A large brown raptor with striped underparts. Upperparts and head are dark brown, upperparts have red bars, underparts white with brown bars. Black bill. This is the largest raptor in the park.
The Serpent-eagle is endemic to Madagascar, and is very rare, it was thought to be extinct (Langrand, 1990, UICN 1990) but has been sighted four times recently in the park (Sarah Karpanty and Grella in press, Jean-Marie Raliva, personal communication).
The serpent-eagle has been observed to eat Avahi laniger (Loret Rasabo, 1996, Pat Wright, personal communication) and Hapalemur griseus (Jean-Marie Raliva, personal communication). They are known to eat chameleons but are reported to eat mostly mammals (UICN 1990).
Despite the name, there is no direct evidence to indicate that they feed on snakes.
IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre, viewed in July 2000, "Threatened Animals of the World", IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals
Langrand, Olivier; 1990: Guide to the Birds of Madagascar, Yale University Press
Sinclair, I & Langrand, O.; 1998: Birds of the Indian Ocean Islands, Struik
UICN le Centre mondial de surveillance continue de la conservation de la nature, 1990, Madagascar, Profil de l'énvironnement, Cambridge, U.K., App. 3