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They’re fuzzy, white, and vocal, but maybe the most remarkable thing about them, says primatologist Erik Patel, is how few there are. He’s talking about the silky sifaka, a lemur that lives in only a few patches of high-altitude forest on Madagascar. Patel has found that fewer than a thousand remain. Like other lemurs, the silky sifaka is hunted for meat and is seeing its habitat slashed and burned to clear space for rice fields. Patel hopes that 12 new bungalows near the sifakas’ territory in Marojejy National Park will attract tourists—and that the money visitors bring will get locals excited about protecting lemurs too. —Helen Fields
Photo: Iñaki Relanzon.
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Jul 15, 2009 11AM #
I have never been able to view a Lemur, not even the many times I've visited the zoo. Beautiful animal and i hope one day they will survive to thrive among their habitat, and to be part of our future.
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