Word: lemurs
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...Andasibe, about three hours' drive from the capital of Antananarivo, borders the Andasibe-Mantadia National Park, a pristine rainforest that remains one of the crown jewels of Madagascar's denuded landscape. The park is full of the rare animals that Madagascar is famous for - the panda-like indiri lemur, Parson's chameleons that blend into the trees, the greater bamboo lemurs, perhaps the rarest primate on the planet. One of the local guides, Marie Razafindrasolo, led me on a tour of the forest, spotting animals that I would never have noticed myself...
...branch and a panda-like indri dangling shyly from the top of a tree. Later Razafindrasolo took our group on a night walk through the fringes of the forest. She showed us golden Mantella frogs and leaf-tailed geckos and then, barely visible amid the trees, a pair of lemur eyes shining in the darkness, watching us. It was ecotourism at its best, travel that celebrates nature and contributes to its protection...
...critically endangered greater bamboo lemur, however, is far from alone. Thanks to deforestation, expanding human settlements, hunting and the slow burn of climate change, more mammals may be endangered today than ever before. According to a worldwide assessment overseen by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and published Oct. 6 in Science, an estimated one out of four mammals is threatened with extinction. The populations of about half the 5,487 known species of mammals in the world, on land and in the water, are dwindling each year. "Our results paint a bleak picture of the global...
...eroded wastelands, capable of supporting few animals or people. Though the rate of deforestation has been reduced sharply in recent years, thanks in part to a greener government, Madagascar's protected areas are still threatened by new mining projects and simple human population growth. Mammals like the greater bamboo lemur are highly sensitive to their environment; if we lose the small stretch of forests in the southeastern reaches of Madagascar that this animal calls home, there is nowhere else it can go. It will be lost. That story is being repeated throughout much of the world, where mammals like...
...mammals could be as high as 36%," noted Jan Schipper, the director of the Global Mammal Assessment for CI. If we don't act soon, our children may live in a world where the only place they'll be able to see unique mammals like Madagascar's greater bamboo lemur will be in history books...