Fossa facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Fossa |
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| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Genus: |
Cryptoprocta
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| Species: |
ferox
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| Distribution of Cryptoprocta ferox | |
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The fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox) is a unique animal found only on the island of Madagascar. It looks a lot like a cat but is actually a type of carnivore related to mongooses. It is the largest meat-eating mammal on Madagascar.
For a long time, scientists debated where the fossa fit in the animal family tree. It looks so much like a cat! But other features suggested it was more like a civet. Now, genetic studies show that the fossa and all other meat-eating animals in Madagascar are closely related. They all belong to a family called Eupleridae. Scientists now believe that these carnivores arrived on the island only once, about 18 to 20 million years ago.
Adult fossas are about 70 to 80 centimeters (28 to 31 inches) long, not including their tail. They weigh between 5.5 and 8.6 kilograms (12 to 19 pounds). Males are usually bigger than females. Fossas have claws that can partly retract, like a cat's. Their ankles are very flexible, which helps them climb trees head-first, both up and down. They can even jump from one tree to another!
Fossas live all over Madagascar where there are forests, but there aren't many of them in any one place. They hunt both during the day and at night. More than half of their diet is made up of lemurs, which are also unique to Madagascar. They also eat tenrecs, rodents, lizards, birds, and other small animals. Fossas usually mate in trees. Females give birth to one to six pups, which are born blind and without teeth. The young fossas start eating solid food after about 4.5 months and become independent after one year. They are ready to have their own babies when they are three to four years old. In zoos, fossas can live for 20 years!
The fossa is listed as "Vulnerable" by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. This means their population is decreasing and they need protection. People in Madagascar often fear the fossa, but they also protect it with traditional rules called taboos. The biggest danger to fossas is the destruction of their forest homes.
Contents
What Does a Fossa Look Like?
The fossa looks like a smaller version of a big cat, like a cougar. It has a slender body and strong, muscular legs. Its tail is almost as long as its body! The head looks a bit like a mongoose's, longer than a cat's, with a wide, short snout and large, rounded ears. Its eyes are medium brown and set wide apart. Like many animals that hunt at night, the fossa's eyes reflect light, which looks orange.
Fossas have excellent senses of smell, hearing, and sight. They are strong animals and rarely get sick when living in zoos.
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Both male and female fossas have short, straight fur that is thick and has no spots or patterns. Their fur is usually reddish-brown on their back and sides, and a dirty cream color on their belly. When they are ready to mate, some fossas might have an orange color on their belly. This comes from a reddish substance made by a gland on their chest. The tail is usually lighter in color than the rest of the body. Young fossas are gray or almost white.
The fossa's very flexible ankles help it grip tree trunks. This allows them to climb up or down trees head-first. They can also leap from one tree to another. Young fossas in zoos have even been seen hanging upside down by their back feet from ropes!
How Do Fossas Behave?
Fossas are active both during the day and at night. They might be most active early in the morning, late in the afternoon, and late at night. They usually don't sleep in the same spot every night, but mothers with babies will return to their den.
Fossas with tracking collars usually travel between 2 and 5 kilometers (1.2 to 3.1 miles) each day. In one case, a fossa traveled 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) in just 16 hours! There aren't many fossas living in one area. In Kirindy Forest, where they are thought to be common, scientists estimated there was only one fossa per 4 square kilometers (1.5 square miles).
Most fossas live alone, except for mothers with their young. Sometimes, two males might be seen together, but usually, they are solitary animals.
Fossas talk to each other using sounds, smells, and body language. They can purr, make a threatening call, and a scared call that sounds like loud, rough breaths. A long, high yelp might be used to attract other fossas. Females make a soft sound when mating, and males sigh when they find a female. They also use their faces and bodies to communicate, but we don't fully understand what all these signals mean. Fossas are usually only aggressive when mating, and males fight bravely. In zoos, fossas are often calm and might even let zookeepers pet them. However, adult males can sometimes try to bite.
What Do Fossas Eat?
The fossa is a meat-eater that hunts small to medium-sized animals. It is one of eight meat-eating species found only in Madagascar. The fossa is the island's largest surviving land predator. It is the only animal that can hunt and eat adult lemurs of all kinds, even the biggest ones. Some large lemurs can weigh almost as much as an average fossa!
While the fossa is the main predator of lemurs, its diet can change depending on where it lives and the time of year. For example, in Ranomafana National Park, fossas mostly eat lemurs. But in other rainforests, they eat a wider variety of prey.
Scientists study what fossas eat by looking at their droppings, called scats. These scats look like gray cylinders with twisted ends, about 10 to 14 centimeters (4 to 5.5 inches) long and 1.5 to 2.5 centimeters (0.6 to 1 inch) thick. Studies of scats show that fossas eat lemurs and rodents. In some areas, they eat a very wide range of prey, including reptiles, many types of birds, and mammals like insectivores, rodents, and lemurs. They also eat insects and crabs.
One study found that 94% of a fossa's diet was made up of animals with backbones (vertebrates). More than 50% of this was lemurs, followed by tenrecs (9%), lizards (9%), and birds (2%). They also found seeds (5% of the diet), which might have been in the stomachs of the lemurs they ate, or the fossas might have eaten fruit for water. The average size of prey changes depending on the area. In high mountains, it's only about 40 grams (1.4 ounces), but in humid forests, it's 480 grams (17 ounces), and in dry forests, it's over 1000 grams (2.2 pounds). Fossas generally prefer to hunt larger lemurs and rodents.
Fossas hunt both on the ground and in trees. When they are not breeding, they hunt alone. But during the breeding season, you might see them hunting in groups, sometimes pairs or mothers with their young. One fossa might climb a tree and chase lemurs from tree to tree, forcing them down to the ground where another fossa can easily catch them. Fossas are known to remove the insides of larger lemurs they catch. This, along with their unique scats, helps identify their kills. Fossas have also been reported to hunt farm animals like goats, small calves, and especially chickens. In zoos, they eat amphibians, birds, insects, reptiles, and small to medium-sized mammals.
Because the fossa is the largest native predator in Madagascar, its ability to eat many different kinds of prey and be active at different times helps it survive in many different places across the island. This makes the fossa a very important animal for the health of Madagascar's ecosystems.
Fossa Life Cycle and Reproduction
Fossas usually mate in September and October in Madagascar. In zoos in the Northern Hemisphere, they mate in the spring, from March to July.
Up to eight males might gather around a female who is ready to mate. The female seems to choose which male she mates with. The males compete for her attention with lots of sounds and fighting. A female might choose to mate with several males. Her choice doesn't seem to be based on how the males look.
A litter of one to six pups (usually two to four) is born in a hidden spot. This could be an underground den, a termite mound, a crack in a rock, or a hollow in a large tree. Pups are born in December or January, after about 90 days of pregnancy. Newborns are blind and have no teeth. They weigh less than 100 grams (3.5 ounces). Their fur is thin and described as gray-brown or almost white.
After about two weeks, the cubs' eyes open. They become more active, and their fur turns a darker pearl gray. The cubs don't start eating solid food until they are three months old. They don't leave the den until they are 4.5 months old, and they stop drinking their mother's milk shortly after that. After their first year, young fossas are independent of their mother. Their permanent teeth grow in when they are 18 to 20 months old. They reach their full size by about two years of age, but they can't have their own babies until they are three or four years old. Young fossas might stay with their mother until they are fully grown. Fossas can live for 20 years or more in zoos, possibly because they grow up slowly.
Fossas and People
The IUCN Red List has listed the fossa as "Vulnerable" since 2008. This means their population has likely dropped by at least 30% between 1987 and 2008. Before that, they were listed as "Endangered" in 2000. Fossas need forests to live, so they are threatened by the widespread destruction of Madagascar's native forests. However, they can sometimes survive in areas where the forest has been disturbed. Scientists use special DNA markers to study the health and numbers of fossa populations, both in zoos and in the wild. Some diseases, like anthrax and canine distemper, have been found in fossas. These diseases might have spread from stray dogs or cats.
Even though fossas are found across a wide area, they are rare in all regions. This makes them very vulnerable to extinction. When their forest homes are broken up into smaller pieces, the risk increases. For their size, fossas have fewer individuals per area than expected. This is made worse by Madagascar's rapidly disappearing forests and the decreasing numbers of lemurs, which are a big part of their diet. If fossas disappear, it could greatly affect the ecosystem. For example, some of their prey animals might become too numerous. Scientists estimate that the total number of adult fossas living in protected areas is less than 2,500, but this might be too high. Only two protected areas, Masoala National Park and Midongy-Sud National Park, are thought to have 500 or more adult fossas, but even these numbers might be overestimated. More research is needed to know for sure if any protected areas have enough fossas to survive long-term. If not, the fossa could slowly disappear over the next 100 years. To help them survive, it's estimated that at least 555 square kilometers (214 square miles) of land are needed for smaller, short-term populations, and at least 2000 square kilometers (772 square miles) for populations of 500 adults.
Traditional rules in Madagascar, called fady, help protect the fossa and other meat-eating animals. In some areas, the fossa has traditionally been feared as a dangerous animal. People describe it as "greedy and aggressive," known for taking chickens and piglets. Some even believe it will "take little children who walk alone into the forest." Because of this, some people don't eat fossa meat, fearing they will get its bad qualities. However, fossas are also hunted for food. A study in 2009 found that 57% of villages in the Makira forest ate fossa meat. They usually hunted fossas using slingshots, with dogs, or most often, by setting snare traps on animal paths. Near Ranomafana National Park, fossas are known to scavenge on the bodies of ancestors, which are buried in shallow graves in the forest. Because of this, eating these animals is strictly forbidden by fady. But if fossas wander into villages looking for chickens, they might be killed or trapped.
Fossas are sometimes kept in zoos. The first fossas bred in captivity were in 1974 at a zoo in Montpellier, France. The next year, when there were only eight fossas in zoos worldwide, the Duisburg Zoo in Germany got one. This zoo later started a very successful breeding program, and most fossas in zoos today are descendants of the Duisburg population. Research on the Duisburg fossas has given scientists a lot of information about their biology.
The fossa was shown as a villain in the 2005 DreamWorks animated movie Madagascar. In the movie, they were called "foosa" and were correctly shown as the lemurs' most feared predator.
See also
In Spanish: Fossa para niños
