Madagascar Yields Its Secrets - Two New Lemur Species

WASHINGTON, DC, August 12, 2005 (ENS) - Two new species of lemur have been identified on the island nation of Madagascar, one of them in a well studied area of the island, visited by thousands of tourists each year. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) conservationists announced the discoveries Thursday in Washington.

One of the newly found lemurs has been named after Dr. Steve Goodman, a scientist with WWF and Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History who lives in Madagascar.

Goodman's Mouse Lemur, Microcebus lehilahytsara, is little bigger than a mouse. Lehilahytsara is the Malagasy word for good man. This small lemur has a white stripe on its nose, maroon, orange and white fur, and short, rounded ears.

Scientists with the German Primate Center and the University of Göttingen, as well as their Malagasy collaborators, analyzed its genetic makeup and determined it was an entirely new species of mouse lemur.

The newly discovered Goodman's Mouse Lemur (Photo by Robert Zingg courtesy WWF)

"It's a great privilege to have this species named after me, but it really honors all of the project members, scientists and researchers who work in the field with us over the years," Goodman said.

Located off the southeastern coast of Africa, the island of Madagascar is inhabited by an unparalleled array of plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth, including the entire primate family of lemurs.

Lemurs are considered the most endangered of all primates. The discovery of two new species shows the importance of conserving Madagascar's rapidly disappearing forests, Goodman says. A growing human population practices slash-and-burn agriculture, destroying the forests on which the animals and they themselves depend.

"These discoveries underline how little we know about the fauna of Madagascar," he said. "The new species was discovered in a heavily visited and studied area of the island known as Périnet, where thousands of tourists go every year to see the famous black and white lemur known as Indri."

Dr. Steve Goodman examines the walls of a Madagascar cave. (Photo by J. Goodman courtesy The Field Museum)

A 16 year veteran of Madagascar's forests, Goodman has identified dozens of new wildlife and plant species and trained numerous biologists who themselves have identified a plethora of new species.

He co-edited "The Natural History of Madagascar," condensing the work of nearly 300 scientists into what is considered the authoritative 1,700 page volume on the country's biodiversity.

In the early 1990s WWF created the Ecology Training Program to address the scarcity of trained scientists and conservation biologists in Madagascar. Goodman was assigned as its coordinator and since then several hundred students have taken part in field courses and expeditions and about 50 of them have received degrees at national universities. One of them is the current chief biodiversity scientist at WWF-Madagascar.

The Malagasy authors of the new lemur species description worked closely with Goodman during their university studies, and one of them presented his Ph.D. as a student of the Ecology Training Program.

The second species, Mirza zaza, was named in honor of Madagascar's children, since zaza is the Malagasy word for child. It is nocturnal, weighing about 10 ounces and is the size of a gray squirrel.

The scientists, Peter Kappeler, Rodan Rasoloarison, Léonard Razafimanantsoa, Lutz Walter and Christian Roos, presented their findings at a scientific meeting in Germany and published them in the current issue of "Primate Report."