tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/lemurs-6385/articlesLemurs – The Conversation2023-02-06T12:20:00Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1978502023-02-06T12:20:00Z2023-02-06T12:20:00ZThree surprising reasons human actions threaten endangered primates<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506834/original/file-20230127-25-sl362z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C18%2C2994%2C1976&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A baby chimpanzee enjoys his food. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/little-gourmet-adorable-baby-chimpanzee-enjoying-1986791387">Michaela Pilch/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Monkeys, apes and lemurs are cute, familiar and lovable. But an estimated 60% of all primate species are listed as <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1600946">vulnerable, threatened or endangered</a>, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a network of environmental organisations. </p>
<p>You’ve probably heard about the main problems, like <a href="https://theconversation.com/deforestation-on-indonesian-island-of-sulawesi-destroys-habitat-of-endemic-primates-147189">deforestation</a> and the loss of habitat. But primates are a diverse group of animals with a wide geographical range, so there are many more subtle ways our actions as humans put these wonderful animals at risk.</p>
<h2>1. Dogs</h2>
<p>Everywhere we go, our best friends are likely to go with us. <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-11736-7">Our review</a> shows that dogs are present in many primate habitats. These predators sometimes kill and injure primates, but they also may simply chase and harass them, disrupting their socialising or foraging. </p>
<p>Being on the lookout for harassing dogs is stressful and causes primates to use more energy. Reducing these potentially lethal encounters depends on conservationists communicating with dog owners, <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-11736-7_5">who often don’t recognise</a> the danger their dogs pose to such wildlife.</p>
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<img alt="A black and white dog stands over a monkey in the street. The monkey has its mouth open." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506836/original/file-20230127-7614-6vw6f7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506836/original/file-20230127-7614-6vw6f7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506836/original/file-20230127-7614-6vw6f7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506836/original/file-20230127-7614-6vw6f7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506836/original/file-20230127-7614-6vw6f7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506836/original/file-20230127-7614-6vw6f7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506836/original/file-20230127-7614-6vw6f7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ma. Czarita A. Aguja/Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>When diseases jump between animal species, they can cause serious harm to a species that does not have the necessary resistance. Dog diseases such as <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9179186/">canine heartworm </a>and <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2018.2772">parvovirus</a> can be passed from dogs to primates, and could potentially be fatal. There’s also the possibility that pathogens – viruses, bacteria or parasites – could evolve to spread more easily or become more deadly. </p>
<h2>2. Depictions</h2>
<p>If you live outside a country where primates live, you may never see a live primate outside of a zoo. Nevertheless, your media choices can still affect their conservation. </p>
<p><a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0118487">Researchers have discovered</a> that our choices of what we watch on YouTube, Instagram or TikTok can end up fuelling the use of primates as pets or in entertainment. Primates are cute, and we love to watch videos of them. However, many of these pictures and videos show them in artificial contexts, such as primates wearing clothes or interacting with office equipment.</p>
<p>When people view such content, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0022050">they often say</a> they want a primate as a pet and are less likely to believe that these animals are endangered. </p>
<p>We can help to protect primates by not viewing or sharing videos that show animals in unnatural situations. The <a href="https://human-primate-interactions.org/resources/">responsibility</a> for interacting with primates respectfully is even higher for those who live near primates or those who embark on <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-ways-to-be-a-responsible-wildlife-tourist-118869">wildlife tourism</a>.</p>
<p>People’s activities can affect where primates live, what food they eat, and how they live their lives. Many tourist destinations in these types of locations cater to people’s desire to interact and take pictures with primates by keeping them as pets or encouraging feeding or similar interactions. </p>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-11736-7">Our research found</a> that these practices harm the animals, increase the poaching or the trade of primates, and can lead to dangerous situations for both the primates and people. Photographs that show monkeys posing with humans alarm primatologists because we understand the risks of being bitten or of passing on diseases. But the wider public may be unaware of these dangers.</p>
<h2>3. Disease</h2>
<p>The potential for disease transmission between humans and primates is high, partly because of our closely related biology. When diseases move from animals to humans they are known as “zoonoses”. And when they are transferred from animals to human beings, they are known as “anthroponoses”.</p>
<p>The African apes – chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas – seem to be particularly <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/primatologists-work-keep-great-apes-safe-coronavirus">vulnerable to human respiratory infections</a>. Protecting these endangered animals from infectious disease is an important conservation goal.</p>
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<img alt="A silverback gorilla sits within thick, green vegetation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506845/original/file-20230127-26-x0cl2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506845/original/file-20230127-26-x0cl2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506845/original/file-20230127-26-x0cl2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506845/original/file-20230127-26-x0cl2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506845/original/file-20230127-26-x0cl2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506845/original/file-20230127-26-x0cl2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506845/original/file-20230127-26-x0cl2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">An endangered silverback mountain gorilla.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Denys Kutsevalov/Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>The risk of disease transmission between humans and nonhuman primates is worsened by close contact. Some primate species have always lived near people. But as human need for space grows and primate habitats become more fragmented, these encounters become more common. </p>
<p>Primate tourism also brings humans closer to wildlife, with people sometimes even holding the animals or sharing food with them. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/putting-primates-on-screen-is-fuelling-the-illegal-pet-trade-91995">pet trade</a> goes further and brings wild primates into our homes, where animals can contract illness from their owners and vice versa. </p>
<p><a href="https://humanprimateinteractions.files.wordpress.com/2022/10/primate-as-pets.pdf">Preventing the primate pet trade</a> and encouraging safe and respectful interactions with wildlife are vital for both human and nonhuman primate health.</p>
<p>These are only a few examples of the ways humans impact wild primates. And animal biologists are increasingly interested in such human-generated issues for wildlife conservation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197850/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tracie McKinney is affiliated with the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group's Section for Human-Primate Interactions (SHPI).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Rodrigues is affiliated with the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group's Section for Human-Primate Interactions (SHPI).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sian Waters is affiliated with the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group's Section for Human-Primate Interactions (SHPI)</span></em></p>Most of us have heard of the dangers of deforestation but there are other more subtle ways that human beings can endanger monkeys, apes and lemurs.Tracie McKinney, Senior Lecturer in Biological Anthropology, University of South WalesMichelle Rodrigues, Assistant Professor, Marquette UniversitySian Waters, Honorary Research Fellow, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1959642023-01-19T14:10:40Z2023-01-19T14:10:40ZClimate change is threatening Madagascar’s famous forests – our study shows how serious it is<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504015/original/file-20230111-24-b9ohm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C4%2C2991%2C1989&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Urgent action is needed to protect Madagascar's forests. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/forest-guides-armed-with-paddles-or-bows-and-arrows-patrol-news-photo/1137862621?phrase=madagascar%20forests&adppopup=true">Rijasolo/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Global climate change doesn’t only cause the melting of polar ice caps, rising sea levels and extreme weather events. It also has a <a href="https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/biodiversity/climate-change-and-biodiversity/">direct effect</a> on many tropical habitats and the animals and plants that inhabit them. As fossil fuel emissions continue to drive climate change, large areas of land are forecast to become much hotter and drier by the end of this century.</p>
<p>Many ecosystems, including tropical forests, wetlands, swamps and mangroves, will be unable to cope with these extreme climatic conditions. It is highly likely that the extent and condition of these ecosystems will decline. They will become more like deserts and savanna.</p>
<p>The island nation of Madagascar is of particular concern when it comes to climate change. Of Madagascar’s animal species, 85% cannot be found elsewhere on Earth. Of its plant species, 82% are unique to the island. Although a global biodiversity hotspot, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320718301125">Madagascar</a> has experienced the highest rates of deforestation anywhere in the world. Over 80% of its original forest cover has already been cleared by humans. </p>
<p>This has resulted in large population declines in many species. For example, many species of lemurs (Madagascar’s flagship group of animals) have undergone rapid population decline, and over 95% of lemur species are now classified as threatened on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) <a href="https://www.iucn.org/resources/conservation-tool/iucn-red-list-threatened-species">Red List</a>. </p>
<p>Drier conditions brought about by climate change have already resulted in <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/fires-in-madagascar-national-park-threaten-livelihoods-and-lemurs/">widespread bush fires</a> throughout Madagascar. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-58303792">Drought and famine are increasingly severe</a> for the people living in the far south and south-western regions of the island. </p>
<p>Madagascar’s future will likely depend profoundly on how swiftly and comprehensively humans deal with the current climate crisis.</p>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p><a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ecs2.4017">Our study</a> investigated how future climate change is likely to affect four of Madagascar’s key forest habitat types. These <a href="https://www.wwf.mg/en/?2575441/The-precious-forests-of-Madagascar">four forest types</a> are the dry deciduous forests of the west, humid evergreen forests of the east, spiny bush forests of the arid south, and transitional forests of the north-west corner of the island. </p>
<p>Using computer-based modelling, we simulated how each forest type would respond to climate change from the current period up to the year 2080. The model used the known distribution of each forest type, and current and future climatic data. </p>
<p>We did this under two different conditions: a mitigation scenario, assuming human reliance on greenhouse gas reduces according to climate commitments already made; and an unmitigated scenario, assuming greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase at their current rate.</p>
<p>Our results suggest that unmitigated climate change will result in declines of Madagascar’s forests. The area of land covered by humid forest, the most extensive of the four forest types, is predicted to decrease by about 5.66%. Dry forest and spiny bush are also predicted to decline in response to unmitigated climate change. Transitional forest may actually <em>increase</em> by as much as 5.24%, but this gain will almost certainly come at the expense of other forest types. </p>
<p>We expected our model to show that mitigating climate change would result in net forest gain. Surprisingly, our results suggest entirely the opposite. Forest occurrence will decrease by up to 5.84%, even with efforts to mitigate climate change. This is because global temperatures are forecast to increase under both mitigated and unmitigated scenarios. </p>
<p>These predicted declines are in addition to the huge losses of forest already caused by ongoing deforestation throughout the island. </p>
<p>It looks as if the damage has already been done.</p>
<h2>Climate change, a major threat</h2>
<p>The results of our research highlight that climate change is indeed a major threat to Madagascar’s forests and likely other ecosystems worldwide. These findings are deeply concerning for the survival of Madagascar’s animals and plants, many of which depend entirely on forest habitat.</p>
<p>Not only will climate change decrease the size of existing forests, changes in temperature and rainfall will also affect the amount of fruit that trees produce.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504017/original/file-20230111-17-plofod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A Lemur on tree in the forest." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504017/original/file-20230111-17-plofod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504017/original/file-20230111-17-plofod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504017/original/file-20230111-17-plofod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504017/original/file-20230111-17-plofod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504017/original/file-20230111-17-plofod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504017/original/file-20230111-17-plofod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504017/original/file-20230111-17-plofod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Madagascar lemurs and other animal and plant species may become extinct if the forests disappear.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/lemur-vari-sits-on-a-branch-near-the-vohibola-forest-news-photo/1137827558?phrase=madagascar%20forests&adppopup=true">Rijasolo/AFP</a></span>
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<p>Many of Madagascar’s animals, such as its lemurs, rely heavily on fruit for food. Changes in fruit availability will have serious impact on the health, reproductive success and population growth of these animals. Some animals may be able to adapt to changes in climate and habitat, but others are very sensitive to such changes. They are <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.1418">unlikely</a> to <a href="https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/03/20/how-climate-change-is-turning-once-green-madagascar-into-a-desert#:%7E:text=The%20once%20lush%20and%20green,and%20animals%20such%20as%20lemurs">survive in a hot, arid environment</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-and-wildlife-3-studies-that-reveal-the-devastating-toll-on-africas-animals-192412">Climate change and wildlife: 3 studies that reveal the devastating toll on Africa's animals</a>
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<p>This will also have serious knock-on effects for human populations that depend on forests and animals for eco-tourism income. Approximately <a href="https://allafrica.com/stories/201002011027.html">75% of Madagascar’s population</a> depends on the forest and subsistence farming for survival, and the tourism sector contributes over US$600 million towards the island’s economy annually.</p>
<p>To ensure that Madagascar’s forests survive, immediate action is needed to end deforestation, protect the remaining patches of forest, replant and restore forests, and mitigate global carbon emissions. Otherwise these remarkable forests will eventually disappear, along with all the animals and plants that depend on them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195964/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Climate change is a huge threat to Madagascar’s four forest types – urgent action is needed to ensure they don’t disappear completely.Daniel Hending, Postdoctoral Research Assistant Animal Vibration Lab, University of OxfordMarc Holderied, Professor in Sensory Biology, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1795312022-04-11T12:14:59Z2022-04-11T12:14:59ZWhy do cats’ eyes glow in the dark?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456935/original/file-20220407-12485-7gz53u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1089%2C47%2C2904%2C1856&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The same thing that makes their eyes glow helps cats see better in dim light.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/portrait-of-cat-with-glowing-eyes-sitting-on-steps-royalty-free-image/640438733">Cletus Waldman/EyeEm via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/curious-kids-us-74795">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">curiouskidsus@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p>
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<p><strong>Why do cats’ eyes glow in the dark? Chloe, age 10, Barkhamsted, Connecticut</strong></p>
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<p>Cats and many other animals, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1463-5224.2004.00318.x">including most dogs</a>, can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1463-5224.2004.00318.x">reflect light from their eyes</a>. That’s why cats’ eyes will usually shine brightly in photos taken in a dimly lit room or glow when illuminated in the dark by a flashlight or a car’s headlights.</p>
<p>Species whose eyes glow have evolved to see better in low light because they either forage or need to look out for predators throughout the night, or they do most of their hunting at <a href="https://dickinsoncountyconservationboard.com/2018/06/26/not-nocturnal-crepuscular/">dawn and dusk</a>. In fact, domesticated cats can see in conditions that are only <a href="https://www.dvm360.com/view/vision-in-dogs-and-cats">16% as bright</a> as what people require.</p>
<p>Cats accomplish this because their pupils – the openings that appear black in the middle of their eyes that widen and narrow in response to light conditions – are special. Pupils operate like windows, with bigger ones letting more light into the eye. And a cat’s pupils can become <a href="https://www.dvm360.com/view/vision-in-dogs-and-cats">up to 50% larger</a> than human pupils in dim light. They also have a <a href="https://www.dvm360.com/view/vision-in-dogs-and-cats">higher number</a> of a specific type of light-sensing cell in the back of their eyes than we do. These cells, <a href="https://www.cis.rit.edu/people/faculty/montag/vandplite/pages/chap_9/ch9p1.html">called rods</a>, catch low-level light. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457176/original/file-20220408-41073-5610vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Diagram of the eyes of a human, a lynx and a puma" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457176/original/file-20220408-41073-5610vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457176/original/file-20220408-41073-5610vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=199&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457176/original/file-20220408-41073-5610vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=199&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457176/original/file-20220408-41073-5610vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=199&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457176/original/file-20220408-41073-5610vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457176/original/file-20220408-41073-5610vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457176/original/file-20220408-41073-5610vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Humans do not have a tapetum lucidum but cats, including lynxes and pumas, do.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.open.edu/openlearn/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=2225&extra=thumbnailfigure_idm46597346755312">The Open University</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The tapetum lucidum</h2>
<p>In addition to having large pupils and lots of rods, cats have something people don’t: a tapetum lucidum, a Latin medical term that translates to “<a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tapetum_lucidum">bright or shining tapestry</a>.” The tapetum lucidum is also known as “<a href="http://www.eyecareforanimals.com/conditions/eyeshine-veterinary/">eyeshine</a>.”</p>
<p>It’s located in the back of the eye behind the <a href="https://www.healthline.com/human-body-maps/retina#1">retina</a> – a thin layer of tissue that receives light, converts the light to an electrical signal and sends this signal to the brain to interpret the image.</p>
<p>A cat’s tapetum lucidum is made up of cells with crystals that, like a mirror, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1463-5224.2004.00318.x">reflect light</a> back to the retina. This gives the retina a second chance to absorb more light.</p>
<p>The feline tapetum lucidum is special because its reflective compound is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0264.1990.tb00892.x">riboflavin</a>, a type of vitamin B. Riboflavin has unique properties that amplify light to a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0264.1990.tb00892.x">specific wavelength</a> that cats can see well, which greatly increases the sensitivity of the retina to low light.</p>
<p>In cats, the tapetum most often glows yellow-green or yellow-orange, but the color varies, just like their <a href="https://excitedcats.com/types-of-cat-eye-colors/">irises</a> – the colorful part of their eye, which can be <a href="https://excitedcats.com/types-of-cat-eye-colors/">green, yellow, blue or golden</a>. Variation in tapetum color is not unique to cats and can be found in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1463-5224.2004.00318.x">lots of species</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456944/original/file-20220407-10731-d1wffn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A dog with glowing eyes" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456944/original/file-20220407-10731-d1wffn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456944/original/file-20220407-10731-d1wffn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456944/original/file-20220407-10731-d1wffn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456944/original/file-20220407-10731-d1wffn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456944/original/file-20220407-10731-d1wffn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456944/original/file-20220407-10731-d1wffn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456944/original/file-20220407-10731-d1wffn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Most dogs’ eyes will glow in dark spaces when a light shines on them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tommy Greco</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Other animals’ eyes glow too</h2>
<p>Many other animals that need to see at night have a tapetum lucidum. That includes predators and prey alike, everything from wild foxes to farmed <a href="https://www.merckvetmanual.com/eye-diseases-and-disorders/ophthalmology/ocular-fundus">sheep and goats</a>.</p>
<p>The tapetum lucidum is also useful to fish, <a href="https://seaworld.org/animals/all-about/bottlenose-dolphin/senses/">dolphins</a> and other aquatic animals, because it helps them see better in murky, dark water.</p>
<p>In land animals, the tapetum is found in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1463-5224.2004.00318.x">top half of the eye</a> behind the retina, because they need to see what is on the ground best. But in aquatic animals the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1463-5224.2004.00318.x">tapetum takes up most of the eye</a>, because they need to see all around them in the dark.</p>
<p>Like cats, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0264.1990.tb00892.x">the lemur</a>, a small primate, and its close relative, the bush baby – also known as a “<a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/bushbabies?loggedin=true">night monkey</a>” – also have a superreflective tapetum made with riboflavin.</p>
<p>Even though a lot of animals have eyeshine, some small domesticated dogs lack this trait. Most animals with <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-do-dogs-get-blue-not/">blue eyes and white or light-colored coats</a> have also lost this trait.</p>
<p>So don’t be alarmed if your dog’s or cat’s eyes don’t glow. The list of other species <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1463-5224.2004.00318.x">without a tapetum lucidum</a> includes pigs, birds, reptiles and most rodents and primates – including humans. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456689/original/file-20220406-26-jgsrin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Bush babies' eyes glow" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456689/original/file-20220406-26-jgsrin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456689/original/file-20220406-26-jgsrin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456689/original/file-20220406-26-jgsrin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456689/original/file-20220406-26-jgsrin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456689/original/file-20220406-26-jgsrin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456689/original/file-20220406-26-jgsrin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456689/original/file-20220406-26-jgsrin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This bush baby can probably see better at night than you can.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/bush-baby-illuminated-at-night-descending-from-a-royalty-free-image/1180488942">Smartshots International/Moment via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Is there a downside?</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, animals with a tapetum lucidum <a href="https://www.dvm360.com/view/vision-in-dogs-and-cats">sacrifice some visual acuity</a> for their ability to see in dim light.</p>
<p>That’s because all that light bouncing around as it reflects off the tapetum can make what they see a little fuzzier. So, a cat needs to be <a href="https://www.dvm360.com/view/vision-in-dogs-and-cats">seven times closer</a> to an object to see it as sharply as a person would in a brightly lit place.</p>
<p>But don’t worry, I’m sure your cat would rather see clearly at night than read a book.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179531/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Braidee Foote does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A veterinary ophthalmologist explains what’s going on.Braidee Foote, Clinical Assistant Professor of Veterinary Ophthalmology, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1745162022-01-13T19:25:59Z2022-01-13T19:25:59ZWith fewer animals to spread their seeds, plants could have trouble adapting to climate change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440528/original/file-20220112-15-fvjp9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=52%2C17%2C5751%2C3854&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Bohemian waxwing eating mountain ash berries.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/2krywR2">Lisa Hupp, USFWS/Flickr</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Picture a mature, broad-branched tree like an oak, maple or fig. How does it reproduce so that its offspring don’t grow up in its shadow, fighting for light?</p>
<p>The answer is seed dispersal. Plants have evolved many strategies for spreading their seeds away from the parent plant. Some produce seedlings that <a href="https://www.treespnw.com/resources/2017/9/28/maple-seeds-natures-helicopters">float on the wind</a>. Others have fruits that actually explode, <a href="https://carnegiemnh.org/its-my-flower-witch-hazel/">ejecting their seeds</a>.</p>
<p>And more than half of all plants rely on wildlife to disperse their seeds. This typically happens when animals eat fruits from plants or carry away their nuts, then excrete or drop the seeds somewhere else. In tropical rainforests, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1079/9780851994321.0000">animals disperse the seeds of up to 90% of tree species</a>. </p>
<p>Today the Earth is losing species at a rapid rate, potentially representing the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-mass-extinction-and-are-we-in-one-now-122535">sixth mass extinction</a> in its history. In a <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abk3510">newly published study</a>, we examine what this loss means for seed dispersal, focusing on birds and mammals that disperse fleshy-fruited plants. </p>
<p>We assessed how seed dispersers help plants shift their geographic ranges to reach habitats newly suitable for growth – a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.292.5517.673">crucial mechanism for surviving climate change</a>. If not enough seeds disperse to track the environmental conditions like temperature and precipitation that plants require, the plants could be stuck in settings where they will struggle to survive. This could lead to losses of plant species, along with the valuable products and services they provide, ranging from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.1667">food</a> to <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1501105">carbon storage</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0m6AjWZ2p8I?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Researchers follow brown spider monkeys in a Colombian tropical forest to determine which plant seeds they are dispersing.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A new era for plant movement</h2>
<p>Animals have been dispersing seeds for millions of years, but the relationships between plants and their seed dispersers have changed dramatically in our modern era.</p>
<p>Berries in California are no longer eaten by grizzly bears, which <a href="http://www.laalmanac.com/environment/ev15.php">disappeared from the state a century ago</a>. On the island of Madagascar, seeds no longer travel in the bellies of <a href="https://www.amnh.org/explore/videos/biodiversity/lemurs-of-madagascar/article-lemurs-in-madagascar-then">gorilla-sized lemurs</a>, which went extinct there about 2,300 years ago. In France, seeds don’t catch a ride on the fur of <a href="https://www.earthtouchnews.com/discoveries/fossils/dna-reveals-the-true-identity-of-the-prehistoric-cave-lion/">lions</a> or between the toes of rhinos that once lived there, as shown in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chauvet_Cave#/media/File:Rhinos_Chauvet_Cave.jpg">prehistoric cave paintings</a>. When animals disperse seeds today, their movement is often hampered by roads, farms or built-up areas. </p>
<p>For most animal-dispersed plants – especially those with large seeds, which require large animals like <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/btp.12627">tapirs</a>, <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/amazing-african-elephants-may-transport-seeds-farther-any-other-land-animal">elephants</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0120062">hornbills</a> to spread them – these changes mean a big reduction in seed dispersal, and a great slowdown of plant movement.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440529/original/file-20220112-21-1eg09ll.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Dung pile with sprouts growing upward" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440529/original/file-20220112-21-1eg09ll.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440529/original/file-20220112-21-1eg09ll.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440529/original/file-20220112-21-1eg09ll.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440529/original/file-20220112-21-1eg09ll.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440529/original/file-20220112-21-1eg09ll.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440529/original/file-20220112-21-1eg09ll.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440529/original/file-20220112-21-1eg09ll.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Seedlings sprouting from elephant dung in Malaysia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ahimsa Campos Arceiz</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Research by our team and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-012221-111742">work by many colleagues</a> have uncovered the <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=nNoGtVQAAAAJ&sortby=pubdate">negative ecological consequences</a> that <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7qLnPUgAAAAJ&hl=en">occur</a> when <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fYAJtfsAAAAJ&hl=en">seed dispersers</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=we7WLk8AAAAJ&hl=en">disappear</a>. Now researchers are assessing how seed dispersal decline is affecting plants’ responses to climate change.</p>
<h2>Quantifying what’s been lost</h2>
<p>Only a small fraction of the thousands of seed disperser species and tens of thousands of animal-dispersed plant species have been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.22199">studied</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actao.2011.01.014">directly</a>. Many seed disperser species are extinct or so rare that they can’t be studied at all.</p>
<p>To overcome this challenge, we pulled together data from published studies showing which bird and mammal seed dispersers eat which fruits, how far they spread the seeds, and how their digestive systems’ effects on the seeds help or hinder germination. These three steps together describe what’s required for successful seed dispersal: A seed must be removed from the mother plant, travel some distance away from it and survive to become a seedling. </p>
<p>Next, we used <a href="https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/machine-learning-explained">machine learning</a> to generate predictions for seed dispersal, based on the traits of each species. For example, data on a medium-sized thrush in North America could help us model how a medium-sized thrush species from Asia dispersed seeds, even if the Asian species wasn’t studied directly. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440530/original/file-20220112-25-l7d09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Tapir browses on leaves." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440530/original/file-20220112-25-l7d09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440530/original/file-20220112-25-l7d09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440530/original/file-20220112-25-l7d09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440530/original/file-20220112-25-l7d09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440530/original/file-20220112-25-l7d09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440530/original/file-20220112-25-l7d09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440530/original/file-20220112-25-l7d09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lowland tapirs like this one in Mato Grosso, Brazil, globally classified as vulnerable, are important seed dispersers in tropical forests.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_American_tapir#/media/File:Lowland_Tapir_(Tapirus_terrestris)_browsing_leaves_..._(27931351641).jpg">Bernard Dupont/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Using our trained model, we could estimate seed dispersal by every bird and mammal species – even rare or extinct species for which there isn’t any species-specific data on the seed dispersal process.</p>
<p>The last step was to compare current seed dispersal to what would be happening if extinctions and species range contractions hadn’t happened. For fleshy-fruited plants, we estimate that because of bird and mammal losses, 60% fewer seeds are being dispersed far enough worldwide to keep pace with climate change by shifting locations. Further, we estimate that if currently endangered seed disperser species such as bonobos, savanna elephants and helmeted hornbills became extinct, global seed dispersal would decline by an additional 15%. </p>
<p>The impact of past seed disperser declines has been greatest in areas including North America, Europe and the southern part of South America. Future losses of endangered species would have their most severe impacts in areas including Southeast Asia and Madagascar.</p>
<p>With fewer seed dispersers present, fewer seeds will be moved far enough to enable plants to adapt to climate change by shifting their ranges.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440526/original/file-20220112-27-dxk522.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map showing regions where climate-tracking seed dispersal has declined most sharply." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440526/original/file-20220112-27-dxk522.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440526/original/file-20220112-27-dxk522.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440526/original/file-20220112-27-dxk522.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440526/original/file-20220112-27-dxk522.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440526/original/file-20220112-27-dxk522.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440526/original/file-20220112-27-dxk522.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440526/original/file-20220112-27-dxk522.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Areas with with brighter red coloration have lost more climate-tracking seed dispersal function. Areas with brighter blue coloration stand to lose more of their remaining seed dispersal function if endangered species there go extinct.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abk3510">Fricke et al., 2022</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Seed dispersers help sustain forests</h2>
<p>Seed dispersal also helps forests and other natural ecosystems recover from disturbances like wildfire and deforestation. This means that mammals and birds play a major role in sustaining natural vegetation. </p>
<p>Most forest recovery around the world happens through seed dispersal and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab79e6">natural forest regrowth</a> rather than via people planting trees. Seed dispersal by animals is especially important for tropical forests, which can <a href="https://theconversation.com/tropical-forests-can-recover-surprisingly-quickly-on-deforested-lands-and-letting-them-regrow-naturally-is-an-effective-and-low-cost-way-to-slow-climate-change-173302">grow back relatively quickly after they are logged or burned</a>. </p>
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<p>Seed dispersers also promote biodiversity by helping to ensure that a large number of plant species can survive and thrive. Ecosystems that contain many plant species with diverse genetic makeups are better equipped to handle uncertain futures, and to sustain the <a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/ecosystemservices/">ecosystem functions</a> that humans rely on, such as storing carbon, producing food and timber, filtering water and controlling floods and erosion. </p>
<p>There are ways to increase seed dispersal. Making sure patches of similar habitats <a href="https://ipbes.net/glossary/habitat-connectivity">are connected</a> helps species move among them. Restoring populations of important seed dispersers, ranging from toucans to bears to elephants, will also help. And global models of seed dispersal like ours can help scientists and land managers think about seed dispersers as a nature-based solution for addressing climate change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174516/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Evan Fricke receives funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alejandro Ordonez receives funding from the Aarhus University Research Fund.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Haldre Rogers receives funding from the US National Science Foundation and the US Department of Defense's Joint Region Marianas and Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program. She is affiliated with the nonprofit organization, Tåno Tåsi yan Todu. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jens Christian Svenning receives funding from numerous research funding agencies and private foundations, currently mainly VILLUM Fonden, Independent Research Fund Denmark, European Commission, Novo Nordisk Foundation, and Danida Fellowship Centre. He is on the Supervisory Board for Rewilding Europe.</span></em></p>Forests around the world will need to shift their ranges to adapt to climate change. But many trees and plants rely on animals to spread their seeds widely, and those partners are declining.Evan Fricke, Faculty Fellow in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Rice UniversityAlejandro Ordonez, Assistant Professor of Global Change Biology, Aarhus UniversityHaldre Rogers, Associate Professor of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, Iowa State UniversityJens-Christian Svenning, Professor of ecology, Aarhus UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1598492021-07-13T13:27:41Z2021-07-13T13:27:41ZThe COVID-19 pandemic is affecting conservation efforts in Madagascar<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404528/original/file-20210604-23-1ijdhi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Coquerel Sifaka in its natural environment in a Malagasy national park. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eugen Haag/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The effects of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/africa/covid-19">COVID-19 pandemic</a>, and the restriction policies used to mitigate the spread of the virus, are being felt all over the world. It affects all parts of life <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32292203/">including conservation</a> especially in developing countries like Madagascar. </p>
<p>Madagascar’s natural environment faces multiple challenges. These <a href="https://www.grida.no/resources/1336">include</a> deforestation, erosion, a changing climate, <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/as-minister-and-activists-trade-barbs-madagascars-forests-burn/">agriculture fires</a>,
hunting and the over-collection of animals and plants from the wild. One of the biggest hurdles, which exacerbates these issues, is that poverty is widespread in Madagascar. It’s estimated that <a href="https://borgenproject.org/poverty-in-madagascar-5/">75%</a> of people in Madagascar live on less than $1.90 per day, and so many depend on natural resources. </p>
<p>There are about <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/09/how-effective-is-conservation-in-madagascar-series-starts-next-week/">500 conservation projects</a> which are trying to address these challenges and provide employment to local communities. </p>
<p>I collaborated with a group of conservation managers and researchers, mostly from Madagascar, to assess exactly how the pandemic has affected conservation activities. <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/btp.12967">Our paper</a> is based on our personal experiences and involvement in establishing management strategies during the pandemic.</p>
<p>We found that the pandemic challenged existing conservation structures and management. The issue is that most of Madagascar’s conservation and research projects are conceptualised and funded from abroad – the Global North. Non-governmental organisations on the ground implement their activities with the help of communities living close to protected areas. </p>
<p>Because of COVID-19 travel restrictions, several activities were forced to stop. This included vital training and biodiversity monitoring.</p>
<p>This situation provides us with the opportunity to re-examine strategies and research approaches to build resilience for future crises. The foundation of which lies with the true empowerment of local communities, conservationists and researchers.</p>
<h2>Challenges and coping strategies</h2>
<p>Our research involved members of organisations that manage multiple sites and protected areas across Madagascar. These included <a href="https://www.wwf.mg/">WWF Madagascar</a>, the <a href="https://www.aspinallfoundation.org/the-aspinall-foundation/working-around-the-world/madagascar/">Aspinall Foundation</a>, the <a href="https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/plant-science/plant-science/africa/madagascar.aspx">Missouri Botanical Garden</a> in Madagascar and the <a href="https://www.parcs-madagascar.com/">Madagascar National Parks</a>. The type of activities they carry out include both research and conservation.</p>
<p>Prior to the pandemic, activities were directed and funded by local and international agencies. Although there are initiatives that emerged locally, typically foreigners would lead and manage the projects. Malagasies (often those that live around the conservation areas) were usually employed to take on basic roles. For instance as project assistants, field guiding and patrolling. These activities provided them with an additional income to subsistence agriculture. </p>
<p>We found that restrictions, taken to reduce the spread of the new coronavirus, had a dramatic effect on conservation and research activities. Travel from abroad and within the country reduced the ability of projects to conduct activities. Foreigners, who were running projects, couldn’t come in. And there were also challenges managing activities from the capital, Antananarivo. </p>
<p>Border closures also meant international tourists and researchers couldn’t come into Madagascar. This resulted in less financial resources for conservation activities. For instance, park entrance and research permit fees are often used to fund conservation activities such as surveillance activities. They also provide park guides with an income. </p>
<p>In addition to a loss of income, in some cases project costs grew. This was because staff had to work from home, which increased communication expenses, and because local communities needed to report to head offices using phones. There were also additional costs related to health safety measures, such as masks and sanitisers.</p>
<p>Because there’s less surveillance activity, and also because many communities living close to protected areas had lost their supplementary income, there’s been an increase in illegal activities <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/as-visitors-vanish-madagascars-protected-areas-suffer-a-devastating-blow/">inside some</a> national parks. This includes more hunting, logging and charcoal production.</p>
<p>In addition, environmental education and awareness activities for local communities living around protected areas ceased. </p>
<p>Not all local communities lost their work. In some places local communities were relied on to continue conservation and research activities, like reforestation and forest surveillance. But, because they weren’t adequately trained, this compromised the project.</p>
<p>Forest rangers, usually accompanied by permanent staff, had to perform habitat and species monitoring alone. But they faced challenges. This relates mostly to the transfer or proper storage of monitoring data because of the lack of technological knowledge and reduced connectivity in some remote sites. </p>
<h2>Improving the model</h2>
<p>All of these insights make a strong case for a change in Madagascar’s conservation model. In recent years, scientists and researchers <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/09/local-approaches-to-conservation-may-be-the-most-effective-study-finds/">have argued</a> that locally-based conservation activities are more resilient as they engage and provide benefits to local communities. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/btp.12967">paper</a> supports this. Projects should be more independent so that they can continue to run without such a heavy reliance on human resources from abroad. More needs to be done to ensure that the workforce is predominantly local, and driven by locals. </p>
<p>Projects should also provide leadership opportunities to local managers and researchers.</p>
<p>Communities living near protected areas have benefited from the efforts of NGOs and conservation organisations. However, such an approach should include possibilities for diversifying livelihoods that take into account local needs and values. </p>
<p>We hope that the lessons we have learned in Madagascar during COVID-19 will help to drive conservation and research in developing countries towards a more inclusive, sustainable, and equitable model. This would help to improve the success of conservation activities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159849/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Estelle Razanatsoa receives funding from the Southern African Science Service Centre (SASSCAL) and the African Origins Platform (AOP).</span></em></p>Most of Madagascar’s conservation and research projects are conceptualised and funded from abroad.Estelle Razanatsoa, Postdoctoral Fellow, Plant Conservation Unit (PCU), University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1619552021-06-17T15:50:12Z2021-06-17T15:50:12ZMonkeys, lemurs and apes at risk: Climate change threatens a quarter of world’s primate habitat<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406569/original/file-20210615-25-pgn1i1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=89%2C33%2C2387%2C1718&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The endangered golden snub-nosed monkey lives in mountainous forests of central and southwest China. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most primates — monkeys, apes, lemurs, lorises and tarsiers — live in a tropical belt that stretches around the equator from Central and South America to Africa and Asia. But the majority of them <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/four-countries-are-home-two-thirds-planets-primates-and-most-those-are-endangered">are found in four different countries</a> — Brazil, Madagascar, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo — so many people have not had direct contact with them. </p>
<p>Still, we may know them from films, like the <a href="https://news.cgtn.com/news/2019-09-29/Monkey-Mania-Kin-to-Jack-the-Monkey-in-The-Pirates-of-the-Caribbean-KmfYF3CJgc/index.html">capuchin in <em>Pirates of the Caribbean</em></a>, or may have heard of their stealthy abilities, like the macaques <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jan/14/balis-thieving-monkeys-seek-bigger-ransoms-for-high-value-swag-study">who pickpocket</a> travellers. Some are important cultural or religious symbols, <a href="http://www.luminarium.org/mythology/monkeygods.htm">like macaques</a>. </p>
<p>These animals also play key roles in their ecosystems, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.23059">pollinating flowers</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-008-0087-0">dispersing seeds</a>. Although there are around <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/search/grid?taxonomies=100091&searchType=species">500 primate species</a> in the world, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1600946">three-quarters</a> of them are facing population declines. </p>
<p>Because most <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/srep25697">primates live near the equator</a>, many are especially vulnerable to climate change. In a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-020-02776-5">recent study</a>, my colleagues and I looked at what would happen to primate species around the world if global temperatures rose 2 C, the upper limit set by the <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement">Paris Agreement</a>. The results showed that a quarter of all primate habitat will experience prolonged heat extremes. They give conservation scientists important information on how climate change will influence primate populations in the future.</p>
<h2>New heat extremes</h2>
<p>We already know that global warming will not be uniform across the planet. The Arctic is warming faster than places closer to the equator, for example. But for animals already living in hot places, a slight increase in temperature could readily move them past a threshold and outside their comfort zone.</p>
<p>The threshold temperatures in our study represent the hottest temperature that each primate species would have faced in pre-industrial times. We then compared future average temperatures to this baseline. </p>
<p>Under the Paris Agreement, nations pledged to keep global warming to 2 C above pre-industrial levels. Yet we found that under that scenario, 26.1 per cent of all the habitats where primate species live will be hotter than their threshold temperatures. For some species, such as the patas monkey and the Senegal bushbaby in Africa, this could mean long periods throughout the year where temperatures surpass 33 C. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Squirrel monkey" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406570/original/file-20210615-3582-vjzewq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406570/original/file-20210615-3582-vjzewq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406570/original/file-20210615-3582-vjzewq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406570/original/file-20210615-3582-vjzewq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406570/original/file-20210615-3582-vjzewq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406570/original/file-20210615-3582-vjzewq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406570/original/file-20210615-3582-vjzewq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hotter temperatures could force primates to alter their behaviours. They may eat less and produce fewer offspring.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like humans, primates overheat and become dehydrated with continued physical activity in extremely hot weather. In a warmer future, they would have to adjust, resting and staying in the shade during the hottest times of the day. This could mean foraging less or not mating, which could limit overall food intake and change reproductive cycles.</p>
<p>Those species living in the Brazilian Amazon, along the north coast of Venezuela, the centre of equatorial Africa, the African east coast and the northwest coast of Madagascar will be most affected. Those that are already endangered, have populations occupying less than 12,000 square kilometres and are facing significant temperature increases — such as annual averages consistently above 27 C — are at greatest risk of extinction with the compounding effects of climate change. </p>
<p>For instance, the Celebes crested macaque (the <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/09/12/550417823/-animal-rights-advocates-photographer-compromise-over-ownership-of-monkey-selfie">famous “monkey selfie” primate</a>) and the <a href="http://www.edgeofexistence.org/species/siau-island-tarsier/">Siau Island tarsier</a> are both critically endangered in small habitats, while currently experiencing year-round temperatures above their historic thresholds. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1329150130835005440"}"></div></p>
<p>Our analysis also showed that climate change has already pushed eight per cent of primate species habits past their thresholds. This means some populations may be facing additional stress due to hotter temperatures and changing their behaviour to compensate. These species all have declining populations and have been categorized as close to extinction — the new heat extremes could be partially to blame.</p>
<h2>Human impact</h2>
<p>It’s easy to assume that warmer global temperatures would lead to an increase in the habitat primates favour, by stretching it north and south and upwards on mountain slopes. But because of human population growth, infrastructure and agriculture, some species may not be able to move to these newly suitable areas. </p>
<p>Many primates prefer to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-013-0572-7">avoid us</a> and our roads, cities and fields block them from getting there. In some cases, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/sciencefair/2017/01/18/primates-apes-monkeys-extinction/96724398/">there is no habitat for them to move to</a>, because it has been logged, mined or degraded in some other way. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="endangered red-shanked douc from Vietnam" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406572/original/file-20210615-3582-n2ly15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406572/original/file-20210615-3582-n2ly15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406572/original/file-20210615-3582-n2ly15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406572/original/file-20210615-3582-n2ly15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406572/original/file-20210615-3582-n2ly15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406572/original/file-20210615-3582-n2ly15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406572/original/file-20210615-3582-n2ly15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Most non-human primates, including the endangered red-shanked douc langur, found only in north and central Vietnam and Laos, are threatened with extinction. Climate change could make it more difficult for these species to survive.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>About <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1600946">60 per cent</a> of non-human primate species are currently threatened with extinction, and climate change is only a part of it. Habitat loss, hunting, the illegal pet trade and disease have already cut back primate populations. Climate change will likely <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0508-7">increase the duration and intensity of extreme weather events</a> such as cyclones and droughts, putting more pressure on the survival of already struggling species. </p>
<h2>Conservation is key</h2>
<p>Our model did not include conservation issues, such as habitat loss, that primates are already facing. Yet the areas with the most primate species predicted to surpass temperature thresholds have also been identified as suitable for the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2014.05.077">expansion of palm oil plantations</a>. The combination of the two would only further reduce these species’ access to suitable habitat and put them at greater risk of extinction. </p>
<p>Nature reserves have been helpful in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0105824">maintaining populations</a> of wild animals. However, the borders of wildlife reserves and protected areas are usually fixed and not easy to move. Future temperature increases could alter the habitat within a protected area so that it is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.22247">no longer suitable for the primate species living there now</a>. </p>
<p>Considering the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2681">rapid rate</a> of climate change, future primate conservation should include predicted temperature changes in combination with the other issues that primates face. For example, wildlife reserve boundaries could be chosen based on future climatically suitable habitat for a species. Primates are amazing and fascinating animals that deserve a home on this planet alongside us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161955/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brogan M. Stewart receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Fonds de recherche du Québec nature and technologies, Hydro-Québec, Mitacs and the Quebec Centre for Biodiversity Science. </span></em></p>About 60 per cent of monkeys, apes, lemurs, lorises and tarsiers are threatened with extinction. Climate change will only make it more difficult for them to survive.Brogan M. Stewart, PhD Student in Environmental Science, Concordia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1484082020-12-13T13:04:41Z2020-12-13T13:04:41ZHibernating lemurs may be the key to cryogenic sleep for human space travel<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373766/original/file-20201209-18-1r2o0ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C0%2C5212%2C3417&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Scientists have discovered that the gray mouse lemur has the ability to hibernate.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Science fiction is shifting into reality. With humanity’s plans to <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/topics/moon-to-mars/overview">return to the moon this decade</a> and further ambitions to travel to Mars in the next, we need to figure out how to keep astronauts healthy for these years-long missions. One solution long championed by science fiction is suspended animation, or putting humans in a hibernation-like sleep for the duration of travel time. </p>
<p>We can turn to nature for guidance and a potential solution to this challenge.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374268/original/file-20201210-19-1jm1k1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A squirrel monkey sits on top of a model rocket." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374268/original/file-20201210-19-1jm1k1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374268/original/file-20201210-19-1jm1k1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374268/original/file-20201210-19-1jm1k1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374268/original/file-20201210-19-1jm1k1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374268/original/file-20201210-19-1jm1k1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374268/original/file-20201210-19-1jm1k1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374268/original/file-20201210-19-1jm1k1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Primates have been used in space research for decades. Space pioneer Miss Baker, a squirrel monkey, rode a Jupiter IRBM into space in 1959 and returned safely.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://mix.msfc.nasa.gov/abstracts.php?p=886">(NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>It’s cold and dark out there</h2>
<p>Space is unforgiving. In this freezing void of darkness there is no oxygen, no gravity and no protection against the constant shower of cosmic radiation. Humans have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59381-9_21">evolved under a constant gravitational pull</a> — so when you put people into space, strange and dangerous things happen to their bodies. </p>
<p>However, scientists and engineers working with astronauts on the International Space Station have innovated and continue to address these problems. For example, we know that spaceflight leads to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-012-2523-5">loss of muscle and bone density</a>, since our bones and muscles do not need to work against the pull of gravity to move us around. </p>
<p>But we still do not know how to address other space-related medical issues, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2018.01437">immune system alterations</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ophtha.2011.06.021">problems with vision</a> and bombardment with <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/life4030491">hazardous cosmic radiation</a>. </p>
<p>These physiological challenges are combined with the technological difficulties of sending multiple humans on these long missions where they face logistical complications of packing and allocating enough provisions and supplies, as well as social issues of coping with extreme isolation in deep space. </p>
<h2>Putting the body on pause</h2>
<p>Suspended animation and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/febs.14683">biostasis</a> may elicit science fiction images of humans in cryosleep pods. If we could put humans in a state of suspended animation by greatly slowing or even fully halting metabolic activity, we could alleviate issues surrounding space travel: time, health concerns, spacecraft size and supply allocation.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aGSMEhKPIeo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">WIRED takes a look at the science behind suspended animation.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But how can we safely ease humans into hibernation and then bring them back when the time is right, without risking muscle and bone wasting, to name a few challenges? These are questions that the <a href="https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2018-03-01">United States Department of Defense</a> and other space agencies are actively exploring. </p>
<p>Animals who spend the winter in states of suspended animation — hibernation — don’t experience significant muscle and bone wasting. Their existence and ability to reversibly turn off biological processes seemingly necessary for life may well hold the key to creating the conditions required for the human hibernation strategy that could pave our way to surviving long interstellar voyages to distant stars.</p>
<p>In fact, the use of biostasis has already been proposed for the <a href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20180007195">transport of large numbers of travellers to Mars</a>, where crew members will be sustained with specially formulated total nutrition liquids while they “sleep.”</p>
<h2>Model animals?</h2>
<p>How do we translate hibernation in animals to hibernation in humans? Recent work has uncovered such an ability in animals that are evolutionarily similar to humans: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gpb.2015.06.001">hibernating primates</a>. What is unique about these primates is that they can enter a state of hibernation when resources are scarce and temperatures become cold, and do so without seriously dropping their body temperature. </p>
<p>One of the driving forces behind this extreme ability is microRNAs — short pieces of RNA that act as molecular gene silencers. MicroRNAs can regulate gene expression without altering the genetic code itself. By studying the microRNA strategy these animals use, we can exploit this genetic on/off switch for rapid, reversible changes that could aid hibernation in humans. </p>
<p>Our work on gray mouse lemurs (<em>Microcebus murinus</em>) shows how <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbagrm.2019.194473">microRNAs control which biological processes remain on</a> to protect the animal and which ones are switched off to save energy. Some of these microRNAs were found to combat muscle wasting during hibernation. Other roles seem to involve preventing cell death, slowing down or stopping unnecessary cell growth, and switching fuel stores from quickly consumed sugars to slower-burned fats.</p>
<p>While microRNAs are a promising avenue of research, they are just one piece of the puzzle. Our lab is also looking into other aspects of how primates hibernate, such as how these lemurs <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gpb.2015.03.004">protect their cells from stress</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gpb.2015.03.003">control global gene levels</a> and how <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gpb.2015.03.006">they store enough energy to survive hibernation</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/h_bNO7MelXI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Mouse lemurs are more closely related to humans than mice, which are more typically used for research.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our lab also looks at how <a href="https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.104828">microRNAs are helping animals survive other extreme environmental stresses</a> including freezing, oxygen-deprivation and hot, dry climates. There is no stress more extreme than the vacuum of space, and we hope our research will contribute to the new RNA-based interventions that are gaining attention and emerging as viable human therapeutics.</p>
<p>Space is within our reach, and studying what’s already on Earth will help get us there.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148408/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hanane Hadj-Moussa receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kenneth B Storey receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aline Ingelson-Filpula does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Gray mouse lemurs are more closely related to humans than mice. They also have the ability to hibernate, and researchers are hoping to learn how to transfer that ability to humans.Hanane Hadj-Moussa, PhD Candidate in Molecular Biology, Carleton UniversityAline Ingelson-Filpula, M.Sc. Candidate in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Carleton UniversityKenneth B. Storey, Professor of Biochemistry, Carleton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1352162020-05-17T08:50:56Z2020-05-17T08:50:56ZWe wanted to know where Madagascar’s mysterious ‘forest’ cats came from. What we found<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334249/original/file-20200512-66693-iay3in.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A forest cat</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Captured by the project's camera trap.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Being separated from all other land masses since the late Cretaceous, when dinosaurs still dominated many parts of the Earth, Madagascar has long been referred to <a href="https://www.amnh.org/explore/videos/biodiversity/lemurs-of-madagascar/article-lemurs-in-madagascar-then">as a</a> “natural laboratory of evolution”. Its long isolation resulted in unique fauna and flora, most of which have evolved in place. </p>
<p>Madagascar only has four groups of endemic land mammals: primates (lemurs), rodents, Afrotheres (formerly insectivores such as tenrecs), and carnivores. Yet there’s huge diversity within these four groups. </p>
<p>When it comes to endemic terrestrial carnivores, there’s only one group that is recognised: the Eupleridae. Of these, the largest is the fosa. This is neither a felid (cat family) nor a canid (dog family). It is closely related to the mongoose and weighs between 5 and 10 kg. It has long been the primary mammalian predator of lemurs and other Malagasy mammals. </p>
<p>So, the conventional view is that Madagascar has no native cats (i.e. felids). Yet, cats are plentiful on the island. </p>
<p>There are two general types of cats in Madagascar: village cats, and a wild “forest” form. This “forest cat” has long been <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/08927936.2015.1052280">distinguished</a> by the Malagasy from village or feral domestic cats and is often viewed as a threat to domestic animals such as poultry. Given eye-witness accounts and reports – including our own – this little understood, wild “forest cat” is also an effective predator of Madagascar’s famous lemurs.</p>
<p>The “forest cats” are quite distinct in their outward appearance, consistently having a “tabby” or striped fur, longer legs, and a larger size (up to 5kg).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333156/original/file-20200506-49556-wal7ai.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333156/original/file-20200506-49556-wal7ai.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333156/original/file-20200506-49556-wal7ai.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333156/original/file-20200506-49556-wal7ai.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333156/original/file-20200506-49556-wal7ai.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333156/original/file-20200506-49556-wal7ai.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333156/original/file-20200506-49556-wal7ai.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Forest cat.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In contrast, “village” cats generally look like domestic cats seen around the world – a solid fur color (often white), shorter legs and a body size of about 2kg. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333157/original/file-20200506-49573-ija677.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333157/original/file-20200506-49573-ija677.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333157/original/file-20200506-49573-ija677.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333157/original/file-20200506-49573-ija677.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333157/original/file-20200506-49573-ija677.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333157/original/file-20200506-49573-ija677.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333157/original/file-20200506-49573-ija677.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Village cat.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The external morphology of the forest cats is thus very different from the village ones. It’s also quite similar – on the surface – to the African wild cats seen in eastern and southern portions of continental Africa. </p>
<p>Therefore, the origin(s) of Madagascar “forest” or “wild” cats has long been a mystery. Are they descended from the African wild cat (<em>Felis lybica</em>) arriving with East African pastoralists, who culturally dominate Madagascar’s southern regions? Are they a product of recently arrived domestic cats (<em>Felis silvestris</em>) from Europe, the Arabian realm or Southeast Asia?</p>
<p>To determine the origin(s) of Madagascar’s “forest cats”, we and our colleagues, carried out <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10592-020-01261-x">this study</a>. </p>
<p>Our findings reveal that Malagasy “forest cats” are descendants of cats from the Arabian Sea region. They did not originate from continental Africa’s wild cats and are instead related to domestic cats. </p>
<h2>Cat tracking</h2>
<p>Our team – a collaboration between scientists from six countries across three continents – collected genetic data from 30 “forest” cats at two locations in Madagascar, three individuals from the Bezà Mahafaly Special Reserve in the southwest, and 27 individuals from Ankarafantsika National Park in the far north of the island. </p>
<p>These data were compared with approximately 1900 samples from various domestic and wild cats across the world, to assess the degree of relatedness of the Malagasy wild forms. </p>
<p>The data produced by our team – combining the expertise, experience and skills of both field and laboratory scientists – revealed that the Malagasy “forest cats” most closely cluster with domestic cats specifically from the Arabian sea region, including the Kenyan islands of Lamu and Pate. The Malagasy cats are thus descendants of domestic cats from the Arabian Sea region and not continental <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10592-020-01261-x">Africa’s wild cats</a>.</p>
<h2>Origins</h2>
<p>When and how did this diaspora begin? The Arabian Sea and Kenyan Islands cats likely made it to Madagascar over the past millennium, or slightly earlier, by way of the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44139438?seq=3#metadata_info_tab_contents">Arabian sea trade</a>. There were several waves of migration to Madagascar from the Arabian realm over the past 1000 years or so. </p>
<p>These migrations brought architecture, linguistic components, and eventually a written script by the 18th century. And, they brought cats. Thus, Madagascar’s “forest cats” are oceanic migrants from elsewhere – as with Madagascar’s other terrestrial mammals, albeit via a human source rather than natural <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/24941342.pdf?casa_token=DCzGhHt9HpoAAAAA:qX6uD0o1Tb_FCdKhOiVB7jFwf5ATyQR9nNnDJ4Ic2vgsLRaRPUy8fLTQGrIiHKaDjzBwHRxlRTOkNUdfCQ0oolqEYNaL43sTrLyNDM4F_1tP0R4x6g">“rafting” processes</a>, such as the ancestors of Madagascar’s lemurs.</p>
<h2>Study or eradicate?</h2>
<p>What does this new information mean for these felids? Our results suggest Madagascar’s “forest cats” may have been introduced a millennium ago, and if so, studying their behaviour, biology and ecology provides a window into how exotic species adapt to island biogeography, as well as insight regarding <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-017-0139">cat dispersals</a>. </p>
<p>Importantly, our findings also raise the questions of what these cats’ role is in Madagascar’s forest ecosystems. Should they be <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jmammal/article/97/2/518/2459663">eradicated</a> – at least from protected reserves – as has been done on other islands in terms of introduced species? </p>
<p>The conservation questions surrounding these new data are complex and require thoughtful conversation to understand the whole story of Madagascar’s “forest cats”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135216/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank Cuozzo received funding from The International Primatological Society, Primate Conservation Incorporated. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Sauther received funding from the University of Colorado-Boulder and the Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation.</span></em></p>The conventional view is that Madagascar has no native cats. Yet, cats are plentiful.Frank Cuozzo, Biological anthropologist, University of Colorado BoulderMichelle Sauther, Professor, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1265202020-02-12T11:28:52Z2020-02-12T11:28:52ZNew discovery: Madagascar’s bizarre aye-aye has six fingers on each hand<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300431/original/file-20191106-12464-168nhrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The aye-aye</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">javarman/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The aye-aye is one of nature’s most fascinatingly bizarre creatures. Native to Madagascar, this lemur is the <a href="http://www.edgeofexistence.org/species/aye-aye/">largest</a> nocturnal primate in the world and has unique features that set it apart. It has bat‐like ears that allow it to echo-locate and rodent-like ever-growing incisors – both unique among primates.</p>
<p>It is most famous for its exceptionally long and skinny fingers. In fact, they are so long that the aye-aye’s hand <a href="https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/88034">accounts for about 41%</a> of the total length of the forelimb.</p>
<p>The animals also have highly specialised, extremely long third digits – middle fingers if you like – which they use to find food. They “tap” them against wood to generate acoustic reverberations that allow them to find wood‐boring larvae. These are then fished out with exceptional dexterity because the finger can swivel like a shoulder, and it is so thin that the animal habitually rests it on its even longer fourth finger for support.</p>
<p>My colleagues and I <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ajpa.23936">recently found</a> yet another unique specialisation that sets the aye-aye apart from other primates: a sixth finger on each hand. </p>
<p>Previously undocumented, this tiny extra digit - called a “pseudothumb” - is a structure on each wrist made of bone and cartilage. We think that it may have evolved to help the lemur grip branches as it climbs through the trees and to help it grasp small objects, since its other fingers became so long and specialised.</p>
<h2>The discovery</h2>
<p>In my studies of primates, I always wanted to examine the exceptional hand structure of aye-ayes and I was recently able to dissect some specimens to do so. </p>
<p>Little is known about the <a href="http://ielc.libguides.com/sdzg/factsheets/ayeaye/population">actual population</a> size of aye-ayes, but they are hard to find and a large-scale loss of their habitat suggests population decline.</p>
<p>My colleagues and I dissected six adult and one immature specimen. Of course, no animals were sacrificed for the purposes of this study. Three specimens were captive‐raised, acquired from the <a href="https://lemur.duke.edu/">Duke Lemur Centre</a> in the US. Three were wild‐born adults housed in the collections of the <a href="https://www.mnhn.fr/en">Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle</a>, Paris. One was a wild‐born adult from Tsimbazaza Botanical and Zoological Park in Anatananarivo, Madagascar. </p>
<p>Dissections were performed to analyse the anatomy of the hand and wrist. A seventh specimen was used to create a digital reconstruction of these anatomical structures following MRI scanning and manual segmentation – a technique similar to a medical scan that allows the anatomy to be viewed in three-dimensions in a digital space.</p>
<p>Our discovery of the extra digit was pretty much accidental. As we traced the tendon of one of the forearm muscles down past the wrist and into the hand, it unexpectedly split into two directions and the smallest bit extended to a strange little structure near the thumb. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300585/original/file-20191107-10924-5o8vil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300585/original/file-20191107-10924-5o8vil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=206&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300585/original/file-20191107-10924-5o8vil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=206&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300585/original/file-20191107-10924-5o8vil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=206&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300585/original/file-20191107-10924-5o8vil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=259&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300585/original/file-20191107-10924-5o8vil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=259&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300585/original/file-20191107-10924-5o8vil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=259&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">View of pseudothumb structures in (a) volume rendering of an MRI of the right hand of aye-aye (b) superficial and (c) deep dissections. Blue = tendon of palmaris longus.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When we examined the structure further, we noted a small bone and a cartilaginous extension that were moved in different directions by three different muscles. We realised the little structure was a “pseudothumb”. It even had its own fingerprint! </p>
<p>All the aye‐aye specimens observed during the course of this study displayed this full suite of anatomical structures on each hand: it is not merely an anomaly, but is clearly a feature typical of the species.</p>
<h2>Why the extra finger?</h2>
<p>It’s rather mysterious that no one had noticed the finger before, but this could be because it is mostly embedded in the fleshy part of the hand and therefore easy to miss. It could also be that the long fingers are so distracting that anatomists just never noticed this small structure.</p>
<p>Collectively, the muscles associated with the aye‐aye pseudothumb are positioned to enable adduction (moving it in toward the thumb), abduction (moving it away from the thumb) and opposition (moving it across the palm toward the little finger). Essentially, it moves in the same way as the real thumb.</p>
<p>My colleagues and I propose that there are three evolutionary scenarios for why the pseudothumb exists. </p>
<p>First, a pseudothumb may appear in species in which the thumb has become just another finger. That is what happened in the early bears: they lost the need for a thumb sticking toward the middle as this would just get in the way while the animal was walking. </p>
<p>Second, pseudodigits may emerge if the animal needs really broad hands for digging or swimming – as in the case of some moles. </p>
<p>Lastly, a pseudodigit may develop when the hand has become hyperspecialised and in which the evolution of a pseudothumb can facilitate greater manual dexterity. This scenario would appear to explain the presence of a pseudothumb within the aye‐aye. </p>
<p>We suggest that the tap foraging adaptations of the aye‐aye hand have resulted in the loss of grip dexterity, and so the pseudothumb can help to address this.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126520/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Hartstone‐Rose receives funding from the National Science Foundation (USA).</span></em></p>Previously undocumented, this tiny extra digit – called a “pseudothumb” – is a structure on each wrist made of bone and cartilage.Adam Hartstone‐Rose, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1278782019-12-23T16:01:44Z2019-12-23T16:01:44ZLemurs are the world’s most endangered mammals, but planting trees can help save them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306005/original/file-20191210-95173-4i8v47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4200%2C2785&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Black-and-white ruffed lemurs are important indicators of rainforest health.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Franck Rabenahy</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304794/original/file-20191202-67017-h7zxl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304794/original/file-20191202-67017-h7zxl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304794/original/file-20191202-67017-h7zxl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304794/original/file-20191202-67017-h7zxl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304794/original/file-20191202-67017-h7zxl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304794/original/file-20191202-67017-h7zxl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304794/original/file-20191202-67017-h7zxl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Madagascar, the world’s fourth-largest island, is a global biodiversity hotspot.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrea Baden</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The island of Madagascar off the southeastern coast of Africa hosts at least 12,000 plant species and 700 vertebrate species, 80% to 90% of which are found nowhere else on Earth. </p>
<p>Isolated for the last 88 million years and covering an area approximately the size of the <a href="https://www.mylifeelsewhere.com/country-size-comparison/united-states/madagascar">northeastern United States</a>, Madagascar is one of the world’s hottest biodiversity hotspots. Its island-wide species diversity is striking, but its tropical forest biodiversity is truly exceptional.</p>
<p>Sadly, human activities are ravaging tropical forests worldwide. Habitat fragmentation, over-harvesting of wood and other forest products, over-hunting, invasive species, pollution and climate change are depleting many of these forests’ native species.</p>
<p>Among these threats, climate change receives special attention because of its global reach. But in my research, I have found that in Madagascar it is not the dominant reason for species decline, although of course it’s an important long-term factor. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JltJlTAAAAAJ&hl=en">primatologist and lemur specialist</a>, I study how human pressures affect Madagascar’s highly diverse and endemic signature species. In two recent studies, colleagues and I have found that in particular, the <a href="http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/entry/ruffed_lemur">ruffed lemur</a> – an important seed disperser and indicator of rainforest health – is being disproportionately impacted by human activities. Importantly, habitat loss is driving ruffed lemurs’ distributions and genetic health. These findings will be key to helping save them. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305976/original/file-20191209-90552-1h12vkc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305976/original/file-20191209-90552-1h12vkc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305976/original/file-20191209-90552-1h12vkc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305976/original/file-20191209-90552-1h12vkc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305976/original/file-20191209-90552-1h12vkc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305976/original/file-20191209-90552-1h12vkc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305976/original/file-20191209-90552-1h12vkc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305976/original/file-20191209-90552-1h12vkc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Deforestation from slash-and-burn agriculture in the peripheral zones of Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nina Beeby/Ranomafana Ruffed Lemur Project</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The forest is disappearing</h2>
<p>Madagascar has lost nearly half (44%) of its forests <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2018.04.008">within the last 60 years</a>, largely due to slash-and-burn agriculture – known locally as “tavy” – and charcoal production. Habitat loss and fragmentation <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.14173">runs throughout Madagascar’s history</a>, and the rates of change are staggering. </p>
<p>This destruction threatens Madagascar’s biodiversity and its human population. Nearly 50% of the country’s <a href="http://Globalforestwatch.org">remaining forest</a> is now located <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2018.04.008">within 300 feet (100 meters) of an unforested area</a>. Deforestation, illegal hunting and collection for the pet trade are pushing many species toward the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1245783">brink of extinction</a>.</p>
<p>In fact, the International Union for Conservation of Nature estimates that 95% of Madagascar’s lemurs are <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/lemurs-in-crisis-105-species-now-threatened-with-extinction/">now threatened</a>, making them the world’s <a href="https://www.livescience.com/21592-madagascar-lemurs-endangered.html">most endangered mammals</a>. Pressure on Madagascar’s biodiversity has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0288-0">significantly increased over the last decade</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304797/original/file-20191202-66990-odnv25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304797/original/file-20191202-66990-odnv25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304797/original/file-20191202-66990-odnv25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304797/original/file-20191202-66990-odnv25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304797/original/file-20191202-66990-odnv25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304797/original/file-20191202-66990-odnv25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304797/original/file-20191202-66990-odnv25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304797/original/file-20191202-66990-odnv25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A red ruffed lemur, one of two <em>Varecia</em> species endemic to Madagascar.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Varecia Garbutt</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Deforestation threatens ruffed lemur survival</h2>
<p>In a newly published study, climate scientist <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=b24cai8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Toni Lyn Morelli</a>, species distribution expert <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_vVCUiIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Adam Smith</a> and I worked with 19 other researchers to study how <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0647-x">deforestation and climate change</a> will affect two critically endangered ruffed lemur species over the next century. Using combinations of different deforestation and climate change scenarios, we estimate that suitable rainforest habitat could be reduced by as much as 93%. </p>
<p>If left unchecked, deforestation alone could effectively eliminate ruffed lemurs’ entire eastern rainforest habitat and with it, the animals themselves. In sum, for these lemurs the effects of forest loss will outpace climate change. </p>
<p>But we also found that if current protected areas lose no more forest, climate change and deforestation outside of parks will reduce suitable habitat by only 62%. This means that maintaining and enhancing the integrity of protected areas will be essential for saving Madagascar’s rainforest habitats.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304790/original/file-20191202-66990-16m4zqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304790/original/file-20191202-66990-16m4zqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304790/original/file-20191202-66990-16m4zqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1157&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304790/original/file-20191202-66990-16m4zqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1157&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304790/original/file-20191202-66990-16m4zqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1157&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304790/original/file-20191202-66990-16m4zqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1454&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304790/original/file-20191202-66990-16m4zqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304790/original/file-20191202-66990-16m4zqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1454&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Warm colors indicate areas where lemurs can move about readily, which promotes genetic diversity; cool colors indicate areas where they are more constrained and less able to mate with members of other population groups.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-52689-2">Baden et al. (2019), Nature Scientific Reports</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In a study published in November 2019, my colleagues and I showed that ruffed lemurs <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-52689-2">depend on habitat cover to survive</a>. We investigated natural and human-caused impediments that prevent the lemurs from spreading across their range, and tracked the movement of their genes as they ranged between habitats and reproduced. This movement, known as gene flow, is important for maintaining genetic variability within populations, allowing lemurs to adapt to their ever-changing environments. </p>
<p>Based on this analysis, we parsed out which landscape variables – including rivers, elevation, roads, habitat quality and human population density – best explained gene flow in ruffed lemurs. We found that human activity was the best predictor of ruffed lemurs’ population structure and gene flow. Deforestation alongside human communities was the most significant barrier. </p>
<p>Taken together, these and other lines of evidence show that deforestation poses an imminent threat to conservation on Madagascar. Based on our projections, habitat loss is a more immediate threat to lemurs than climate change, at least in the immediate future. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TxUPMzI14WY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">In 1961 naturalist David Attenborough filmed ruffed lemurs for the BBC.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This matters not only for lemurs, but also for other plants and animals in the areas where lemurs are found. The same is true at the global level: More than one-third (about 36.5%) of Earth’s plant species are <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz0414">exceedingly rare</a> and disproportionately affected by human use of land. Regions where the most rare species live are experiencing higher levels of human impact. </p>
<h2>Crisis can drive conservation</h2>
<p>Scientists have warned that the fate of Madagascar’s rich natural heritage <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0288-0">hangs in the balance</a>. Results from our work suggest that strengthening protected areas and reforestation efforts will help to mitigate this devastation while environmentalists work toward long-term solutions for curbing the runaway greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305974/original/file-20191209-90592-h4v45g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305974/original/file-20191209-90592-h4v45g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305974/original/file-20191209-90592-h4v45g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305974/original/file-20191209-90592-h4v45g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305974/original/file-20191209-90592-h4v45g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305974/original/file-20191209-90592-h4v45g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305974/original/file-20191209-90592-h4v45g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305974/original/file-20191209-90592-h4v45g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A young woman participates in reforestation efforts in Kianjavato, Madagascar.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brittani Robertson/Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Already, nonprofits are working hard toward these goals. A partnership between Dr. Edward E. Louis Jr., founder of <a href="https://madagascarpartnership.org">Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership</a> and director of Conservation Genetics at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo, and the Arbor Day Foundation’s <a href="https://www.arborday.org/programs/rainforest/madagascar/">Plant Madagascar</a> project has replanted nearly 3 million trees throughout Kianjavato, one region identified by our study. Members of <a href="https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/centre-valbio/community_outreach/community.html">Centre ValBio’s reforestation team</a> – a nonprofit based just outside of Ranomafana National Park that facilitates our ruffed lemur research – are following suit.</p>
<p>At an international conference in Nairobi earlier this year, Madagascar’s president, Andry Rajoelina, promised to <a href="https://www.oneplanetsummit.fr/en">reforest 40,000 hectares (99,000 acres) every year</a> for the next five years – the equivalent of 75,000 football fields. This commitment, while encouraging, unfortunately <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/11/madagascars-bold-reforestation-goal-lacks-a-coherent-plan-experts-say/">lacks a coherent implementation plan</a>. </p>
<p>Our projections highlight areas of habitat persistence, as well as areas where ruffed lemurs could experience near-complete habitat loss or genetic isolation in the not-so-distant future. Lemurs are an effective indicator of total <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0136787">non-primate community richness</a> in Madagascar, which is another way of saying that protecting lemurs will protect biodiversity. Our results can help pinpoint where to start.</p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127878/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea L. Baden receives funding from the National Science Foundation, The Leakey Foundation, J. William Fulbright Foundation, Primate Conservation, Inc., and the Margot Marsh Biodiversity Fund. She is affiliated with Hunter College of the City University of New York, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and the New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology, and is a Scientific Advisor for the Mangevo research site to the Centre ValBio Research Station.</span></em></p>New research shows that slowing deforestation is the most essential step for saving Madagascar’s lemurs, and can help protect them against the longer-term threat of climate change.Andrea L. Baden, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Hunter CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1081422018-12-05T11:16:41Z2018-12-05T11:16:41ZMadagascar: fear and violence making rainforest conservation more challenging than ever<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248995/original/file-20181205-186076-1462ryd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ranomafana National Park.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/search?searchterm=ranomafana+national+park&search_source=base_search_form&language=en&page=1&sort=popular&image_type=all&measurement=px&safe=true">LouieLea/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>People are too afraid to return to the village so they are sleeping in the forest or have left altogether. They have lost their stored grain and all their belongings. I don’t know how they will get by.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These are the words of Riana*, a young woman from Bevoahazo, a tiny village in the eastern rainforests of Madagascar. Bevoahazo sits on the edge of Ranomafana National Park in a <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1257">UNESCO world heritage site</a> teeming with endangered and endemic species. Security in the area <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/10/conservation-in-a-weak-state-madagascar-struggles-with-enforcement/">has been deteriorating</a> over the last few years but things have escalated recently.</p>
<p>On November 24, 50 men raided the village stealing stores of rice – vital food reserves for local people who are mostly subsistence farmers – and injuring anyone who tried to defend their property. A few days later the local police chief, <a href="https://www.lexpressmada.com/29/11/2018/ranomafana-des-dahalo-tuent-le-commandant-de-brigade/">Heritiana Emilson Rambeloson</a>, who had come to the area with a small team to investigate, was shot dead.</p>
<p>I spent two years living in Bevoahazo in the early 2000s while researching the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2005.00269.x-i1">sustainability of crayfish harvesting</a>. I have spoken to friends from the village who are are currently staying in the nearby town of Ranomafana for safety, and researchers in the area to get a better understanding of what is happening. </p>
<h2>Bandits and biodiversity</h2>
<p>Patricia Wright, a professor of anthropology, has spent more than 30 years working in Ranomafana. She directs the <a href="https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/centre-valbio/">Centre Valbio</a>, an internationally renowned conservation research centre situated on the edge of the forest. She said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The security situation is at crisis point. This is leading to real human suffering in one of the most important places for biodiversity on the planet. The [murdered policeman] was smart, dedicated to his job and was interested in wildlife and the importance of the forest. A genuine friend. We will miss him.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The recent death comes just months after a member of Valbio staff was killed by bandits. Jean François Xavier Razafindraibe <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/08/bandits-raid-village-near-madagascar-park-killing-conservation-worker/">was killed</a> when armed men raided his village close to the park entrance in June 2018.</p>
<p>Ranomafana National Park was established by the Malagasy government <a href="https://www.cabdirect.org/cabdirect/abstract/20033127502">to protect its globally important biodiversity</a>. As part of the <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1257">Forests of Atsinanana</a> it is home to a number of critically endangered endemic lemurs such as the <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/9672/16119513">golden bamboo lemur</a> and the <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22918/16121857">black-and-white ruffed lemur</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248729/original/file-20181204-34134-1gp9xs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248729/original/file-20181204-34134-1gp9xs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248729/original/file-20181204-34134-1gp9xs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248729/original/file-20181204-34134-1gp9xs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248729/original/file-20181204-34134-1gp9xs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248729/original/file-20181204-34134-1gp9xs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248729/original/file-20181204-34134-1gp9xs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ranomafana National Park is home to the critically endangered black-and-white ruffed lemur.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel Burgas</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ranomafana is a popular tourist spot in Madagascar with stunning scenery, rare wildlife and the friendly, sleepy town nearby. So far the insecurity hasn’t influenced tourism. As Wright says: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The bandits steer clear of tourists, but the villagers are living a life of fear.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Gold mining’s dark influence</h2>
<p><a href="http://blog.khbannarmartin.com/?p=238">Miners</a> panning for gold illegally in the forest interior are a source of the insecurity. This has been an ongoing issue for many years but has become much more difficult for the park authorities to control. The miners <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/10/conservation-in-a-weak-state-madagascar-struggles-with-enforcement/">pollute rivers</a>, clear the rare swamp forest and hunt endangered wildlife for meat.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248741/original/file-20181204-34148-1tfj8k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248741/original/file-20181204-34148-1tfj8k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248741/original/file-20181204-34148-1tfj8k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248741/original/file-20181204-34148-1tfj8k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248741/original/file-20181204-34148-1tfj8k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248741/original/file-20181204-34148-1tfj8k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248741/original/file-20181204-34148-1tfj8k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Illegal gold miners in the forest are thought to be the source of the raids.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ricardo Rocha</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The situation is complicated. Armed cattle thieves known as <a href="http://www.rfi.fr/afrique/20180623-madagascar-difficile-lutte-contre-le-vol-zebus"><em>dahalo</em></a> are causing havoc in many areas of Madagascar. A recent estimate suggests they have caused <a href="http://www.rfi.fr/afrique/20180623-madagascar-difficile-lutte-contre-le-vol-zebus">4,000 deaths</a> in the last five years alone.</p>
<p>In 2017, the mayor of the neighbouring town of Ambalakindresy, Elysé Arsène Ratsimbazafy, was shot dead in what is <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/10/conservation-in-a-weak-state-madagascar-struggles-with-enforcement/">widely believed to have been a hit</a>. He had run for election on a platform of ridding the town of the bandits and had cooperated with efforts to get the miners expelled from the national park interior.</p>
<p>Mar Cabeza, a professor of biology at the University of Helsinki, returned from the area a few days ago. She said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The gold mining has escalated in recent years and differs greatly from previous subsistence-related threats. The widespread fear has negatively affected both research and conservation management.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One of Cabeza’s PhD students, Marketta Vuola, was meant to conduct research in the attacked villages recently, but was warned of the danger and moved to another village. Vuola told me </p>
<blockquote>
<p>News spread fast, with all villages in the region being afraid. We spent last night hiding, with our day packs ready to escape to the forest.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There has been a robust response to the recent series of attacks. The district quickly sent reinforcements of 80 police. This will hopefully reassure the local population, allowing people to return to their village, and will reduce the immediate threat.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/animals-are-victims-of-human-conflict-so-can-conservation-help-build-peace-in-warzones-90045">Animals are victims of human conflict, so can conservation help build peace in warzones?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This reassurance is essential as my old friend Koto* told me over the phone: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>People need to be able to get back home to tend their crops; if they can’t do this they will suffer even more.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However the rise in insecurity reflects a wider problem of respect for the rule of law in Madagascar. Jonah Ratsimbazafy, a professor of paleontology at the University of Antananarivo in Madagascar, said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you focus on what is happening, then you will lose your hope for Madagascar. We must focus on the solutions. Good governance is crucial in order to develop the economy of Madagascar and for saving the irreplaceable biodiversity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/former-madagascar-presidents-to-contest-run-off-vote-18304151">Madagascar will elect a new president on December 19</a>. People in Bevoahazo, and throughout Madagascar, are hoping that the new government can bring the change so desperately needed.</p>
<p><em>*Names changed to protect identities.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108142/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julia P G Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A recent spate of attacks have left local people scared for their safety in rural Madagascar, threatening vital conservation work in the nearby rainforest.Julia P G Jones, Professor of Conservation Science, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/991722018-09-21T10:40:23Z2018-09-21T10:40:23ZCaught on camera: The fossa, Madagascar’s elusive top predator<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236961/original/file-20180918-158237-1o9612m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox) at the Houston Zoo.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/8J5AzN">Josh Henderson</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mention wildlife on Madagascar and the first thing listeners probably picture is the island’s famed lemurs. As many people know, these unique primates are found nowhere else, and are the most endangered group of mammals in the world. But few people realize that lemurs’ fate is directly bound up with that of Madagascar’s largest predator, the fossa (<em>Cryptoprocta ferox</em>), which is threatened by some of the same pressures. </p>
<p>Fossa are terrier-sized, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossa_(animal)">cat-like relatives of mongoose</a> with tails as long as their bodies. Like other top predators such as lions and wolves, they play a critical ecological role regulating the populations of their prey.</p>
<p>Like much of Madagascar’s wildlife, fossa are found nowhere else in the world. But scientists know little else about them, including how many fossa there are. They are rare, difficult to see in the wild, and lack unique coat patterns that would make it easy to distinguish individual animals.</p>
<p>I worked on a team of researchers from the United States and Madagascar that spent seven years surveying Madagascar’s largest protected area – a zone the size of Connecticut – with trail cameras to see if we could determine how many fossa were there. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.12420">We found</a> that this area holds a significant portion of the global fossa population, and is likely the last stronghold for this unique species. Our research provides key information that can help correctly assess fossas’ <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/5760/0">threatened status</a> and lay the basis for appropriate conservation action. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3kvHIbzEmkw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">An alert fossa looks out over the rainforest.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Madagascar’s top carnivore</h2>
<p>Fossa weigh about 20 pounds and can prey on most of Madagascar’s other species. They are capable hunters on land and in the trees, using their tails for balance and killing by biting through their prey’s skulls. One study found that fossa were largely responsible for <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-1795.2009.00243.x">two lemur family groups disappearing from forests over a two-year period</a>. Fossa, like other top predators, help keep prey populations at a level that their habitat can support, and rid the population of diseased and weak individuals. </p>
<p>Fossa also exhibit some very interesting behaviors. They are one of nine mammalian species whose sexually immature females go through a period of <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1095/biolreprod66.3.610">transient masculinization</a>. During this phase, their clitorises enlarge and grow spines to look like an adult male fossa’s penis. Researchers think this helps sexually immature females avoid the aggressive attentions of males looking for females with which to mate.</p>
<p>In the deciduous forests of western Madagascar, scientists have discovered that male and female fossa will <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/36206939_Behaviour_and_ecology_of_the_fossa_Cryptoprocta_ferox_Carnivora_Viverridae_in_a_dry_deciduous_forest_western_Madagascar">gather together at the same spot year after year to mate</a>. Otherwise, however, fossa were thought to be solitary until 2010, when researchers observed three male fossa <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10164-009-0190-8">working together</a> to kill a lemur. Since then, some male fossa have been seen to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/ars150">team up with another male or two</a> to hunt prey and protect a larger territory than solitary males. And in 2015, our study captured photos suggesting that male fossa in the eastern rainforests will also associate.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235408/original/file-20180907-90568-quvu14.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235408/original/file-20180907-90568-quvu14.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235408/original/file-20180907-90568-quvu14.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235408/original/file-20180907-90568-quvu14.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235408/original/file-20180907-90568-quvu14.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235408/original/file-20180907-90568-quvu14.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235408/original/file-20180907-90568-quvu14.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Two male fossa captured on camera in northeastern Madagascar.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Asia Murphy</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lack of funding and political instability has made it hard for Madagascar’s government and conservation organizations to study the fossa. Because of their elusive nature, it is particularly hard to figure out basic things, such as how many fossa there are in an area. And without good numbers, scientists can’t assess whether a species is threatened or develop plans for protecting it.</p>
<h2>Tracking fossa with cameras</h2>
<p>Automatic cameras, known as camera traps, are a standard tool for collecting information on elusive wildlife in remote areas. The only thing “trapped” is the animal’s digital image.</p>
<p>Our images showed what type of habitat fossa used, when they were active, and how they co-existed with other carnivores such as dogs. Variations among individual animals, such as scars, tail width and kinkiness, and the presence and number of ear nicks, made it possible to start picking out certain fossa from the population and “follow” them from one camera to another.</p>
<p>One of our top goals was assessing how many fossa were present in the reserve and how close together they were. Determining density is key for conserving species. Once we knew know how many fossa there were, on average, in a unit of area such as square kilometer, we could estimate how many there were in the entire region and compare between different protected areas.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226867/original/file-20180710-122259-1doj7nr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226867/original/file-20180710-122259-1doj7nr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226867/original/file-20180710-122259-1doj7nr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226867/original/file-20180710-122259-1doj7nr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226867/original/file-20180710-122259-1doj7nr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226867/original/file-20180710-122259-1doj7nr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226867/original/file-20180710-122259-1doj7nr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226867/original/file-20180710-122259-1doj7nr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Flat Tail, seen in 2008 as a young pup (left) and 2013 as a mature male (right). We were able to follow this fossa as he grew up thanks to his strange and unique tail tip.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Asia Murphy & Zach Farris</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The value of a number</h2>
<p>Over a seven-year period we ran 15 surveys across seven study sites in the reserve. For months on end, we set up cameras, checked them, downloaded data and then moved cameras to survey as much area as possible. In all of this time, I never personally saw a fossa, but two local field assistants saw fossa in the trees once or twice. </p>
<p>Next came three years of analyzing photos, recording which animals had identifying marks and how far those marked fossa moved during their daily activities. Finally, nearly a decade after the very first survey in Masoala-Makira, we had a population estimate. </p>
<p>We calculated the fossa population in Masoala-Makira at 1,061, give or take around 500 animals. This worked out to about 20 fossa per 100 square kilometers. In other words, we had a small town of lemur-eating carnivores living in an area the size of Connecticut.</p>
<p>Why is this important? Because our colleague <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=G0KkgRUAAAAJ&hl=en#">Brian Gerber</a> did a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0030605311001116">similar study in southeastern Madagascar</a>, with one important difference: He applied his estimate to the area of all of Madagascar’s protected forests. He estimated there to be 8,626 fossa in the entire world. </p>
<p>Only two protected areas were large enough to hold enough fossa that the population could stay stable, at the very least, despite individuals dying or being killed. We showed that Masoala-Makira is one of them. And as the largest protected area in Madagascar, it will be home to fossa long after they disappear elsewhere due to hunting and habitat loss. </p>
<p>The next priority is to survey Madagascar’s other protected area large enough to hold a self-sustaining population, the Zahamena-Mantadia-Vohidrazana complex, to better estimate the global fossa population. And local governments need to attempt to curb hunting within protected areas and control feral dogs and cats, which can kill native species and spread diseases. </p>
<p>Rare and charismatic species typically get the most conservation attention, especially through events like National Geographic’s <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/tv/big-cat-week/">Big Cat Week</a>. In fact, however, there are <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10531-012-0381-4">four times more lions</a> than fossa in the entire world. Maybe it’s time for Fossa Friday.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99172/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research discussed in this article was funded by: the NSF GRFP, National Geographic Society, Sigma Xi, WCS Madagascar, Virginia Tech, PTES, IdeaWild, and Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. </span></em></p>The fossa, Madagascar’s largest predator, is a cat-like carnivore that eats everything from insects to lemurs. Because they are rare and elusive, scientists know very little about them, including how many there are.Asia Murphy, PhD candidate, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1003902018-08-02T13:51:21Z2018-08-02T13:51:21ZThe endangered species list: counting lemurs in Madagascar<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228809/original/file-20180723-189335-1t5uopy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The endangered Coquerel's Sifaka lemur.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Monika Hrdinova</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most people are familiar with the endangered species list. Officially known as the <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/">IUCN Red List</a> of threatened species, it’s coordinated by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and provides the most up-to-date indication of the health of the world’s plants, animals and fungi to guide critical conservation action. </p>
<p>Examples include reports on <a href="https://www.lifegate.com/people/news/leopard-populations-decline-peerj-study">declining</a> leopard populations and improving <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/29/us/iyw-dian-fossey-gorilla-fund/index.html">mountain gorilla</a> numbers. The list also signals when a species hasn’t been sighted in decades, is feared extinct, or has been “rediscovered” – as was the case <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070307085832.htm">for the</a> large-billed reed-warbler. </p>
<p>To date, <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/about">more than</a> 91 000 species have been assessed for The IUCN red list. But, how is the list constructed and who is involved? </p>
<p>It’s a surprisingly complex process, <a href="https://www.iucn.org/commissions/ssc-groups">involving</a> the combined efforts of literally thousands of researchers. These “specialist group” volunteers use their expertise and time to create and maintain a central database which monitors the conservation statuses of the planet’s species. For mammals alone, <a href="https://www.iucn.org/ssc-groups/mammals">there are</a> 37 specialist groups. </p>
<p>My own involvement in contributing to the list has been through the Madagascar section of the IUCN <a href="http://www.primate-sg.org/primate_specialist_group/">Primate Specialist Group</a>. This group <a href="http://www.primate-sg.org/primate_specialist_group/">involves</a> approximately 450 primatologists worldwide. We are organised into specialist sections according to the biological classification of primate groups, such as the great apes, or regional areas of primate occurrence like South America or Africa. The Madagascar section of the group includes about 90 researchers who specialise in the study of lemur species.</p>
<h2>Cyclical evaluation</h2>
<p>Every five years the various specialist groups undertake reevaluations of the conservation statuses of the species on which they focus. This is currently being carried out for all 113 known lemur species by our section. </p>
<p>The last conservation assessment, conducted back in 2012, led to the alarming <a href="https://www.livescience.com/21592-madagascar-lemurs-endangered.html">conclusion</a> that lemurs are the most endangered group of mammals on the planet – 94% of all lemur species were classified as either “endangered” or “critically endangered”. A lot can change in five years. Since then, new lemur species have been described and there’s been a wealth of new field <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180702130024.htm">study data</a> gathered on known lemur species. All this feeds into the current lemur conservation status reassessments. </p>
<p>The basis of the cyclical process is information that the IUCN specialist groups gather from researchers and their field studies. The researchers can either be university based, NGO’s or privately funded ones. The field data are assessed <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/static/categories_criteria_3_1">according to</a> an extensive set of evaluative quantitative criteria, including: population size; the risk of continuing decline in total population size; and the degree to which the species under consideration now exist in small and relatively isolated subpopulations, as these subpopulations are at a greater risk of going locally extinct. </p>
<p>Species were broadly categorised as “endangered”, “vulnerable”, “rare”, “indeterminate”, or “other”. But, since the mid-1990s, a quantitatively-based conservation status assessment process has instead been adopted. This developed out of internal review of the species conservation <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/about/overview#redlist_criteria">assessment process</a>. The current assessment practice places a premium on using up-to-date quantitative field data to the greatest extent possible. Species are now classified as either: “data deficient”, least concern", or as falling into one of the “threatened” categories, “vulnerable”, “endangered”, or “critically endangered”.</p>
<p>It’s not unusual that for a given species the desired quantitative data are simply not available or known. In such cases, the IUCN <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/static/categories_criteria_3_1">still encourages</a> that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the absence of high-quality data should not deter attempts at applying the criteria, as methods involving estimation, inference and projection are emphasised as being acceptable…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is where the role of research experts really comes to the fore. Researchers who have conducted recent field studies can provide relatively up-to-date insight on situations regarding species, even though these data may not yet be published. For many species groups, including lemurs, it’s a relatively short list of researchers who fit that bill.</p>
<p>So, to some extent, it’s a case of either using on-the-ground knowledge of the species or site knowledge of those experienced researchers, or attempt to arrive at conservation assessments without their expert input. But it also depends on who is in the room when the assessments are made. </p>
<h2>Important lists</h2>
<p>This reliance on expert input, while recognised as being of key importance, has also <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324906026_Decision_complacency_and_conservation_planning">recently</a> come under criticism for not also employing evidence or proper <a href="https://www.banc.org.uk/does-evidence-quality-complacency-hamper-conservation/">process in making decisions</a>. </p>
<p>But, because swift conservation action is seen as crucial to the overall process, the central role of expert researchers in determining the conservation statuses of species will continue in the future. </p>
<p>The IUCN Red List is not the only endangered species list out there. For example in the primate world, the International Primatological Society produces a biennial <a href="http://www.primate-sg.org/primate_specialist_group/">review report</a> with the IUCN looking at the 25 most endangered primates.</p>
<p>The next one will be released after the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/aje.12525">Congress of the International Primatological Society</a> in Nairobi. It will show how important these lists are to raise public consciousness of the threats that primates face, and the conservation efforts used to address them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100390/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Colquhoun does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The endangered species list is over 90 000 and includes Madagascar’s lemurs.Ian Colquhoun, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/700002016-12-09T14:16:49Z2016-12-09T14:16:49ZDawn of ‘Trumpocene’ era spells disaster for world’s primates<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148971/original/image-20161206-13648-d70ak4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The grey mouse lemur (_Microcebus murinus_): at 60 grams, nearly the smallest primate in the world. I studied this primate in Madagascar.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.jasongilchrist.co.uk">Jason Gilchrist, www.jasongilchrist.co.uk</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Eight years ago, in the middle of the night in a damp forest in Madagascar, I found myself standing alongside a similarly wet but happy Russell Mittermeier, then president of <a href="http://www.conservation.org/Pages/default.aspx">Conservation International</a>. We were very happy because we were both, for the first time in our lives, peering through the darkness at the world’s smallest primate, <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/41573/115579496">Madame Berthe’s mouse lemur</a>.</p>
<p>About ten years before, I was one of a group of visitors to Uganda who were led through a similarly damp forest (this time during daylight) to come upon a family of the world’s largest primate – the <a href="http://www.arkive.org/eastern-gorilla/gorilla-beringei/">mountain gorilla</a>. This is the species that David Attenborough famously <a href="http://www.wildfilmhistory.org/film/241/clip/419/David+Attenborough%92s+legendary+encounter+with+a+family+of+mountain+gorillas.html">got more than he bargained for</a> in 1979’s Life on Earth.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NeaAZ1On-w8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>These two experiences are united, not simply by the extremes of scale – the pygmy mouse lemur weighs in at just 30g, and the mountain gorilla up to an impressive 160kg – but also by the fact that they are two of the most endangered primate species.</p>
<h2>A changed world</h2>
<p>The world has since changed. When I met the mountain gorilla, scientists classified it as a distinct species. Now, it is a subspecies of the eastern gorilla: <em>Gorilla beringei beringei</em>. Recently, ecologists revealed that the mountain gorilla is <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/11/gorilla-warfare/508529/">not so gentle after all</a>, and shares a violent streak with its nearest primate relatives, chimpanzees and humans. Since I visited the eastern gorilla, numbers have declined due to habitat loss and poaching, and its conservation status has been <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/39994/0">uplisted to “critically endangered”</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149079/original/image-20161207-18073-8su51i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149079/original/image-20161207-18073-8su51i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149079/original/image-20161207-18073-8su51i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149079/original/image-20161207-18073-8su51i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149079/original/image-20161207-18073-8su51i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149079/original/image-20161207-18073-8su51i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149079/original/image-20161207-18073-8su51i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A young male mountain gorilla, <em>Gorilla beringei beringei</em>, under threat from habitat loss and poaching.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ian Redmond/Wildscreen Arkive</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Madame Berthe’s mouse lemur, <em>Microcebus berthae</em>, was only recognised as a distinct species (separate from the pygmy mouse lemur, <em>Microcebus myoxinus</em>) in 2000. While it clings on to survival in that same small pocket of Madgascar’s tropical forest, other lemur species have fallen to <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/lemur-extinctions-are-harmful-madagascars-plant-life-too-180958717/">extinction due to the destruction of their habitat</a>. Sadly, as soon as enough was known about it, Madame Berthe’s mouse lemur was <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/41573/0">classified as “endangered”</a>.</p>
<p>All primate species with restricted or fragmented ranges, including <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/look-out-lemurs-climate-change-is-taking-your-land/">mouse lemurs</a> and <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/how-will-climate-change-affect-mountain-gorillas/">gorillas</a>, are at risk from climate change. </p>
<h2>Primate politics</h2>
<p>The day I met Mittermeier he was leaving the forest early the next morning to fly back to the US for the inauguration of the then new president, Barack Obama. There was an optimism surrounding the US and wildlife conservation at that point. Obama has since been <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obama-hawaii-monument_us_57c7269de4b078581f10c56e">a positive force for nature conservation</a>, even <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/18/barack-obama-bear-grylls-promote-action-climate-change">going wild with Bear Grylls</a> to highlight the detrimental effects of climate change on wildlife.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148977/original/image-20161207-25742-s1izu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148977/original/image-20161207-25742-s1izu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148977/original/image-20161207-25742-s1izu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148977/original/image-20161207-25742-s1izu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148977/original/image-20161207-25742-s1izu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148977/original/image-20161207-25742-s1izu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148977/original/image-20161207-25742-s1izu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Grey mouse lemur: habitat loss is the main danger to mouse lemurs and climate change will affect future habitat suitability for these and other primates.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jason Gilchrist, www.jasongilchrist.co.uk</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We now face a very different landscape. Obama is preparing to hand over the reins to a new president-elect, Donald Trump – a vocal climate change denier who has vowed to “<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/if-elected-trump-pledges-to-abolish-the-environment_us_57b38b10e4b014a587fba5c5">abolish the environment</a>”. The prognosis for the natural world (which, incidentally, we live within and rely upon) is not good. Trump <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/donald-trump-will-destroy-environment-if-he-follows-through-climate-change-rhetoric-1590618">has claimed</a> that climate change is a Chinese invention to gain competitive advantage over American businesses. </p>
<p>Trump’s appointment of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/07/us/politics/scott-pruitt-epa-trump.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news">Scott Pruitt</a> – an avowed climate-change sceptic and ally of the fossil fuels industry – as head of the US Environmental Protection Agency is causing serious concern, as have Trump’s hints that he plans to disband the EPA and withdraw from the global UN Paris climate agreement.</p>
<h2>Trumpocene era</h2>
<p>Some scientists refer to the current geological period <a href="https://theconversation.com/dawn-of-the-anthropocene-five-ways-we-know-humans-have-triggered-a-new-geological-epoch-52867">as the Anthropocene</a> as a mark of the human species’ impact on the planet’s biodiversity and ecosystem function. There are those who believe that the mark of Trump’s presidency will also be <a href="http://matadornetwork.com/life/damage-trump-will-cause-environment-within-just-100-days-presidency/">notably recorded in geological time</a>.</p>
<p>Are we now on the (in some minds, apocalyptic) threshold of the Trumpocene? Some argue that we already are, at least in terms of social philosophy, with mass rejection of science and expertise in favour of populist posturing – or misinformation. Scientists <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/11/30/scientists-are-really-really-worried-about-donald-trump/?utm_term=.53053bdf5302">are worried on numerous fronts</a>. It may be agreeable to some business sectors – fossil fuels, for example – to dismiss <a href="https://www.epa.gov/climate-change-science/future-climate-change">climate change</a> and the importance of the environment, but doing so places our planet’s future in serious jeopardy, and human populations with it.</p>
<h2>All primates great and small</h2>
<p>There are many threats to the world’s primates, not only climate change. <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/crisis-in-madagascar-90-percent-of-lemur-species-are-threatened-with-extinction/">Habitat destruction and loss</a> due to deforestation are major drivers of population decline. I have observed this during <a href="http://www.jasongilchrist.co.uk/research.html">my own research</a> of <a href="http://amazon.clikpic.com/JasonGilchrist/clik_media/Jason_Gilchrist-BBC_Wildlife_Magazine-July_2008-Grey_Mouse_Lemur-Microcebus_murinus-Small_is_Beautiful_1.pdf">grey mouse lemurs</a> in Madagascar and <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00265-005-0081-0">chimpanzees</a> in Uganda. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148976/original/image-20161207-25721-1emdn2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148976/original/image-20161207-25721-1emdn2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148976/original/image-20161207-25721-1emdn2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148976/original/image-20161207-25721-1emdn2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148976/original/image-20161207-25721-1emdn2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148976/original/image-20161207-25721-1emdn2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148976/original/image-20161207-25721-1emdn2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chimpanzee, <em>Pan troglodytes</em> at Pretoria Zoo. I studied these primates in Uganda where snares set by poachers are a threat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jason Gilchrist, www.jasongilchrist.co.uk</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These species often exist within finite and shrinking patches of forest. Direct persecution also looms large. It is not unusual for chimps and gorillas to bear the scars of poacher’s snares, including lost limbs. Numerous primate species are <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/10/people-are-hunting-primates-bats-and-other-mammals-extinction">endangered by the bushmeat trade</a>.</p>
<p>So, what future is there for Madame Berthe’s mouse lemur, the Eastern gorilla … all primates? When we talk of primate conservation, we would do well to remember that we are also primates. Looking after the species and habitats of our planet are as important to the future survival, health and welfare of the human species, as they are to the other species that we care about.</p>
<p>Presidents and politicians are important, but we can all make a difference as individuals. Eating less meat and dairy, selecting goods with sustainable palm oil, reducing fuel consumption, and recycling will <a href="https://www.fix.com/blog/green-diet-resolutions/">reduce your environmental impact</a>. And give hope for the future of primates, ourselves included, and other animals.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149330/original/image-20161208-31402-1gusxqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149330/original/image-20161208-31402-1gusxqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149330/original/image-20161208-31402-1gusxqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149330/original/image-20161208-31402-1gusxqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149330/original/image-20161208-31402-1gusxqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149330/original/image-20161208-31402-1gusxqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149330/original/image-20161208-31402-1gusxqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Monkey Business, a world-first exhibition featuring primates from around the world. From l to r: Sulawesi Crested Macaque (<em>Macaca nigra</em>), critically endangered; Emperor Tamarin (<em>Saguinus imperator subgrisescens</em>), least concern; Mandrill (<em>Mandrillus sphinx</em>), vulnerable.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jason Gilchrist, www.jasongilchrist.co.uk</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Monkey Business, <a href="http://www.nms.ac.uk/national-museum-of-scotland/whats-on/monkey-business/">a new exhibition</a> at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, will feature taxidermy specimens that showcase the diversity of primates and threats to their survival.</p>
<p>I am one of the few people in the world to have seen both the world’s smallest and largest primates in the wild. I don’t want to be one of the last.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70000/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Gilchrist received funding for mouse lemur research from the British Ecological Society, the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, and Edinburgh Napier University. </span></em></p>As Donald Trump prepares to enter the White House, there may be dark days ahead for some of the world’s rarest and most beautiful primates.Jason Gilchrist, Ecologist, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/691642016-11-21T13:42:56Z2016-11-21T13:42:56ZA ‘sapphire rush’ has sent at least 45,000 miners into Madagascar’s protected rainforests<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146740/original/image-20161121-4518-xuqr6q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://roseyperkins.com/">Rosey Perkins</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The rainforests of Didy in eastern Madagascar usually ring with the calls of the indri, the island’s largest lemur. There is a <a href="http://roseyperkins.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/SapphireRushMadagascarOctober2016by-RoseyPerkins.pdf">different noise now</a>: the chopping of trees, digging of gravel, and cheers of encouragement from the thousands of illegal miners who have flooded to these forests since sapphires were discovered in late September.</p>
<p>Bemainty, an area in the west of Didy, is experiencing a sapphire rush. <a href="http://roseyperkins.com/">Rosey Perkins</a>, a gemologist, visited soon after the rush began in October. She estimated 45,000 people were already involved and that the mine was growing by 1,500 to 2,000 people a day. By now it may be significantly bigger. She told me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>These gem deposits are found in the gravels of ancient river beds. Some are unusually large and have an attractive blue colour; there have been some phenomenal finds which are drawing in traders from as far away as Sri Lanka.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146746/original/image-20161121-4524-18nvlru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146746/original/image-20161121-4524-18nvlru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146746/original/image-20161121-4524-18nvlru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146746/original/image-20161121-4524-18nvlru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146746/original/image-20161121-4524-18nvlru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146746/original/image-20161121-4524-18nvlru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146746/original/image-20161121-4524-18nvlru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146746/original/image-20161121-4524-18nvlru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A blue sapphire found at the ‘rush’ site in October 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://roseyperkins.com/">Rosey Perkins</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Madagascar is <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/MDG">one of the poorest countries in the world</a>. People are desperate for any new income sources and will understandably travel to wherever they see an opportunity. The discovery of precious stones has led to <a href="http://www.gia.edu/gia-news-research-Sapphire-Mining-Ilakaka-Madagascar">rapid development</a> in a number of parts of the country.</p>
<p>Particular challenges are raised when the stones are discovered in areas of importance for conservation, as with the latest find which is in a protected area: the <a href="http://peoplefoodandnature.org/landscape/ankeniheny-zahamena-corridor/">Corridor Ankeniheny Zahamena</a> (or CAZ). Herintsitohaina Razakamanarivo, a professor of forestry and soil sciences at the University of Antananarivo, said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>These forests really matter for their world famous biodiversity, for their contribution to avoiding climate change and of course they also contribute to local livelihoods and are culturally important. </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146779/original/image-20161121-4535-iwg34n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146779/original/image-20161121-4535-iwg34n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146779/original/image-20161121-4535-iwg34n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=944&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146779/original/image-20161121-4535-iwg34n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=944&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146779/original/image-20161121-4535-iwg34n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=944&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146779/original/image-20161121-4535-iwg34n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1186&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146779/original/image-20161121-4535-iwg34n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1186&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146779/original/image-20161121-4535-iwg34n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1186&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Workers must walk for 12 hours to reach the mine, which is in a remote corner of Madagascar’s eastern forests.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Google maps</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The mining involves removing the trees so that the gem-rich gravels can be dug up and sieved to find the precious stones. There are also concerns that the miners will increase bushmeat harvesting, which is already a <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0027570&type=printable">growing threat to lemurs</a> and other wildlife in much of Madagascar.</p>
<p>However, the impact of a sudden influx of thousands of people is not simply a conservation issue. This is an example of how the agenda of conservationists and those of local people could be aligned.</p>
<p>I spoke to Tokihenintsoa Andrianjohaninarivo from Conservation International Madagascar, the NGO responsible for managing the protected area. She explained how previous sapphire rushes caused local people who live in these forests to suffer: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Insecurity increases, the cost of living rises, and the education of a generation of kids may be damaged as schools close. Water becomes polluted as there are suddenly thousands of new people living in an area with no sanitation facilities.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As the latest mine continues to grow, conditions appear to be getting worse. I have spoken to a friend from the area who does not want to be named, but who tells me of deaths from disease and violent conflict. There are also reports of rapes, including a shocking case which allegedly resulted in a girl’s death. (It should be noted that these claims are anecdotal and haven’t been verified.)</p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/192108090" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Rosey Perkins’s visit to the mine, October 2016.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Artisanal mining in Madagascar is a <a href="http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/country/2013/myb3-2013-ma.pdf">significant industry</a> and the country may be one of the <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016913680800019X">largest producers of precious stones in the world</a>. The vast majority of the trade is illegal, however, with <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.0012-155X.2005.00437.x/full">no tax paid</a> on the exports. </p>
<p>There have been repeated calls to bring this profitable business out of the shadows so it can contribute to national development. Many people from the region are seeing the benefits though – the mayor of Didy has been on local television to argue in favour of the mining. And rumours persist that powerful individuals <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-modern-african-studies/article/gemstone-mining-in-madagascar-transnational-networks-criminalisation-and-global-integration/FF9E20EBD2852646BDDC04726CB797FF">profit</a> from the illicit nature of the trade. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146752/original/image-20161121-4535-tjayhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146752/original/image-20161121-4535-tjayhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146752/original/image-20161121-4535-tjayhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146752/original/image-20161121-4535-tjayhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146752/original/image-20161121-4535-tjayhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146752/original/image-20161121-4535-tjayhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146752/original/image-20161121-4535-tjayhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146752/original/image-20161121-4535-tjayhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">These forests are the only home of the indri, a large and critically endangered lemur.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dudarev Mikhail / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Andrianjohaninarivo told me that the conservation managers of the site had a meeting with key officials from the government in November and that an action plan has been made. Professor Razakamanarivo emphasises the urgency of a response: “Much of the harm already caused by this sudden sapphire rush may well be irreversible. The miners need to leave the forest before more damage is done.”</p>
<p>The rush going on right now in Bemainty is only the last of a series which have occurred in protected areas in Madagascar in recent years. In <a href="http://www.gia.edu/gia-news-research-nr101512">2012</a>, thousands of miners invaded another part of the Didy forest but were eventually moved on by government agents. In <a href="http://www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/winter-2015-gemnews-rubies-new-deposit-zahamena-national-park-madagascar">2015</a>, a similar rush occurred in Zahamena National Park, slightly to the north. </p>
<p>Shiny stones have been buried under Madagascar’s incredible rainforests for millions of years. Miners and traders seeking to capitalise on the value of these gems are placing enormous pressure on the island’s landscape and wildlife, and it remains to be seen whether these areas can be protected in the longer term.</p>
<p>As a conservation scientist I am hugely concerned about the threat to the forest from this sapphire rush. But the most urgent need right now is to bring the area under control, before more people die.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69164/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julia P G Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The island’s latest mining boom threatens a critically endangered lemur – and puts human lives at risk.Julia P G Jones, Professor of Conservation Science, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/602952016-06-10T12:14:59Z2016-06-10T12:14:59ZMadagascar’s ‘swamp lemurs’ have been documented for the first time<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125960/original/image-20160609-7074-1gpn88u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Coquerel’s sifaka is one of 23 lemur species now known to use mangroves.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://louisejasper.zenfolio.com/">Louise Jasper</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Muddy, mosquito-ridden mangrove swamps are difficult places to live. Few species of plants or invertebrates bother. As a result there aren’t many <a href="http://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/339810">specialist mangrove-dwellers</a> among the world’s mammals, and these forests, <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/317/5834/41b">highly threatened</a> halfway houses between land and sea, tend to be neglected by wildlife conservationists. </p>
<p>But what about non-specialist animals? Do species more typically found in regular forests also use mangroves if the opportunity arises? Surprisingly, that’s a question we have very few answers to, but one I set out to investigate for one of the most charismatic and threatened of all animal groups: Madagascar’s lemurs. And I was amazed by what I found.</p>
<p>I have long been fascinated by both mangroves and lemurs, but these two interests collided one magical evening in March 2015. My wife and I were carrying out a bird survey at Antsahampano, deep in the mangroves of north-west Madagascar, for the marine conservation organisation <a href="https://blueventures.org/">Blue Ventures</a>. We camped the night on a small sandy island offshore and, as we always do, went for a night walk after dinner to see what we could find. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125968/original/image-20160609-7054-12gcpj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125968/original/image-20160609-7054-12gcpj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125968/original/image-20160609-7054-12gcpj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125968/original/image-20160609-7054-12gcpj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125968/original/image-20160609-7054-12gcpj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125968/original/image-20160609-7054-12gcpj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125968/original/image-20160609-7054-12gcpj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125968/original/image-20160609-7054-12gcpj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mangrove forests cover much of Madagascar’s coastline.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://louisejasper.zenfolio.com/">Louise Jasper</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We certainly weren’t expecting any lemurs – after all, we were about 3km from the nearest dry land, with nothing but mangroves in between – and we saw little but crabs for most of the way. But just as the rain started falling and we turned back for camp, we spotted the characteristic glimmer of a mammal’s eyes high in a tree, reflected in our torchlight. A fruit bat, I assumed, but as we got closer it turned out to be a <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/136684/0">northern giant mouse lemur</a>, an endangered species with the wonderful scientific name <em>Mirza zaza</em>, found only in this part of Madagascar. </p>
<p>We were astonished. A lemur? All the way out here in the mangrove? I had already searched the existing literature and knew that only four lemur species had ever been reported in mangroves before, so this sighting really pricked my interest. It occurred to me that perhaps others had seen lemurs in mangroves too but their observations might never have made it into the scientific literature. And so I decided to crowd source.</p>
<p>I put together a database of people who might possibly have ventured into Madagascar’s mangroves – not just primatologists, but hotel owners, guides, and conservationists too. In all I gathered more than 1,200 names, and I emailed them all to ask if they’d ever seen a lemur in a mangrove. Nearly 60 replied, and I published their observations in a recent study in the <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10764-016-9905-1">International Journal of Primatology</a>.</p>
<p>It seems at least 23 species of lemur have been recorded in mangroves, including at least one from each of the five lemur families. If that sounds a lot then bear in mind that, of Madagascar’s 105 lemur species, only 43 of them live in areas that even contain mangroves. </p>
<p>Lemurs seem to use mangroves for a variety of different reasons. Nocturnal species such as <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/136206/0">Claire’s mouse lemur</a> and <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/136771/0">Grewcock’s sportive lemur</a> use them to sleep in during the day, while the famous ring-tailed lemur rests in their shade to avoid the midday sun. Some species use mangroves as habitat corridors to move between patches of terrestrial forest, while others seasonally feed on the flowers or fruit of mangrove trees. On the neighbouring island of Mayotte in the Comoros, the introduced <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/231996631_A_major_increase_of_brown_lemurs_on_Mayotte_since_the_decline_reported_in_1987">brown lemur</a> has even been seen extracting mud from deep inside crab burrows at low tide, presumably to supplement its diet with minerals.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125962/original/image-20160609-7049-dipmpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125962/original/image-20160609-7049-dipmpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125962/original/image-20160609-7049-dipmpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125962/original/image-20160609-7049-dipmpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125962/original/image-20160609-7049-dipmpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125962/original/image-20160609-7049-dipmpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125962/original/image-20160609-7049-dipmpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125962/original/image-20160609-7049-dipmpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A brown lemur digs for food in Mayotte’s mangroves.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Laurent Tarnaud</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unfortunately most of the records reported to me were just brief observations, so we still know very little about the importance of mangroves in sustaining lemur populations. One theory is that the animals in mangroves are only there because they are sustained by those in neighbouring forests in a sort of “spill-over” effect. However several of the sightings I reported, such as the northern giant mouse lemur we saw at Antsahampano, were in areas where all the neighbouring forest has been cleared. This suggests mangroves may actually be able to support self-sustaining populations.</p>
<p>So why is this important? Well, lemurs are the most threatened group of mammals on Earth, with as many as <a href="https://portals.iucn.org/library/efiles/edocs/2013-020.pdf">94% of all species at risk of extinction</a>. For example, of the 23 species reported to use mangroves in this study, four count as “critically endangered” on the official <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/">Red List</a>, 13 are “endangered” and three are listed as “vulnerable”.</p>
<p>One of the reasons scientists classify these species as threatened is because there is so little forest available to them, but if they are also able to use mangroves then they may not be quite as rare as we thought. The problem is, the <a href="http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/8/2/106">mangroves are disappearing too</a> – often just as fast as the neighbouring forests.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126127/original/image-20160610-29209-c4ymkk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126127/original/image-20160610-29209-c4ymkk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126127/original/image-20160610-29209-c4ymkk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126127/original/image-20160610-29209-c4ymkk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126127/original/image-20160610-29209-c4ymkk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126127/original/image-20160610-29209-c4ymkk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126127/original/image-20160610-29209-c4ymkk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126127/original/image-20160610-29209-c4ymkk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Critically endangered ‘Claire’s mouse lemur’ has been spotted in the swamps.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://louisejasper.zenfolio.com/">Louise Jasper</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many conservation organisations have turned their attentions towards mangroves in recent years. For example, Blue Ventures is working to give local communities in and around Antsahampano the legal rights to <a href="https://blueventures.org/category/programme/blue-forests/">manage their mangroves sustainably</a>, and to develop community-based ecotourism to help generate incentives for conservation. </p>
<p>Such work makes sense: after all, mangroves <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/310/5748/643">protect coastlines</a> from erosion, provide <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304377007001830">feeding grounds and nurseries</a> for commercially important fish and prawns, and store incredible amounts of carbon to help <a href="http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v4/n5/full/ngeo1123.html">fight climate change</a>.</p>
<p>Yet while these are all excellent reasons to conserve Madagascar’s coastal swamp forests, it’s nice to know that, in doing so, such organisations are also helping to conserve the habitat of some of the world’s cutest critters.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60295/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charlie Gardner carried out this research as a consultant to Blue Ventures. </span></em></p>Mangrove forests aren’t very hospitable habitats, but these lemurs don’t mind.Charlie Gardner, Honorary Research Fellow in Biodiversity Management, University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/597582016-05-23T16:26:20Z2016-05-23T16:26:20ZHow lessons from past extinctions can help save Madagascar’s lemurs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123546/original/image-20160523-11012-ue2y70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lemurs are some of the world’s most threatened animals</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is common knowledge that the world faces an historic threat to biodiversity and natural species everywhere. This threat, caused by climate change, loss of habitats and over-exploitation – among other things – may be new. But it is not unprecedented. Extinctions have occurred throughout geological history, some of them relatively recently. A lot can be learnt from these past events to help us prevent future extinctions. And scientists are doing just that.</p>
<p>One example comes from Madagascar, the African island that is home to the lemur. These emblematic species occur only in <a href="http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/news/091001_madagascar">Madagascar</a>. They are of high conservation priority, and are also incredibly charismatic. In fact, <em>Time</em> magazine recently named them the new pop-culture star of the mammal <a href="http://time.com/45828/lemurs-sloths-popularity/">world</a>. They supplanted sloths, in case you were wondering. They are some of the world’s most threatened animals – more than <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/news/iucn-red-list-raises-more-red-flags-for-threatened-species">90%</a> of the roughly 100 species face extinction. They need all the pop-culture cachet they can get.</p>
<p>Lemurs are most threatened by the loss and fragmentation of their habitats, which are mainly tropical forests. In the past 60 years nearly half of Madagascar’s forest cover has been converted for agricultural production, mining and urban <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/news/iucn-red-list-raises-more-red-flags-for-threatened-species">development</a>. This trend continues today.</p>
<h2>Ghost stories</h2>
<p>The word lemur is derived from the Latin <em>lemures</em>, which refers to spirits of the dead – a bit portentous given their current state. The name reflects the Malagasy word for lemur, <em>gidro</em> or ghost. It’s named for the eerie calls sometimes wafting through forests at dawn and dusk.</p>
<p>As it happens, this ghostly name is already quite fitting. Madagascar experienced a massive extinction event between 2,000 and 500 years ago that saw the disappearance of at least <a href="https://today.duke.edu/2014/12/giantlemurs">17 species of lemur</a>. Scientists debate the extent of human involvement in these extinctions, but it is well accepted that we played a major <a href="http://www.karger.com/Article/Pdf/105152">role</a>. This time period coincides with an increase in human populations on the island, and activities like forest fragmentation and hunting certainly contributed to these extinctions.</p>
<p>But what was bad for Madagascar in the past may prove useful in the future. By investigating the cascading effects of historical lemur extinctions on their forest habitats, we can make informed estimates about the effects of lemur loss in the present. This can help shape conservation and management decisions for the future.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123547/original/image-20160523-10986-5ijj8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123547/original/image-20160523-10986-5ijj8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123547/original/image-20160523-10986-5ijj8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123547/original/image-20160523-10986-5ijj8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123547/original/image-20160523-10986-5ijj8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123547/original/image-20160523-10986-5ijj8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123547/original/image-20160523-10986-5ijj8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123547/original/image-20160523-10986-5ijj8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Half of Madagascar’s forest cover has been converted for other purposes and this has had a massive impact on lemurs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Spreading seeds</h2>
<p>Lemurs rely on forest habitats for food and shelter, but they also play key roles in maintaining the health of the forests in which they live. The same was also true of now-extinct lemurs. For example, when lemurs eat the fruit of a tree – let’s say a species of palm tree – they can swallow seeds and eventually deposit them, in their faeces, in new growing sites. </p>
<p>Seed dispersal to new growing sites helps plants to establish new populations and this is incredibly important for maintaining healthy and diverse forests. In Madagascar, lemurs are especially important seed dispersers, as there are very few fruit-eating birds in comparison with tropical forests elsewhere. Protecting fruit-eating lemurs will benefit the forest ecosystems in which they live by promoting seed dispersal, and the establishment of new and diverse plant generations. And part of that will be investigating how past extinctions affected seed dispersal in Madagascar’s forests.</p>
<p>Scientists can infer the diet and potential seed-dispersal abilities of extinct lemur species using chemical analyses, and dental and cranial morphology. Many of the recently extinct lemur species ate fruit, and all of them were substantially larger than any lemur living today.</p>
<p>It turns out that losing these large animals created many orphaned trees, or tree species with seeds too big to be swallowed and dispersed by the remaining, smaller, fruit-eating lemurs found today. In the absence of their lemur dispersers, these tree species may still persist due to their long life-spans, and other uncertain dispersal mechanisms such as wind and rats. But their populations are likely in decline, and their futures in jeopardy.</p>
<p>Today the critically endangered <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/22918/0">black-and-white</a> ruffed lemur is the largest living seed disperser in Madagascar. Many forest trees have seeds that are too large to be eaten by any living species besides this <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/113/18/5041.abstract">lemur</a>. This foreshadows the echoed effects of extinction, and highlights the precarious balance between living lemurs and the ecosystems in which they function.</p>
<h2>Lessons from the past</h2>
<p>We can gain new perspectives for future conservation plans by understanding how the ghosts of lemurs past are still affecting ecosystems today. It’s important to make plans that account for these delicate inter-species relationships, as well as ones that involve local communities and incentivise alternative land-use practices to deforestation. </p>
<p>Many reserves and conservation organisations – <a href="http://www.worldwildlife.org/places/madagascar">the World Wildlife Fund</a>, <a href="http://www.madagascarfaunaflora.org">Madagascar Flora and Fauna Group</a>, and <a href="http://campuspress.yale.edu/bezamahafaly/">Bezà Mahafaly</a>, to name a few – are already adopting more integrative conservation strategies. Maybe, by taking a more holistic approach, we can prevent ourselves from fulfilling the prophesy of such an ephemeral name.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59758/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Federman receives funding from the NSF as a graduate student research fellow. She is affiliated with Yale University as a doctoral candidate. </span></em></p>More than 90% of Madagascar’s lemurs face extinction. Losing them will mean a loss of the valuable function they serve to the forests in which they live.Sarah Federman, PhD student studying evolutionary mechanisms underlying spatial patterns in diversity, Yale UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/583232016-04-28T13:43:56Z2016-04-28T13:43:56ZMadagascar’s unique ‘Spiny Forest’ is fast being turned into charcoal<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120538/original/image-20160428-28053-t620ti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://louisejasper.zenfolio.com/">Louise Jasper</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Spiny Forest is like nowhere else on Earth, but it’s disappearing fast. It’s a bizarre Dr Seussian world of <a href="http://www.nhbs.com/title/204697/life-amongst-the-thorns">spiky octopus trees and swollen baobabs</a>, and almost all its species exist only in Madagascar. The strange vegetation teems with even weirder wildlife: there are ghostly white lemurs impervious to thorns, birds that <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1034/j.1600-048X.2003.03067.x/abstract">sing communally</a>, and a chameleon that spends most of its life <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/105/26/8980.abstract">as an egg</a>. Once there were ten-foot tall elephant birds and gorilla-sized lemurs too, but they went extinct <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379110002246">just a few centuries ago</a>.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, scientists have long ranked the Spiny Forest as one of the world’s most important “<a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1523-1739.1998.012003502.x/abstract">ecoregions</a>”. Even so, hardly anyone outside Madagascar has heard of it. The tragedy is that the Spiny Forest is rapidly, silently, going <a href="http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=1778552&fileId=S0376892907004262">up in smoke</a> while the world looks the other way.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120189/original/image-20160426-1323-gkfz38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120189/original/image-20160426-1323-gkfz38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120189/original/image-20160426-1323-gkfz38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=989&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120189/original/image-20160426-1323-gkfz38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=989&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120189/original/image-20160426-1323-gkfz38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=989&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120189/original/image-20160426-1323-gkfz38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1243&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120189/original/image-20160426-1323-gkfz38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1243&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120189/original/image-20160426-1323-gkfz38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1243&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Spiny forests (shaded gold) cover the southern end of the island.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mada_PAs.jpg">Masindrano</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Southern Madagascar is a dry and impoverished region with little in the way of infrastructure or industry. Most of the population scrapes a living from the land, as cattle herders and farmers, or as fishermen at sea. People also depend on the forest’s essential resources, such as construction wood and fuel, medicinal plants, wild yams and “<a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10745-013-9629-1">bushmeat</a>”, among other things. So why is it disappearing so fast?</p>
<p>There are two main causes of deforestation – <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-havent-madagascars-famed-lemurs-been-saved-yet-43955">shifting cultivation</a> (also known as slash-and-burn agriculture), and the production of charcoal. Here charcoal is not just a novelty for barbecues, but the fuel that cooks almost every meal. Making it involves baking the Spiny Forest’s precious hardwood trees in makeshift earth ovens, and it’s a gruelling job. Nonetheless, it’s a growing menace.</p>
<p>In 2010 my colleagues at <a href="http://www.wwf.mg/">the WWF</a> noticed a huge increase in the amount of charcoal being produced in the forest of Ranobe. Ranobe is the richest area in the whole Spiny Forest <a href="http://www.journalmcd.com/index.php/mcd/article/view/181">for lemurs</a> and other wildlife, and it had just been declared a new protected area, so we needed to find out what was going on.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120539/original/image-20160428-28067-1flinyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120539/original/image-20160428-28067-1flinyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120539/original/image-20160428-28067-1flinyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120539/original/image-20160428-28067-1flinyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120539/original/image-20160428-28067-1flinyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120539/original/image-20160428-28067-1flinyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120539/original/image-20160428-28067-1flinyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120539/original/image-20160428-28067-1flinyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">With the rains failing, desperate farmers head to the Spiny Forest to make charcoal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://louisejasper.zenfolio.com/">Louise Jasper</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I wanted to know what had driven the change, so I interviewed <a href="http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9664379&fileId=S0030605315000071">more than 200 charcoal producers</a> to find out. Many had previously been farmers but had given it up – they couldn’t predict the rains any more due to the changing seasons, so their crops failed and yielded nothing. Even areas with irrigation suffered, as the region’s few ageing dams and canals had fallen into disrepair.</p>
<p>Nor was it just the farmers who were suffering. Some charcoal makers had been fishermen, but decades of overfishing meant there weren’t enough fish left to catch. Others had been herders, but had lost their cattle to rustlers. With growing families and rising costs of living, money was an issue for everyone, and traditional ways of life just weren’t paying the bills anymore. With nowhere else to turn, desperate communities were descending on the Spiny Forest.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120231/original/image-20160426-1352-f7r8l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120231/original/image-20160426-1352-f7r8l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120231/original/image-20160426-1352-f7r8l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120231/original/image-20160426-1352-f7r8l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120231/original/image-20160426-1352-f7r8l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120231/original/image-20160426-1352-f7r8l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120231/original/image-20160426-1352-f7r8l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120231/original/image-20160426-1352-f7r8l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Local lemurs are specially adapted to deal with thorns.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://louisejasper.zenfolio.com/">Louise Jasper</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The forest, it seems, acts as a safety net. Rural Malagasy people don’t want to produce charcoal or carry out shifting cultivation; they’d rather farm, fish, or find a salaried job. Unfortunately, there simply aren’t many options in the Spiny Forest, and the importance of the forest as a backup seems set to grow as climate change continues to <a href="http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/369/1934/117">disrupt the region’s weather</a>. The trouble is, practices like charcoal production are tearing huge holes in the forest safety net.</p>
<p>However, all is not yet lost. Hundreds of dedicated conservationists are working up and down the island, developing innovative solutions to the nation’s environmental crisis. What’s more, the Malagasy government has spent the past decade creating dozens of new <a href="http://news.mongabay.com/2015/07/conservation-win-in-madagascar-7-new-reserves-established/">parks and reserves</a>, including several in the Spiny Forest. The tide may be starting to turn, but these efforts need the support of the world. Can we save the Spiny Forest and the safety net it provides?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58323/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>He previously worked for WWF. </span></em></p>Climate change and overfishing have destroyed livelihoods, so many locals have been forced into the forest.Charlie Gardner, Honorary Research Fellow in Biodiversity Management, University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/439552015-06-29T14:39:53Z2015-06-29T14:39:53ZWhy haven’t Madagascar’s famed lemurs been saved yet?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86572/original/image-20150626-1438-vm6789.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lemurs in danger... can international climate policy come to the rescue?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mvvermeulen/3225408293/">Maurits Vermeulen</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Lemurs are cute – there is no denying it. Their big eyes and fluffy faces mean they really are the poster animals of Madagascar, an island known internationally for its unique flora and fauna. But the plight of Madagascar’s lemurs has made international headlines once again after experts warned the animals may be entirely extinct in the wild within 25 years. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33096260">BBC</a> showed gorgeous images of lemurs juxtaposed with the sad fact that nearly all of the 106 identified species of lemur are threatened.</p>
<p>These stories appear in the international media with depressing frequency. Those not closely involved might wonder why, if lemurs are so special, they have not been properly protected yet. Surely Madagascar can’t afford to lose its lemurs and the world can’t just stand by and watch it happen? </p>
<p>Unfortunately, conservation is far from easy to achieve. The problems facing lemurs in Madagascar are a microcosm of the challenges of tropical forest conservation throughout the world.</p>
<h2>Farming still wins out</h2>
<p>Madagascar’s forests and their lemurs are primarily threatened by agriculture. We are often told that Madagascar has <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lL4TAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT131&lpg=PT131&dq=madagascar+has+lost+90%25+of+its+forests&source=bl&ots=3QSGAZQnn5&sig=1ve1aGm0uxL73q79lynqGx815a4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=s2mNVY-qFor8Us6gvpgC&ved=0CDoQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=madagascar%20has%20lost%2090%25%20of%20its%20forests&f=false">lost 90% of its forest</a>, and that rural people clearing land for agriculture are the problem. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, like many things, the truth is rather more complex. This narrative underplays the role of colonial era and commercial land conversion, and overplays the destructive nature of the traditional land use system. </p>
<p>Malagasy farmers traditionally cut then burn patches of forest and farm them for a few years, before leaving the land fallow to <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167880906002866">regain fertility</a>. This isn’t a story of terrible people destroying their lovely pristine forest – such “shifting agriculture” (known locally as <em>tavy</em>) can be perfectly sustainable at low population densities.</p>
<p>Pressure comes from Madagascar’s booming population. As the numbers living in rural areas increase, people clear the same land more frequently, soil fertility drops and the land becomes degraded and of little use for either agriculture or lemurs. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86570/original/image-20150626-1405-1qlnrdy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86570/original/image-20150626-1405-1qlnrdy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86570/original/image-20150626-1405-1qlnrdy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86570/original/image-20150626-1405-1qlnrdy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86570/original/image-20150626-1405-1qlnrdy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86570/original/image-20150626-1405-1qlnrdy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86570/original/image-20150626-1405-1qlnrdy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86570/original/image-20150626-1405-1qlnrdy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shifting agricultural is the mainstay of the rural Malagasy economy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julia Jones</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Deforestation also releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change (in fact many would be surprised to know that land use change is the source of <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/336/6088/1573.abstract">between 7% and 14%</a> of the world’s emissions of greenhouse gases). With this in mind, it seems that forest conservation really should be a no brainer: it is good for the planet, good for biodiversity (remember those lovely lemurs) and, since shifting cultivation can be unsustainable anyway, people would be better off doing something else. </p>
<h2>Paint Madagascar REDD</h2>
<p>This is the thinking that underpins the proposed international climate mechanism <a href="http://www.un-redd.org/aboutredd">REDD+</a> (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation), in which poor tropical countries such as Madagascar get financial incentives to reduce their deforestation and so contribute to global efforts to slow climate change.</p>
<p>So would REDD+ finally solve the problems of tropical forest conservation (and save those lemurs)? Unfortunately many challenges remain. A significant one is how the funds will be used to actually slow deforestation? In Madagascar the funds from REDD+ pilot projects have been used in part to fund community forest management: where legal management responsibility for forests is transferred to communities. <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320715000488">Recent research</a> from Madagascar provides some evidence that this can indeed slow deforestation but it is far from a panacea. <a href="http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/110040">A review</a> of community forest management interventions around the world found there is limited evidence that the approach can deliver the hoped-for environmental, or local welfare, benefits. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86577/original/image-20150626-1396-91gq99.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86577/original/image-20150626-1396-91gq99.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86577/original/image-20150626-1396-91gq99.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86577/original/image-20150626-1396-91gq99.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86577/original/image-20150626-1396-91gq99.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86577/original/image-20150626-1396-91gq99.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86577/original/image-20150626-1396-91gq99.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hmm, no farmers down there.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andriambolantsoa Rasolohery</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To be successful, any project aiming to reduce deforestation will need to ensure that farmers at the edge of the forest do not lose out. This is vital both from a pragmatic perspective (if people don’t have alternatives they will have no option but to continue with existing land-use practices, however damaging) and from the perspective of environmental justice and human rights. </p>
<p>Key questions remain about how benefits from REDD+ payments will be distributed locally – the question of whether resources will be sufficient to compensate for lost livelihoods – and how the rights of those affected will be protected. There has been <a href="http://www.redd-monitor.org/2015/06/18/the-bonn-2015-decision-on-redd-safeguards/">recent criticism</a> that international commitments to these social safeguards in the REDD+ mechanism are too weak.</p>
<p>Bruno Ramamonjisoa, a professor of forestry at the University of Antananarivo in Madagascar told me that: “Madagascar’s lemurs, and their forests, are a vital part of our natural heritage. However, forest conservation in Madagascar will only be successful if the people dependent on forests, and their needs, are fully incorporated into conservation plans. Those developing the REDD+ policies must understand the real challenges facing forest-edge communities in Madagascar”. </p>
<p>It is expected that REDD+ will be approved at the major climate summit in <a href="http://www.cop21.gouv.fr/en">Paris</a> later this year and this may well unlock funds for forest conservation in Madagascar in future. However the threats to lemurs will not be easily solved – and the real threats to people sharing habitat with lemurs, must not be ignored.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43955/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julia Jones is principal investigator of the p4ges.org project (Can payments for ecosystem services reduce poverty?) which is funded by the UK government’s Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation programme (<a href="http://www.espa.ac.uk">www.espa.ac.uk</a>).</span></em></p>Conservation won’t be successful unless we work with people living at the forest edge.Julia P G Jones, Professor of Conservation Science, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/396612015-04-04T08:47:42Z2015-04-04T08:47:42ZLemurs may hold secrets to living longer, but they won’t increase our lifespan<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76964/original/image-20150402-9328-1hlny1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jonas the lemur defied his small size by living to the age of 29.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://lemur.duke.edu/nearly-50-years-of-lemur-data-now-available-online/">David Haring, Duke Lemur Center</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Jonas the <a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/89171.php">fat-tailed dwarf lemur</a> died recently in captivity at the ripe age of 29 years, he was the oldest known of his species. But Jonas not only outlasted members of closely related lemur species held in captivity; he also lived much longer than science would predict based on his small size.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/enhanced/doi/10.1111/jzo.12230/">new study</a> in the Journal of Zoology attributed this exceptional longevity to the fact that this lemur species are able to readily enter a low energy state. They can do this for both for long periods of days to months (hibernation), as well as shorter periods of a few hours (known as torpor). Dwarf lemurs live much longer than similar-sized animals. The researchers looked through more than 50 years of records on hundreds of these and three other lemur species at the Duke Lemur Centre. They suggest that increased longevity in hibernators could be the result of cellular machinery that makes them resilient to metabolic stress, which is associated <a href="https://theconversation.com/ageing-isnt-fixed-we-can-manipulate-it-to-live-longer-31808">with ageing</a>.</p>
<p>Among mammals, body size correlates with lifespan: larger species live longer than smaller species. This relationship is not perfect and there are sometimes major exceptions. Jonas and other fat-tailed dwarf lemurs are one of these, meaning they might carry clues to what determines lifespan.</p>
<h2>The flame that burns twice as bright</h2>
<p>In 1908, <a href="https://www.abdn.ac.uk/energetics-research/research/ageing/">Max Rubner</a> proposed the first evidence-based theory of ageing. He noticed that the bigger a species of mammal was, the lower its metabolic rate, meaning that bigger mammals use less energy per kilogramme of body mass than small ones. </p>
<p>But species with bigger body size are also longer-lived. Putting these together, it becomes clear that shorter-lived mammals have a faster metabolic rate. To quote Lao Tzu (and the movie Blade Runner): “The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long.”</p>
<p>Rubner showed that horses, cows, dogs, cats and guinea pigs each use about 200 kilo-calories for each kilogramme of body weight over the course of their lifetime. So over their lives, each animal, per kilogramme body weight, does the same amount of metabolic work; short-living animals do it faster, longer living do it slower.</p>
<p>This became the <a href="https://archive.org/details/rateofliving031726mbp">Rate of Living Theory</a>. It says that energy metabolism is unavoidably associated with damage which accumulates over time, eventually causing <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/focus/senescence/">decline in cell function</a> and ultimately death. The faster the metabolism, the more the damage, the shorter the life. In 1956, <a href="http://geronj.oxfordjournals.org/content/11/3/298.long">the Free Radical Theory of Aging</a> proposed that reactive forms of oxygen formed during energy production in cells are what lead to the damage which causes ageing. It’s not proven, but there is much supporting evidence and it’s the best explanation so far. </p>
<p>Evolution shapes the genetics which controls and deals with all this. Natural selection maximises the species productivity in their particular ecologies. In high mortality environments, fast growth and reproduction is required, and ageing is fast. If there is a chance for longer survival, fast growth and reproduction are sacrificed in favour of maintenance of the body, leading to slower ageing and an extended reproductive life. In some species, hibernation has evolved to allow an organism more flexibility in a changeable environment, allowing survival through lean times so that reproduction can re-start when conditions improve.</p>
<p>In hibernating fat-tailed dwarf lemurs, the heart rate drops from 200 to eight beats per minute. Both body temperature and metabolic rate can also drop for up to three months at a time, though they can also enter torpor; a milder state of lower activity. As the Rate of Living Theory predicts, this reduction in metabolic rate is associated with a longer life.</p>
<h2>Could humans achieve a similar state?</h2>
<p>Though some <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psAHiYhe1F4">yogic practices</a> do allow substantial slowing of breathing and heart rate, this is for short periods. There is no posture or practice in yoga so far known as “the torpid lemur.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/psAHiYhe1F4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Extreme depth free-divers can slow heart rate as an enhanced form of the <a href="http://dujs.dartmouth.edu/winter-2012/the-mammalian-diving-reflex#.VR1vspTF83Q">diving reflex</a>. Some sort of trance-like focus is often used. Holding your breath results in substantial brain cooling by as much as one degree per minute. But this form of control is associated with significant incidences of <a href="http://www.patient.co.uk/health/abnormal-heart-rhythms-arrhythmias">abnormal heart rhythms</a>, and <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=125625">deaths among free-divers</a> are not uncommon.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77034/original/image-20150403-9332-uyjnmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77034/original/image-20150403-9332-uyjnmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77034/original/image-20150403-9332-uyjnmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77034/original/image-20150403-9332-uyjnmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77034/original/image-20150403-9332-uyjnmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77034/original/image-20150403-9332-uyjnmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77034/original/image-20150403-9332-uyjnmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Or holding your breath?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bookbenbaker/8713406452/in/photolist-6oAaNA-a6yAjP-gPfYBJ-cYbcFL-cKvgzY-cKvZwj-fwFS5k-9YYSDN-dXCjBR-cKviVs-cSqCHy-ejFJSo-c9EdTb-H7HTm-H7Kpc-7XoybN-4njS4C-egYuaJ-egSGEc-egYqYU-egYr2C-6rvRYq-6rrLMt-egYtBq-egYtgU-egYtSf-egYt69-egYorb-bz9ZW7-egSwSn-egSDcF-egYoHA-egYiW9-egSzfB-eh3PzR-egYm1q-egYm6h-egSxvg-egSBov-egYkDJ-egYjQ3-egSz5n-eh3GXe-eh9vRE-aDb6D2-aDeXjL-aDb6AH-aDb6DF-eh3Hgr-eh3FTM">Ben Baker Photography</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Medicine: the real beneficiary</h2>
<p>In 1999, 29-year-old Norwegian Anna Bågenholm <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2013/dec/10/life-death-therapeutic-hypothermia-anna-bagenholm">survived 80 minutes</a> in freezing water following a skiing accident. She was in extreme hypothermia; her core temperature, even after an hour’s journey to hospital, was just 13.7°C. Although there was significant <a href="http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/cold-injury">cold damage</a> to her body, there was no apparent brain damage at all. This was probably because, when her heart eventually stopped, her brain was so cold its metabolic rate was sufficiently slow it required almost no oxygen. Her heart stopped for at least three and a half hours and her metabolism is thought to have slowed down to just 10% of its normal rate.</p>
<p>The use of <a href="https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ipg386">therapeutic hypothermia for treatment of cardiac arrest</a> has become more common in Norway since this case. This can reduce core temperature to 32°C, five degrees lower than usual body temperature. But slowing the heart substantially requires even lower temperatures, and surviving this slowing of the heart would require substantial cooling of the brain and other energy-hungry organs. All which would need a lot of fine tuning to get right.</p>
<p>At this point, at least, I’m not holding my hand up to volunteer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39661/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Clancy has received funding from the Australian Research Council, Monash University, AgeUK and Lancaster University.</span></em></p>A new study looking at a long-lived lemur species attributes it to their frequent hibernation-like state. But what lessons can humans learn from this?David Clancy, Lecturer in Biomedical Science, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/234432014-02-20T19:17:40Z2014-02-20T19:17:40ZNew action plan to save Madagascar’s at-risk lemurs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42083/original/3b52t4qm-1392907830.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Save us from bush meat.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tambako/9480449752/">Tambako The Jaguar</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Contrary to the film of DreamWorks’ imagining, Madagascar is not ruled by King Julien and his colony of lemurs. In fact the status of the lemurs on the island – the only place on earth that they exist – is a very precarious one. To try to reverse the frightening fact that 94% of lemur species are under threat, myself and lemur experts around the world have issued a renewed <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1245783">action plan</a> for their conservation.</p>
<p>We highlight three key ways to save lemurs: community-based conservation management, the long-term presence of researchers at field sites, and ecotourism. While the action plan separately identifies these three areas, they do not exist independently of each other. In particular, community-based conservation management and ecotourism have the <a href="http://www.conservationandsociety.org/article.asp?issn=0972-4923;year=2013;volume=11;issue=1;spage=1;epage=15;aulast=Kothari;type=0">potential to work very well together</a>.</p>
<h2>Lemurs in danger</h2>
<p>Madagascar’s political problems have helped make lemur species the <a href="http://www.conservation.org/newsroom/pressreleases/Pages/New-Finding-Lemurs-Most-Threatened-Mammal-Species.aspx">most endangered group of mammals on the planet</a>. A coup d’état in early 2009 left the island nation with a ruling regime that was not recognised internationally and a regime leader too young under Madagascar’s constitution to assume the presidency. Western nations warned their nationals against all but essential travel to Madagascar and tourism to the world’s fourth largest island plummeted overnight. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42100/original/nwbppgjb-1392922540.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42100/original/nwbppgjb-1392922540.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42100/original/nwbppgjb-1392922540.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42100/original/nwbppgjb-1392922540.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42100/original/nwbppgjb-1392922540.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42100/original/nwbppgjb-1392922540.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42100/original/nwbppgjb-1392922540.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A male blue-eyed black lemur.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nora Schwitzer</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are currently 106 species of lemurs in Madagascar (new species continue to be discovered) and their natural forest habitats especially suffered from this political turmoil. <a href="http://www.chrisgoldenresearch.com/publications.html">Increased banditry, illegal logging</a> in national parks and nature reserves, and a sharp increase in the hunting of lemurs as “<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0027570">bush meat</a>” has left them facing extinction. </p>
<h2>Ecotourism potential</h2>
<p>Ecotourism can allow rural communities in Madagascar to earn revenue for protecting lemur habitats; create economic incentives and benefits for local residents; and facilitate locally supported conservation efforts. Also, ecotourists can be educated and gain insight into the special biological and cultural qualities of the region. Organised from the bottom up, ecotourism can be sensitive to local concerns and be a sustainable form of development.</p>
<p>Ecotourism is <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09669582.2013.847942#.UwYBXUJ1W7l">not always the answer</a> to conservation problems. But if implemented with careful planning, and as a part of a broader conservation strategy, it can be one tool among many to address conservation issues. Much research shows that ecotourism can be effective when part of a <a href="http://www.researchgate.net/publication/233252250_Community_Participation_in_Ecotourism_Benefits_The_Link_to_Conservation_Practices_and_Perspectives/file/e0b4951530b5e375b8.pdf">community-based conservation approach</a>. </p>
<p>It is this broad approach that is proposed in the new conservation plan. While Madagascar is one of the world’s top biodiversity hotspots, lemurs easily represent the country’s “brand” for drawing ecotourists. The success of Rwanda’s and Uganda’s mountain gorilla ecotourism ventures shows that ecotourists are certainly willing to pay a premium to observe rare species in their natural habitat – Madagascar can provide that in spades.</p>
<p>One success story that can serve as a model for promoting lemur and forest conservation at other sites across Madagascar is centred on Maromizaha Forest in the eastern part of the island. This vast forest is rich in biodiversity, including no fewer than 13 lemur species. With good transport links to the capital and the east coast, Maromizaha is readily accessible to ecotourists who want to do a bit of hiking. Outreach to the local community has included building a multi-purpose interpretive centre, training several villagers as guides and making English and French courses available to them. </p>
<p>Researchers from universities around the world have worked with local schools to develop a heightened appreciation of the unique biodiversity there. They have also suggested new agricultural techniques and methods of crop production to the community. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42101/original/j2bhz637-1392922815.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42101/original/j2bhz637-1392922815.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42101/original/j2bhz637-1392922815.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42101/original/j2bhz637-1392922815.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42101/original/j2bhz637-1392922815.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42101/original/j2bhz637-1392922815.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42101/original/j2bhz637-1392922815.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42101/original/j2bhz637-1392922815.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Coquerel’s Sifaka lemur.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/42244964@N03/4027569042/">Frank Vassen</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These new developments have been welcomed by the local people, as they have seen their quality of life improve. While just eight visitors came to visit Maromizaha Forest in 2008, by 2,011 that number had increased to 208. The project has developed into an important source of income for the local community. If Madagascar’s political landscape can remain stable in the future, there will be opportunities for many stories like this one.</p>
<h2>Local partnerships</h2>
<p>To be successful, ecotourism ventures must include a significant degree of <a href="http://www.internationalprimatologicalsociety.org/ImprovingPrimateConservationThroughCommunityInvolvement.cfm">participation from local communities</a>. This means working with individuals in the community, with local groups and existing NGOs and helping authorities enforce the boundaries of forest reserves and protected areas. </p>
<p>Maintaining a long-term presence of field researchers can help build relationships with local communities, as well as providing feedback on how projects are going. By training up locals, researchers could at some point step back and let the communities themselves sustainably run ecotourist operations.</p>
<p>The new plan represents a coordinated conservation strategy. The plan requires engagement with local communities, ecotourism and the long term participation of field researchers. It is actually a combination of 30 action plans, each targeting different sites of importance for lemur conservation. Notably, a huge amount of land could be conserved for a relatively small amount of international aid (US$7.6 million). Ecotourism driven by lemurs, along with research inspired by them, would contribute significantly to that cost.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/23443/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Colquhoun does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Contrary to the film of DreamWorks’ imagining, Madagascar is not ruled by King Julien and his colony of lemurs. In fact the status of the lemurs on the island – the only place on earth that they exist…Ian Colquhoun, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.