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Grandidier's Baobab (Adansonia grandidieri). The baobab trees of Madagascar are such an iconic sight that it's easy to overlook the fact that some species are highly endangered. In addition to habitat loss, Madagascar baobabs have very poor seedling survival rates and young trees are a rare find. It is theorized that their large pulpy fruits were only consumed by now extinct animals such as giant tortoises, baboon-like lemurs, and the enormous elephant birds, which served to disperse the tree's seeds. Since some of these animals only disappeared in the past thousand years it is quite possible that the oldest trees existing today germinated from the dung of Madagascar's lost megafauna. Morondava, Madagascar.
- Copyright
- © Chien C. Lee
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- 6920x4618 / 21.8MB
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- Keywords
- Contained in galleries
- Plants, Madagascar