It has paws with claws like a cat, a long tail like a monkey, and round little ears like a weasel, so it’s easy to be confused! Although it shares some adaptive similarities with cats, the fossa is closely related to the mongoose and civet. Find out more things!

The fossa is an intelligent, agile animal that moves with ease high up in the trees of its forest home, even though the animal can weigh up to 22 pounds (10 kilograms). There is still more to learn about the rare fossa. Until recently, it was believed that fossas were nocturnal because they were so hard to find in the wild.

Recent studies show that fossas nap and hunt day or night, depending on mood or circumstance. A fossa can travel up to 16 miles (26 kilometers) in a day. It is solitary except during the breeding season.

As a carnivore, the fossa is an excellent hunter. It preys on small- to medium-sized animals from fish to birds, mice, and wild pigs. But lemurs are its main food source, and the fossa is Madagascar’s only predator able to kill the largest lemur species. To catch a lemur, a predator must be faster than it is—and the fossa can out-maneuver the swiftest lemur.

Fossas use scent to communicate and keep track of each other, scent marking rocks, trees, or even just the ground with scent glands on the chest and under the base of the tail. As solitary animals, their home ranges rarely overlap.