Ecologist - Writer - Photographer
Fossa face

Up close and personal with Madagascar's largest and most stunning predator: the fossa (or fosa). Remarkably, this is a photo of a wild fossa, and this is not a zoom lens! I captured this shot in-between having to hold off the interests of this beast (and its friend) with a stick. I got this shot by momentarily being brave enough to let it chew on my boot. When the fossa left, I had fossa spit on my lens. And a number of fossa tooth holes in my boot! This shot captures the dynamism of Madagascar's ultimate carnivore; and how it felt to have it just a few centimetres from my lens. Fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox); a member of the Eupleridae, a taxonomic group of mammals unique to Madagascar.

Location: Kirindy Forest, Madagascar

Photographer: Jason Gilchrist

Fossa face

Up close and personal with Madagascar's largest and most stunning predator: the fossa (or fosa). Remarkably, this is a photo of a wild fossa, and this is not a zoom lens! I captured this shot in-between having to hold off the interests of this beast (and its friend) with a stick. I got this shot by momentarily being brave enough to let it chew on my boot. When the fossa left, I had fossa spit on my lens. And a number of fossa tooth holes in my boot! This shot captures the dynamism of Madagascar's ultimate carnivore; and how it felt to have it just a few centimetres from my lens. Fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox); a member of the Eupleridae, a taxonomic group of mammals unique to Madagascar.

Location: Kirindy Forest, Madagascar

Photographer: Jason Gilchrist