40 Fun Facts About Fossa

Which primates make up more than half of the fossa's diet in the forests of Madagascar?

Lemurs supply over half of what a fossa eats, and it is the only predator able to kill adults of every living species of them.

Thanks to unusually flexible ankles, how does the fossa climb down a tree trunk?

Head-first descents work because the fossa's ankles twist far enough to grip the trunk on the way down, a trick that also helps it leap between trees.

Despite its cat-like looks, DNA shows the fossa's closest relatives outside Madagascar are which animals?

Mongooses are the nearest kin: every native carnivore on Madagascar descends from one mongoose-like ancestor that arrived about 20 million years ago.

In the 2005 film Madagascar, which zoo animal's fearsome appearance first scares off the attacking fossa?

Alex sends the fossa running without even trying, so the island's residents befriend the New York zoo animals, hoping his presence will keep the predators away.

The fossa is often described as resembling a small version of which wild cat of the Americas?

Cougar is the usual comparison, because the fossa evolved a slender, muscular, cat-like body on its own without being a cat at all.

Fossa mothers in Madagascar sometimes give birth inside old mounds built by which insects?

Termites leave behind mounds that make ready nurseries; mothers also use rock crevices, burrows and hollow trunks, coming back to the same den while pups are small.

Which feature of the fossa can grow longer than the animal's own head?

Whiskers on a fossa's face are long, the longest outreaching its head, and it carries an extra set on its wrists, as some of its relatives do.

Fossas that wander into villages in Madagascar are most often blamed for killing which farm animals?

Chickens are the main draw, though goats and small calves are taken too, and villagers who lose birds often kill the raider in return.

The second half of the fossa's scientific name, ferox, is a Latin adjective with which meaning?

Fierce is what ferox means, yet keepers find captive fossas are usually not aggressive, and some even let themselves be stroked.

The fossa's genus name, Cryptoprocta, comes from Greek words meaning that which body part is hidden?

Anus is the hidden part: Cryptoprocta joins the Greek for hidden and for anus, because a pouch of skin covers the animal's rear.

Which studio cast fossas as the villains of its 2005 animated film Madagascar?

DreamWorks made the fossa the hunter its island animals fear most, which is accurate: in the wild the fossa is their chief predator.

On the IUCN Red List, which conservation category has the fossa of Madagascar held since 2008?

Vulnerable is the rating, a step better than the Endangered label it carried in 2000; only about 2,500 are thought to live in protected areas.

The fossa's ancestor is thought to have rafted across the sea to Madagascar from which continent?

Africa was the starting point: a single small ancestor drifted over roughly 20 million years ago and gave rise to every native carnivore on the island.

Madagascar, the only place where fossas live in the wild, lies in which ocean?

Indian Ocean isolation has lasted tens of millions of years, which is why over 90% of Madagascar's wildlife is found nowhere else.

Outside the breeding season, and apart from mothers with young, adult fossas generally live in which way?

Alone is the rule for adults, although males have occasionally been seen in pairs and, once, three were watched hunting together.

Newborn fossa pups are blind and helpless, and they also lack which feature of an adult hunter?

Teeth are missing at birth, and the pups take no solid food for three months; a full adult set arrives only at about 18 to 20 months.

Fossa pups make which sound when nursing or resting close to their mother?

Purring comes from contented pups, while adults mostly stay silent until the breeding season, when males howl and yowl over a mate.

The adult fossa's short, dense, unpatterned coat is generally which colour on the animal's back?

Reddish-brown fur covers the back and a dirty cream the belly, while the young start out grey or nearly white.

People in Madagascar pronounce the fossa's name, spelled fosa in Malagasy, closest to which of these?

FOO-sa is the local way to say it, and some say foosh; the English spelling adds a second s to the Malagasy word.

Unrelated to the animal, the Latin word fossa, used in anatomy and astronomy, has which meaning?

Ditch or trench is the Latin sense, so hollows in bones and long troughs on Mars are called fossae; the animal's name is a separate borrowing from Malagasy.

Besides its favourite prey, the fossa often eats which spiny, hedgehog-like mammals found on Madagascar?

Tenrecs came second in one diet study, at about 9% of what fossas ate, level with lizards and well ahead of birds.

Which human-driven change is considered the single greatest threat to the fossa's survival in Madagascar?

Habitat destruction tops the list because the fossa depends on forest, and no single reserve is thought to hold a population large enough to last.

Which ecological term is suggested for the fossa, whose loss could let prey overgraze Madagascar's forests?

Keystone species is the suggested label, because the island's largest native predator exploits so many niches that it helps shape whole ecosystems.

Where does fossa mating usually take place, often at the very same spot year after year?

On a tree limb is the usual place: pairs balance on wide horizontal branches, returning to the same tree on almost the same date each year.

When fossas hunt as a pair, one chases prey through the branches while the other waits where?

On the ground is where the partner waits, catching animals driven down from above; such hunting parties are seen mainly in the breeding season.

At night the fossa's eyes reflect light, as many nocturnal hunters' eyes do, in which colour?

Orange is the hue of the fossa's eyeshine after dark; in daylight the same eyes are a medium brown.

The fossa's wide-set eyes have pupils that narrow in bright light to which shape?

Slits are what the pupils shrink to, and one legend told in Madagascar claims a fossa can make them vanish altogether.

Young fossas in zoos have been seen swinging upside down from knotted ropes by which body part?

Hind feet do the gripping, thanks to the same supple ankles and strong, nearly bare paw pads that make the fossa such a sure climber.

Fossas leave long-lasting scent marks using glands beneath the tail and on which other body part?

Chest glands and a pouch under the tail let fossas scent rocks, trunks and soil all year, leaving messages for animals that rarely meet.

The fossa's cat-like body, evolved without any close kinship to cats, illustrates which biological process?

Convergent evolution gave the fossa a cat's short muzzle, big eye sockets and retractable claws, which kept taxonomists arguing over its place for well over a century.

The extinct giant fossa has the species name spelea, which refers to what kind of place?

A cave gave the giant fossa its name, since its first known bones came from two caves in Madagascar; it was larger than today's fossa and probably hunted now-extinct giant prey.

Fossas live in every type of forest on Madagascar yet are missing from which part of the island?

The central plateau is one of the few places without fossas, which otherwise range from rainforest to spiny thicket and up mountains to about 2,000 metres.

At a fossa mating site, who holds the prime spot for up to a week while others wait nearby?

A single female holds the site and may mate with several males before another takes her place, a system that seems to be unique among carnivores.

Near Ranomafana National Park, eating fossa is forbidden because the animals are said to scavenge from which places?

Human graves are the reason: ancestors there are buried in shallow plots in the forest, so animals that disturb them are strictly off the menu.

Fossa fossana is, confusingly, the scientific name not of the fossa but of which striped relative?

Malagasy civet is the owner of that name, a small nocturnal forager also known as the fanaloka and the only species in the genus Fossa.

Which word names the local taboos in Madagascar that often protect the fossa from being hunted or eaten?

Fady rules vary from village to village; some people will not eat fossa for fear its greed and aggression would pass to whoever ate it.

Once thought to be nocturnal, the fossa hunts and naps around the clock; which term describes that pattern?

Cathemeral animals are active in irregular bursts by day and night; fossa activity peaks early in the morning, late in the afternoon and late at night.

Three male fossas were once observed hunting cooperatively and then sharing which leaping primate as prey?

Sifaka was the quarry in a 2009 report of a 45-minute chase, teamwork that may be a holdover from the days of much larger, now-extinct prey.

Most fossas in the world's zoos descend from a breeding programme at the zoo in which German city?

Duisburg took in a fossa in 1975, when only eight lived in zoos anywhere, and its breeding programme went on to supply most of today's zoo animals.

Fossas first bred in captivity in 1974 at a zoo in which European country?

France hosted the first captive births, at the zoo in Montpellier, and well-kept zoo fossas have since lived for 20 years or more.