ORDER CARNIVORA: CARNIVORES 255 



it is often seen in bands of four to eight individuals. It is said to be 

 fond of lemurs and to pursue them in trees. It is also destructive 

 to poultry, young pigs, and other domestic animals. The natives 

 really fear this species, but they enjoy its flesh. (Schlegel and 

 Pollen, 1868, pp. 15-16.) 



According to Milne Edwards and Grandidier (1875a, p. 341, foot- 

 note) , this is the only native animal of Madagascar that the Saka- 

 lava (a western tribe) have been able sometimes, but very rarely, 

 to train for hunting the Wild Hog (Potamochoerus larvatus) . 



Kaudern states (1915, pp. 79-80) that Cryptoprocta appears to 

 be distributed over the entire island and that it is probably nowhere 



FIG. 28. Fossa (Cryptoprocta jerox). After photo in Brehm. 



rare. In northwestern Madagascar it was very common. He saw 

 the animal three times in the wild at Ste. Marie de Marovoay on 

 the Betsiboka River, and its tracks were observed everywhere in 

 the sand. One was killed there in a poultry yard. Another was 

 secured at Katsepe on the Bay of Bombetoke, and two live young 

 ones were brought in by natives at Andranolava, in north central 

 Madagascar. Black individuals are reported from the interior and 

 from the great rain forests on the east coast. 



According to Sibree (1915, pp. 302-303), the northwest coast is 

 the animal's "special habitat. This creature is called by the people, 

 Fosa . . . , and although small is very ferocious .... Examples 

 of the fosa have been seen in the outskirts of the upper belt of forest 

 on the east side of the island .... A specimen I once saw was of a 

 beautiful black colour, but I believe this was only a variety, and 

 not a distinct species from the brown animal. The fosa is much 

 dreaded by the Malagasy, and, from its mode of attack, appears to 

 be like an immense weasel, attacking large animals, such as the 

 wild boar and even oxen." 



G. M. Allen (1918, p. 514) records a specimen from the vicinity 

 of Tulear. 



