I would say Madagascar has enough unique animals to make a really quite good animal pack. As well as the fossa, the radiated tortoise and all the lemurs (I would be tempted to choose the black lemur as one of my options - it is the most commonly-kept of the
Eulemur species in Europe and has amazing dimorphism between the sexes), a few other animals that haven't been mentioned yet here:
Another potential habitat mammal could be the
Malagasy giant rat. They are both longer and heavier than a meerkat, so would fit as a habitat animal. They are Endangered and are found in captivity (at least sixteen zoos in Europe alone); although they are mainly kept in nocturnal houses they have been kept in outdoor enclosures in at least one zoo and they are often mixed with aye-ayes - in fact I believe every UK zoo with aye-ayes mixes them with the giant rats.
Although the blue coua has been mentioned, I would be tempted to choose the
giant coua as representation of these birds - it is the biggest living coua by far and is basically the Madagascan equivalent of a roadrunner. They aren't exactly common in captivity (only one place in Europe keeps them, to my knowledge) but then the same is true of basically all the couas.
If a ground bird is desired, then the
pitta-like ground roller is a good alternative. They are much smaller than the coua and would be the smallest habitat animal in the game by far but they are almost entirely terrestrial, only flying up to low branches in order to perch and watch for prey, are kept in captivity (Zurich Zoo has them in the amazing Masoala Hall) and are probably one of the most colourful birds around.
As well as the radiated tortoise, another habitat reptile option could be the
Madagascar big-headed turtle. It is a fairly large species, with a fifty centimetre shell, is a Critically Endangered species that is kept and bred in captivity and are a living fossil - they last shared ancestry with the other turtles over 80 million years ago. It would also add another diving species to the game.
As for exhibit animals, Madagascar is diverse enough to almost have a full exhibit pack of its own:
- Chameleon (panther would probably be easiest, as it has very few physical differences between the senses)
- Madagascar giant day gecko
- Henkel's leaf tailed gecko (a threatened species now part of a Europe-wide breeding programme being run by Chester Zoo)
- Madagascar tree boa
- Tomato frog
- Malagasy rainbow frog (one of the prettiest frogs there is, an Endangered species that is being kept and bred by zoos including Chester Zoo)
- Mantella (the golden mantella is probably the most familiar, although it is quite similar to the golden poison frog - I would probably choose the blue legged mantella)
- Madagascan blue stick insect
- Madagascar hissing cockroach
- Comet moth (on of the world's largest silkmoths and very sedentary, which could make it a better option as an exhibit animal rather than a free-flying species)
