There are 111 specie and subspecies of lemur , and those are justthe single we have it off about . aright now , 105 of those lemur are under threat of extinction .
This is the conclusion of the " Primate Specialist Group " , an international radical of expert convened by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature ( IUCN),the BBCreports . If their finding hold up under peer review , it would make lemurs the most peril primates on the planet . It would also evoke nothing much has changed since a 2012 assessment , which grade lemurs asthe most endangered group of vertebrates , period .
Despite being an incredibly diverse group , lemur inhabit just one island – Madagascar . While this get for a very impressive wildlife view , their relatively little range place them at added danger of extinction when faced with threats such as illegal logging , slash - and - burn agriculture , mining , and charcoal grey production , all of which are destroying their environment .
Then there ’s the poaching . Christoph Schwitzer , the chief zoological officer at the Bristol Zoological Society , toldthe BBC , a movement for unsustainable lemur poaching is on the rise . Not only is this further by theexotic pet tradebut a taste forbushmeat , which carry all the means up to the commercial level .
" We see commercial-grade hunting as well – probably for local eating house . And this is a new phenomenon for Madagascar – we did n’t see it at this scale 15 days ago , " Schwitzeradded .
Take the example of the utterly bizarre - looking ring - tailed lemur ( Lemur catta ) , whose numbers vacillate around the 750,000 Deutschmark at the turn of the millenary . Now , reportsNewsweek , that figure has drop 95 percent . This stand for there are just 37,500King Julienscurrently scramble through the Madagascan forest .
The good news show is that it is not too late to save the lemur . They are a resilient bunch that wildlife officials hope will rebound quickly , as soon as preservation action are put in space . The bad word is that if they do n’t , it wo n’t just be the hierarch and wildlife tourists who suffer . expert view lemur as a " barometer of ecological health " , affecting the integrality of the ecosystem around them .
The role of the research was to streamline preservation endeavour and iron out their precedency . Already , the IUCN is launch a " lemur action plan " , which involve everything from verbatim measures such as protect their habitats to less direct go-ahead like ecotourism platform . And once the enquiry has authorize the equal - review process , the IUCN Red List will be updated to mirror the findings .
Now , to cheer you up , here ’s a video of a saltation lemur .
[ H / T : BBC , Newsweek ]
