Calendar Sneak Preview
Madagascar Pygmy Kingfisher (Ispidina madagascariensis)
A diminutive (15cm) Kingfisher
endemic to the forests of Madagascar.
The calendar also tells success stories from 26 years of Money for Madagascar’s work supporting low-cost, community led initiatives in the big red island. The stories show the many ways in which MfM has made a radical difference to the lives of individuals, families and communities.
Calendar Sneak Preview
This is a unique calendar that will be
treasured by anyone who loves wildlife – and particularly by birdwatchers.
Please feel free to copy this to birdwatching friends – or perhaps put them on
your Christmas list for a calendar! Calendars are £8.50 each inclusive of UK
postage & packaging or £10 to be sent outside the UK. To order a calendar
please send a cheque payable to ‘Money for Madagascar’ to Madagascar Calendars,
15 Kelly’s Drive, Oxford, OX331NT.
Alternatively you can order your calendars on-line from www.moneyformadagascar.org when our
new shop goes live in November.
Legendary Birds of Madagascar
Tales
of exotic and unique species of birds in Madagascar have been around for many
centuries. In the thirteenth century Marco Polo described the giant rukh
of enormous size with a wing span of thirty paces and the strength to lift an
elephant. This is the stuff of folklore but there is a morsel of truth in the
tale from the Arabian Nights of the great egg, as big as a house, found by
Sinbad the Sailor which, when broken, brought fury and destruction to his
ship. Viewers of David
Attenborough’s ‘Zoo Quest’ will recall
his discovery of hundreds of broken egg shells in a dry river bed in
Madagascar’s south. Painstaking reconstruction showed them to be the remnants
of the eggs of the flightless elephant bird, the Aepyornis. Ostrich-like and up to ten feet tall, it was
the heaviest bird ever to have lived.
While
folklore will have played its part in exaggerating the size and power of the
Aepyornis, there is no doubt that the creature is now extinct. Not so with
several of Madagascar’s birds today. Many, like the Madagascar Pochard,
have been reported extinct only to be rediscovered in small numbers a few years
later. Several of the birds featured in
the calendar are endangered and face a perilous future.
Money for Madagascar believes that a bright
future awaits both the Malagasy people and the island’s rich bio-diversity if
they can co-exist in harmony. Our
commitment is to strive, with your help, to make this a reality. Each calendar sold will raise £3.50 towards
changing lives and conserving biodiversity in Madagascar.
