Lemur conservation is an issue
that requires coordinated, targeted, thoughtful, and sustained action. It also
requires a deep understanding of local cultural norms, traditions, and
potential consequences to one’s actions. We would wager a guess that consuming
lemurs to save them does not meet these criteria.
Richard Bangs, Editor-at-Large
for Expedia.com and a travel writer for the New York Times, Slate, and the
Huffington Post, wrote a detailed account for the Huffington Post in which he
described his quest to find and eat a Critically Endangered species, the
red-ruffed lemur (Varecia rubra).
The wildlife trade represents the
third-largest illegal trade in the world following the arms and drugs trades,
and it threatens to wipe out numerous and diverse species across the globe.
Lemurs, endemic to Madagascar,
now represent the most endangered group of mammals on Earth with more than 90
percent of the 113 species being threatened with extinction. Thus, lemurs are
illegal to capture, kill, sell, or eat in Madagascar.
“I can get you a lemur if you
want one,” said a sun-hardened Malagasy man after finishing up an interview,
via translator, about his history of hunting lemurs. He could get us a dead
crowned lemur in a week, tops. Shocked, we declined; there are less than 10,000
individuals of this species left in the wild.
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