New Group of Endangered Lemurs Found in Madagascar

The discovery of the distinctive lemurs with jaws powerful enough to crack giant bamboo, their favorite food, occurred in 2007 in the Torotorofotsy wetlands of east central Madagascar, which is designated a Ramsar site of international importance under the 1971 Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, but was made public only today.

The scientists will publish their discovery in "Lemur News," the newsletter of the Primate Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission.

"The greater bamboo lemur is a unique species and the only member of an entire primate genus, making it probably the most endangered primate genus in the world, so this discovery is a real blessing for our efforts to save it from extinction," said Conservation International President Russell Mittermeier, the long-time chairman of the Primate Specialist Group.

A greater bamboo lemur chews a stick of its favorite food in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar. (Photo by David Thyberg)

Updated information on the species will be presented at the upcoming International Primatological Society 2008 Congress in Edinburgh, Scotland, on August 3 to 8, as part of a new assessment of the world's primates that shows the state of humankind's closest living relatives.

Madagascar, the world's fourth largest island, is located in the Indian Ocean 250 miles off the southeastern coast of Africa. There are some 32 different types of lemurs in existence today, all of which are endemic to Madagascar. Lemurs are primates, an order that includes monkeys, apes and humans.

For years, scientists believed but could not prove that greater bamboo lemurs, Prolemur simus, lived in the Torotorofotsy area.

A collaborative effort between the Malagasy nongovernmental organization MITSINJO and the Henry Doorly Zoo in the United States, supported by the Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation and Conservation International, resulted in researchers finding and immobilizing several of the rare lemurs to attach radio collars for further monitoring.

The researchers believe there are 30 to 40 greater bamboo lemurs in the Torotorofotsy wetland, which is far to the north of the isolated pockets of bamboo forest where the other known populations of the species live.

"This finding confirmed what we knew before but couldn't prove," said Rainer Dolch of MITSINJO, which manages the Torotorofotsy site. "Our hope is that the presence of these critically threatened creatures will increase efforts to protect their habitat and keep them alive."

Habitat destruction from slash-and-burn agriculture and illegal logging threatens the previously known populations that total about 100 animals, making the existence of the newly found lemurs in a distinct region especially valuable.

"Finding the extremely rare Prolemur simus in a place where nobody expected it was probably more exciting than discovering a new lemur species," said conservation geneticist Edward Louis of Henry Doorly Zoo, who coordinated the joint research mission that found the new population.

Mittermeier says the discovery shows "the importance for conservation of collaboration between local villagers, local organizations such as MITSINJO and international groups like the Henry Doorly Zoo."

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