Word: madagascars
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...Bernhard Meier, a quest through Madagascar's leech-infested rain forests ended with blood poisoning, malaria, an injured knee -- and glorious success. A primatologist at Ruhr University in Bochum, West Germany, Meier had been tracking the hairy-eared dwarf lemur, the world's second smallest primate, which scientists had never seen alive. Last week he revealed that he had captured and photographed one of the mouse-size creatures...
Lemurs, which are found only in Madagascar and the nearby Comoro Islands, are of great interest because they are thought to resemble the common ancestor of man, monkeys and apes that lived 50 million years ago. Meier, who helped discover two other types of lemur, made his latest find with the aid of a stray dog, who located the tree hole where the nocturnal animal was sleeping. Although five specimens were preserved for museums between 1875 and 1965, scientists knew little about them. Meier found that they are about 14 cm (5.5 in.) long, with a slightly longer furry tail...
Meier hopes his find will call attention to Madagascar's diverse but vanishing flora and fauna. One-quarter of Africa's plants exist only on Madagascar; more than 90% of the island's wildlife is unique. Agriculture has wiped out most of the forests and many animal species, including 14 types of lemur. Undiscovered species may lurk in the remaining jungle, but, warns Ian Tattersall of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, "unless their habitat is protected, they may all isappear...
Wilson cited the example of the rosy periwinkle, a plant in Madagascar that contains two alkaloids used to cure both Hodgkin's disease and acute childhood lympathic leukemia. The plant is the basis for a $100 million industry...
...There are six species of the plant on Madagascar. Only one has been examined and one other is on the verge of extinction," said Wilson...