Expeditions & Discovery

One of the first rediscoveries our Madagascar Program made, led by then-International Field Biologist Russell Thorstrom, was the Madagascar Serpent-eagle in November 1993, a species they had been searching for since arriving in Madagascar in 1990. The species had rarely been sighted in the 60 years before this rediscovery, so very little was known about the behavior or biology of the species. We’ve been studying the Madagascar Serpent-eagle ever since.

Shortly after rediscovering the Madagascar Serpent-eagle, our team rediscovered the Madagascar Red Owl in 1994. The owl was thought to be extinct, and its rediscovery, coupled with that of the Madagascar Serpent-eagle, led to the establishment of Masoala National Park in northern Madagascar.

The Madagascar Pochard, a medium-sized diving duck, was feared extinct by the late 1990s, but was rediscovered in 2006 by Madagascar Program Director Dr. Lily-Arison Rene de Roland. Lily and his team happened upon 20 adults in a remote, shallow lake while searching for the Malagasy Harrier. The rediscovery of the Madagascar Pochard, along with other ecologically important findings in the area, led to our proposal for and the eventual creation of the Bemanevika Protected Area. Our biologists have been monitoring the remote population of pochards ever since.

Our Madagascar Program’s most recent rediscovery is the Dusky Tetraka (a small, olive and yellow-throated songbird) in 2022. Before its rediscovery, the last documented sighting of the Dusky Tetraka was in 1999, making it one of the top 10 most wanted lost birds by the Search for Lost Birds. The expedition team searched the tropical forests of northeastern Madagascar, led by The Peregrine Fund’s Madagascar Program, and found the species in two different remote sites: one on the Masoala peninsula in late December 2022 and another near Andapa in January 2023.

Madagascar is home to over 100 lemur species, and 23 are found in the protected areas we manage. During expeditions and surveys, our biologists take note of the lemur species present, and the program has been responsible for discovering three previously undescribed species of lemurs, which are in the process of being taxonomically identified.

The discoveries don’t just stop at raptors and lemurs. Our team has even discovered a new spider species (Katableps lilyarisoni), aptly named after our Madagascar Program Director, Dr. Lily-Arison Rene de Roland, the bizarre-nosed chameleon (Calumma hafahafa), and range expansions for several reptiles and amphibians.