Ranomafana National Park

The Ranomafana National Park is situated to the southeast of Fianarantsoa Province, Madagascar. Rano means water and mafana means hot in the Malgache language. The park covers an area of about 41,600 hectares and the climate here is dry. The park was established in the year 1991 and it features flora and fauna with rare species that includes the lemur.

The Ranomafana National Park features hot springs that were discovered hundreds of years ago. Later a spa was created here by the French and it has emerged as one of the largest towns. In 1986 Hapalemur aureus was discovered here and later Hapalemur simus was rediscovered.

The park is located on a high plateau which features a number of mountains that measures about 600 to 1400 meters. The park also features rainforest, high plateau forest and cloud forest which are one of the major attractions here.

The area features about 100 villages with a population of about 25,000 and the majority of the people are farmers. The park can be accessed by a boat from Fianarantsoa which takes about 10 hours journey and from the southeast of Madagascar it takes about 2 hours journey.