The Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve is a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

northeast of

Betioky Betioky is a town in Atsimo-Andrefana Region, Madagascar and is crossed by the Route nationale 10. The population is 25,612 inhabitants in 2018. An airport serves the town. Betioky belongs to the poorest regions of Madagascar, where no facilitie ...

Sud. The reserve also provides training and research opportunities. It consists of a fenced

gallery forest A gallery forest is one formed as a corridor along rivers or wetlands, projecting into landscapes that are otherwise only sparsely treed such as savannas, grasslands, or deserts. The gallery forest maintains a more temperate microclimate above th ...

, approximately , separated by from a gallery of arid spiny forest. The reserve has a

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

that is open to tourists. Tree species featured in the two galleries include

tamarind Tamarind (''Tamarindus indica'') is a Legume, leguminous tree bearing edible fruit that is indigenous to tropical Africa and naturalized in Asia. The genus ''Tamarindus'' is monotypic taxon, monotypic, meaning that it contains only this spe ...

trees and Madagascar ocotillo, among many others. Animals residing in the galleries include four species of

lemur Lemurs ( ; from Latin ) 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 existing species. They are Endemism, ...

s, four species of

tenrec A tenrec () is a mammal belonging to any species within the afrotherian family Tenrecidae, which is endemic to Madagascar. Tenrecs are a very diverse group, as a result of adaptive radiation, and exhibit convergent evolution, some resemble hed ...

s, 17 species of

saurian Sauria is the clade of diapsids containing the most recent common ancestor of Archosauria (which includes crocodilians and birds) and Lepidosauria (which includes squamates and the tuatara), and all its descendants. Since most molecular phyl ...

s, 12 species of

snake Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...

s, two species of

tortoise Tortoises ( ) are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin for "tortoise"). Like other turtles, tortoises have a shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, and like o ...

s and, in season, the

Nile crocodile The Nile crocodile (''Crocodylus niloticus'') is a large crocodilian native to freshwater habitats in Africa, where it is present in 26 countries. It is widely distributed in sub-Saharan Africa, occurring mostly in the eastern, southern, and ce ...

. There are over 100 species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

Geography

The reserve is situated at 35 km North East of Betioky-Atsimo on the right side of the

Onilahy River Onilahy is a river in Atsimo-Andrefana and Anosy ( Toliara Province), southern Madagascar. It flows down from the hills near Betroka to the Mozambique Channel. It empties at St. Augustin (), and into the Bay of Saint-Augustin. Two species of cic ...

. Réserve spéciale de Beza Mahafaly
/ref>

History

The Reserve was founded in 1975, when community leaders formed a partnership with the

University of Madagascar This is a list of universities in Madagascar. Universities * Arsenal Higher Polytechnic Institute *Catholic University of Madagascar * Higher Institute of Communication, Business, and Management of Madagascar * Higher Institute of Technolog ...

(now

University of Antananarivo University of Antananarivo () is the primary public university of Madagascar, located in the capital Antananarivo. History The university traces its founding to 16 December 1955 and the formation of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Antan ...

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...

, and

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

aiming to protect the forest. It has been a centre for research and education since 1978, and the Bezà Mahafaly Monitoring Team of local researchers began work in 1995.

Research

International researchers, supported by the Monitoring Team, maintain long-term studies of the reserve's wildlife. For example, Verreaux's sifaka and the ring-tailed lemur have been the subjects of collaborative research by Malagasy and US researchers for over 25 years. During this period, hundreds of specimens have been observed in the field, with individual tagging, anatomical measurement, and genetic and hormone sampling helping researchers to understand their behavior,

physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...

, mating strategies, and

demography Demography () is the statistical study of human populations: their size, composition (e.g., ethnic group, age), and how they change through the interplay of fertility (births), mortality (deaths), and migration. Demographic analysis examine ...

. In addition to collecting systematic data on climatic conditions, the Monitoring Team seeks to gather information about the human community living near the reserve: who they are, how they live, and what are their attitudes toward the reserve.

Education and training

Beza Mahafaly hosts an annual field school run by ESSA-Forêts, where 15-20 fifth-year students gain practical experience of conservation techniques in a 10-day course. The students undertake a combination of seminars, fieldwork, and independent projects. Field-based courses are offered to student groups from international institutions. Other group workshops, outreach events, and training courses targeted at local school children, adults living in nearby, university students, teachers, and government officials take place each year.

References

External links