Imagine living next door to a tiger, puma or crocodile, or a lemur, mountain lion, honey badger or ostrich. Strange as it may sound, there are at least 2,500 wild animals in private collections in England, including snakes and scorpions, 300 wild cats, more than 200 primates – and even two elephants. As exotic pet […]
Tag: Lemurs
Interesting Animals to Watch at the Zoo
Have you ever visited a zoo only to find that all the animals are sleeping or inside their shelters? Visiting early in the morning is a good way to help ensure the animals are active and awake, but nothing will guarantee active animals. However, no matter when you visit or what the weather is like, […]
Climate Crisis and Deforestation Are Bringing Tree-Dwelling Primates Down to Earth
San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance postdoctoral associate Timothy Eppley, Ph.D., was observing southern bamboo lemurs in Madagascar when he noticed something odd. Usually, these lemurs spend their entire lives in the trees. But in places where their forest habitat had been thinned by human activity, the primates would risk descending to the ground to search […]
World’s smallest primate is fading into extinction, scientists fear
The world’s tiniest primate, the Madame Berthe’s mouse lemur (Microcebus berthae), a creature small enough to curl inside a human fist, could soon disappear as the human imprint on its forest habitat grows. Since 2018, surveyors deployed at the lemur’s preferred habitat in Madagascar’s western dry forests have failed to spot the animal, stoking fears […]
Lemurs and giant tortoises among species at risk if global heating hits 3C
Unique island species including lemurs and the Galapagos giant tortoise could be at high risk of extinction if the planet warms by more than 3C above pre-industrial levels, new research warns. Analysis of 270 biodiversity hotspots suggests almost half of endemic marine species and 84% of endemic mountain species will face extinction if the planet […]
Slash-and-burn farming eats away at a Madagascar haven for endangered lemurs, frogs
Deforestation is so rampant throughout Madagascar, an island far larger than California, that it’s easy to forget the impact of tree clearance in any one specific area of the country — the lemurs that lose their habitats, the orchids that no longer bloom, the people whose land becomes barren. But recent activity in the Ankeniheny-Zahamena […]
Pet trade relies on ‘disposable’ wild chameleons from Madagascar
DIANA REGION, Madagascar — With the sun still low in the sky, my taxi boat pulled up to a floating wooden pontoon in the bustling port of Ankify in northwestern Madagascar. As one of the few foreigners, or vazaha, in the port that morning, I was instantly surrounded by local taxi drivers eager to take […]
Lemurs might never recover from COVID-19 (commentary)
The DreamWorks version of Madagascar is exactly that, a fantasy. The island nation is no unpeopled paradise teeming with dancing lemurs, as depicted in the animated Madagascar film. On the contrary, almost all of its lemur species are being driven to extinction by humans. This World Lemur’s Day, it is worth pointing out that the […]