Word: lemurs
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...most obviously adaptive evolutionary gifts are probably borne by the lemur, the family of small primates found only on Madagascar. The largest lemur, the indri, has humanlike hands and feet that enable it to scamper up the dense tree branches in Madagascar's few remaining intact forests. The graceful brown lemur bounds effortlessly across openings in the canopy and hangs by its knees to graze on leaves. The dextrous and stealthy white and black sifaka has springlike legs that propel it through the forest like a cat, in quiet, arcing leaps. Watching them move is a mesmerizing experience...
...that is perhaps where the lemur's most adaptive, if accidental, characteristic comes into play: cuteness. Adorability certainly won't keep a lemur from getting eaten by its predator, the fossa, but it could get the species noticed by at least a few of the six and a half billion humans who relentlessly press their dominance on every corner of the natural world. Indeed, much of modern wildlife conservation has been built around the idea, pushed by the naturalist George Schaller, of promoting "charismatic megafauna" - awe-inspiring star animals, like the Siberian tiger or the African rhino, the species that...
...lovable lemur could be for Madagascar what the panda - the original adaptively cute animal - is for China, a charismatic minor species, a symbol of the nation and conservation. Having a species recognized by the world can motivate locals also to support conservation. "It's good for people to know that they have a species around them that the world cares about," says Mittermeier. Already lemurs are attracting growing numbers of tourists to Madagascar, as evidenced by the full camping grounds at the lodge where our group stayed in the Ankarafantsika Park, where sifakas all but drop in on the breakfast...
...serve Spéciale d'Analamazaotra, a few hours' drive west of Madagascar's capital of Antananarivo. The reserve is one of the few remaining patches of untouched forest on Madagascar, where more than 90% of the native tree cover has already been lost; chameleons, rare frogs and lemurs make their home here. It's late afternoon, and patches of early spring sunlight (this is the 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...
...Madagascar's 2,300 species are found nowhere else on Earth, if a species is lost on Madagascar, it is lost forever. Yet rampant deforestation, a swelling human population and the early effects of climate change have already pushed countless species out of existence. Of the surviving 71 lemur species and subspecies on Madagascar, 63% are endangered. "Madagascar is the hottest of hotspots," says Russell Mittermeier, the president of Conservation International (CI) and a renowned primatologist. If we care about saving our wild cousins from extinction, Madagascar is the place to start...