Marojejy National Park, National park in northeastern Madagascar
Marojejy is a protected area in northeastern Madagascar featuring rainforest and mountainous terrain that ranges from low valleys to high peaks. The landscape contains dense forest growth in the lower regions with more open vegetation as elevation increases.
Botanist Jean-Henri Humbert explored the massif in 1948 and collected 4,039 herbarium specimens over five months between 1948 and 1950, publishing "A Marvel of Nature" in 1955. Largely through his advocacy, Marojejy became one of Madagascar's strict nature reserves in 1952, closed to all but authorized scientists. It was converted into a national park in 1998 and inscribed in 2007 as part of the Rainforests of the Atsinanana World Heritage Site, added to the in-danger list in 2010.
The name Marojejy comes from the local Malagasy oral tradition: maro means "many", while jejy may refer to rocks, palms, spirits or drizzle, since only oral memory preserves the origin. Some residents say their ancestors believed the massif was inhabited by many spirits.
Visitors enter through the village of Manantenina, where guided trips to established camps at various elevations can be arranged. Travel during drier months makes trails easier to walk and offers better conditions for exploration.
The silky sifaka is not confined to Marojejy: it also lives in the neighbouring Anjanaharibe-Sud Reserve and Antanetiambo Private Reserve, which conservation groups manage with Marojejy to protect the species. The park's emblematic bird is instead the helmet vanga, a species of the northeast forests.
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