Word: sifaka
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...beings. Human expansion, hunting, deforestation and ultimately climate change are eliminating species at a rate up to 1,000 times higher than the evolutionary norm. Species like the Yangtze River dolphin and the golden toad have disappeared, while a range of animals - from the Sumatran tiger to the silky Sifaka lemur of Madagascar are on the brink...
Andasibe-Mantadia National Park, 100 sq. mi. (about 260 sq km) of protected forest in a nation that is now more than 90% deforested, is one of Madagascar's main draws. Local guides like Razafindrasolo lead walking tours through the old-growth forest, where energetic sifaka lemurs can be seen in the mornings dancing through the trees. This is one of the main reasons to go all the way to Madagascar--to see endangered species that exist nowhere else. The other reason is that your presence--or, more specifically, your wallet's presence--can help save the last remaining habitats...
...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; it's easy to see how well lemurs have adapted to their native forest, and how helpless they must be when that habitat is lost...
...hard to pinpoint exactly why these animals are so darn cute; maybe it's their small size relative to their fellow primates. Maybe it's their flirty, innocent playfulness. A snow white sifaka putting on a show before a crowd of onlookers, swinging back and forth - it's so toe-curlingly kawaii, as our Japanese traveling companions put it, you could die. Though cuteness alone isn't likely to save the lemurs from the forces that threaten them - hunting, deforestation and habitat destruction - it certainly puts them in a better position than their homelier endangered peers...
...PERRIER'S SIFAKA HOME Madagascar POPULATION 1,000 to 2,000 --Pressured by agriculture, logging and mining for gemstones, it may have vanished from one of two reserves where it is protected...
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