Word: indris
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...Southern Hemisphere) peek through the Ravenea louvelii, the native palm. Lemurs are sleeping this time of day, though, and a sleeping lemur is hard to spot. But then our guide, Marie Razafindrasolo, stops us - perched on a branch some 20 feet up is the black and white indri, the largest of the living lemurs and the symbol of Madagascar. After a few minutes, the indri gives a high-pitched, sustained cry - a spacing call, a warning to any other indri in the area, and a sound that stays with...
...hard to say how long the indri itself will stay with us. Madagascar's native plants and animals evolved in isolation for some 80 million years; as a result, the 587,000-sq-km country, which sits just off the coast of southeastern Africa, has perhaps the highest level of biodiversity per capita in the world. It's what conservationists call a "hotspot" - one of about 25 places on Earth that have suffered massive habitat loss and account for less than 2% of the planet's land surface, but are home to about half the world's plant species...
...slash-and-burn agriculture. The verdant forests that once covered much of Madagascar have been burnt or torn down, replaced by muddy rice paddies and secondary shrubs. This loss of habitat is the primary driver of extinction on Madagascar. The trees support a web of life, from the hefty indri to dazzlingly tiny frogs that fit on your pinky, but deforestation in Madagascar is so severe that the island's soil, unmoored by the loss of the trees, simply slides into the sea. The crimson trail of erosion has been visible from space...
...presumably to please Sanjay. Some 700,000 operations were actually performed, a phenomenal increase over the previous year's total of 129,000. Villagers told bitter jokes against Mrs. Gandhi, one of them based on her 1971 election slogan, GARIBI HATAO (abolish poverty). The new slogan: INDIRA HATAO, INDRI BACHAO (abolish Indira and save your penis...