FOSA

Characteristics

At first glance, a fosa looks like it might be some kind of cat or weasel. Its clawed paws are like a cat’s, its face and snout resemble a ferret, and it even has a long tail like a monkey. No wonder people are confused! The fosa is most closely related to the mongoose and civet. Its coat is short and dense, usually brown with a golden tinge and a lighter-colored belly. The fosa’s tail makes up about half of the animal’s total length.

These carnivores are native only to Madagascar, where the local people pronounce the name “foo-sa.” Surprisingly, not much is known about fosas, mostly because there aren’t many of them, and they live in remote, forested areas. With their mix of features and their agile, stealthy way of disappearing in the trees, fosas have puzzled scientists since the 1830s. There are many local myths about them, including that they can contract their eye pupils so they will disappear completely, and that they creep into homes and steal babies from their cribs. These tall tales have given the fosa a rather unfavorable reputation, but as the island’s top carnivore, it plays a vital role in the Madagascar forest ecosystem.

Foods and Feeding

The fosa is an excellent hunter. It preys on small- to medium-sized animals from fish to birds, mice, and wild pigs. But lemurs are its main food source, and the fosa is Madagascar’s only predator able to kill the largest lemur species. To catch a lemur, a predator must be faster—and the fosa can outmaneuver the swiftest lemur. It can jump, run, and dash among the tree branches, revealing little more than a tawny blur. The fosa is an ambush hunter: it uses its forelimbs and claws to catch its prey, killing it quickly with a bite from its sharp teeth.

Behavior

The fosa is an intelligent and agile animal that moves with ease high up in the trees, even though it can weigh up to 22 pounds (10 kilograms). The long tail helps the fosa balance and jump from branch to branch. Retractable claws and flexible ankle joints even help it climb down a tree headfirst, something that only a limited number of arboreal mammals can do.

Even though it spends a lot of time in trees, the fosa is just as comfortable running flatfooted like a bear along the ground, and it can travel up to 16 miles (26 kilometers) in a day. Fosas are largely solitary in their habits, although they communicate with others “long distance” by leaving scent messages via glands on the chest and under the base of the tail. They keep track of each other by marking rocks, trees, or even just the ground.

There is still much to learn about the rare fosa. For instance, fosas were thought to be nocturnal, but recent studies show they nap and hunt day or night, depending on their mood, environmental conditions, and availability of prey.

Reproduction and Life Cycle

During breeding season, from September to December, a female fosa will occupy a mating site, typically in a tree, and males will gather around her. She may mate with several of the males, which howl and fight to gain her attention. She then moves on to set up a den for her cubs. Fosas are able to reproduce at about four years old.

When it is almost time to give birth, December through March, the mother makes a den in an old termite mound, underground den, rock crevice, or hollow of a tree. There can be two to six white-haired pups in a litter, and they are born toothless and with their eyes closed.

Fosa pups are very dependent on their mother for the first few weeks. Their eyes begin to open and their fur begins to darken when about two to three weeks old. The pups develop slowly and don’t leave the den for four to five months, and they are dependent on their mother for another eight months. Fosa pups mew to get their mother’s attention, and they make a purring sound when nursing. Fosa youngsters continue to grow until about two years of age, when they head out to find a space of their own.

Conservation and Threats

The fosa is classified as a Vulnerable species, with only about 2,500 in the wild. As the island’s top predator, fosas do not have natural enemies, but they do have to compete for food with introduced species like civets. And there are diseases that threaten fosas, such as rabies, which was introduced to the island by domestic dogs and cats. Like most of Madagascar’s wildlife, however, the biggest threat is the loss of the forests in which fosas live: their prey lives in the trees, and without trees, neither predator nor prey can survive.

Fosas also face another hurdle: they are sometimes seen as vermin, competitors for resources, and predators of farm animals. Some people fear fosas and consider them dangerous.

The fosa is protected from export and trade, however, and when people travel to Madagascar and discover how amazing the fosa is, they can spread the word and inspire protection of the fosa and its forests.