Fossa Facts
Ivory Westerbaan | September 30, 2025
Called: Fossa. Scientific Name: Cryptoprocta ferox.
The Fossa (pronounced ‘foosa’), which resembles a cat or otter, is a predatory animal that lives in and around Madagascar’s tropical forests. According to factanimal.com, it weighs around 12-19 pounds. It’s not much larger than your regular-sized house cat.
Being 70-80 cm long and 30-35 cm long, it doesn’t go much higher than a person’s knee.
With a long tail that is almost more than half its body size, they are able to balance up in the treetops, where they spend most of their time. A fossa’s meals are often on smaller animals such as lemures, rodents, small reptiles, etc. Their golden-brown colored fur coats its skin in a thin layer helping them not get overheated in the tropical climate as well as helping them blend in.
Meanwhile, their greatest threat would be humans. According to biologyinsights.com, a fossa is usually shot because of their tendency to hunt pigs and other small livestock. While they may hunt small animals, they are not a threat to humans.
They often mind their own business and keep to themselves, as long as they are left unbothered. They are at risk because of habitat destruction and hunting. At the moment there are fewer than 2,500 left on Earth. (This may vary over years.)
Biologyinsights.com also comments that attacks often come when threatened or protecting its young. They are almost always solitary creatures, except during mating season. In Madagascar, it is currently the top predator for small animals.
Unlike some cats they jump out of trees headfirst like squirrels do. (I don’t suggest doing this yourself.) Its average lifespan is 15-20 years, and it takes around 60 days for it to birth its offspring, usually around December.
It can reach speeds around 35 mph only 30 miles behind the cheetah’s average. Even there is only one species, the fossa is, however, a “relative” to the mongoose, causing many people to get them confused, as well as debates on this subject.