this, the last documented sighting of the fosa (Cryptoprocta ferox) in southwestern Madagascar was in 2008.

We are now conducting camera trap surveys with several community forests in the Onilahy River region to better understand the ecology of native and exotic carnivores in the region.

Forest Cats

The forest cat (descendants of domestic cats introduced to the island) is widespread and abundant across the forests of the greater Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve region, and we aim to characterize spatial patterns in its occupancy and the environmental factors that may influence them.

UAV Research

Structure-from-Motion

3D models derived from consumer-level UAV imagery show great promise for improving forest classification maps of Madagascar’s tropical dry forests (TDF).