Steps for Lemur Conservation in Madagascar Outlined in New Analysis

An international team of researchers have joined forces to protect Madagascar's native lemur population.

Lemurs, all 101 species of them, are only endemic to Madagascar. They represent 20 percent of the world's primates and more than 90 percent of them are threatened with extinction, making them the most threatened mammal group on Earth, the researchers report in the journal Science.

"This combination of diversity and uniqueness is unmatched by any other country-remarkable considering that Madagascar is only 1.3 to 2.9 percent the size of the Neotropics, Africa, or Asia, the other three landmasses where non-human primates occur," the scientists write in the abstract to their research.

Moreover, lemur populations are at risk from habitat destruction and disturbance by humans.

"Native to the shrinking and fragmented tropical and subtropical forests of Madagascar, off Africa's Indian Ocean coast, lemurs are facing grave extinction risks driven by human disturbance of their habitats," Canada's Western University said in a news release. "Combined with increasing rates of poaching and the loss of funding for environmental programs by most international donors in the wake of the political crisis in Madagascar, challenges to lemur conservation are immense."

Western University primatologist Ian Colquhoun, in consortium with 18 lemur conservationists and researchers who are from Madagascar or have worked there for decades, are working on an action plan to save the lemur's from extinction.

In their paper, Colquhoun and his collaborators outline conservation steps that will allow for effective management of Madagascar's protected areas, as well as the creation of more reserves directly managed by local communities. The group also calls for a long-term research presence at critical lemur sites around the island.

"Through seed dispersal and attracting income through ecotourism, lemurs have important ecological and economic roles for Madagascar," Colquhoun said. "I think there is huge potential for Malagasy all over the island to take pride in their lemurs."

Colquhoun's collaborators included Christoph Schwitzer, head of research at Bristol Zoo Gardens and vice-chair for Madagascar of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) SSC Primate Specialist Group, and Russell Mittermeier, President of Conservation International and Chair of the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group.