GA4

Thursday, April 07, 2005

LEMURS - Half of Madagascar's lemurs are on the verge of extinction.

The Earth's most successful primates - humans - are on the brink of killing off nearly a quarter of their 625 cousin species, a report has said.
BBC News has more on this tragedy.
Of the four global regions inhabited by primates, the worst hit is Madagascar, where loss of habitat to traditional slash-and-burn agriculture has left some lemur species, such as Perrier's sifaka, stranded in tiny areas of the forest.

More than half of Madagascar's lemurs are on the verge of extinction.
[...]
"Amazingly, we've managed to get through the 20th Century without any primate species going extinct," Dr Mittermeier said. "I'd like to think this is partly because of better conservation efforts."