WCS - Helping Protect Madagascar's Freshwater Habitats.
Because rivers run through parks, the animals and plants that live in them can often be threatened by what happens up or down steam. When WCS helped support the foundation of Masoala National Park in Northeastern Madagascar, planners set the borders to include entire river basins in order to help conserve freshwater habitats.

Friend of Fish

Paul Loiselle, PhD

Staff Biologist, WCS New York Aquarium

Paul Loiselle is passionate about fishes. He has taken numerous trips to Madagascar, and worked to help conserve fishes in the wild. He has discovered and described many new species, and breeds several that have become extinct in the wild since he first collected them.

Fish Under Fire

In the past 200 years, none of Madagascar's known mammal species have gone extinct. In that same time, Madagascar has lost at least six kinds of native fishes, with 11 species so critically endangered that if current trends continue, they will become extinct in the next decade. Fish and other animals living in freshwater habitats face a large number of threats. Because river systems are interconnected, even animals living in a stream running through a national park may be threatened by events upstream.

In this activity, you'll learn about some of the threats to Madagascar's freshwater diversity as you swim up a river. Though the river is imaginary, the threats are real! As you try to swim upstream to lay your eggs, you'll be faced with some of the many challenges Madagascar's fish face.