Lemur
numbers plummet for some species, higher than anticipated for others, models
find
Date: August 30, 2018
Source: Duke University
Summary:
Putting a
figure on the number of endangered lemurs left in the wild isn't easy, but
researchers say one clue might help: the plants they rely on for food. Bamboo
lemur populations in their native Madagascar may have shrunk by half over the
last two decades; red-fronted brown lemurs by as much as 85 percent. But
numbers for other lemur species may not be as low as feared, new models
suggest.
The vast
majority of lemur species are on the edge of extinction, experts warn. But not
every lemur species faces a grim future. There may be as many as 1.3 million
white-fronted brown lemurs still in the wild, for example, and mouse lemurs may
number more than 2 million, a Duke-led study has shown.
"For
some lemurs, there may be healthy populations remaining and our conservation
efforts are preserving them," said lead author James Herrera of Duke
University.
The
findings come from statistical modeling techniques that estimate the total
population sizes and geographic ranges for 19 of the roughly 100 recognized
lemur species across Madagascar by using the plants they rely on for food as a
proxy for counting animals.
These
tree-dwelling primates eat mostly fruits, leaves and flowers, such as African
star apples, mangosteens, tamarinds and figs across Madagascar, the only place
in the world where lemurs live in the wild.
In a
study published August 30 in the Journal of Biogeography, researchers show
that lemurs are less abundant in areas that lack certain tree species -- even
when environmental conditions such as temperature, precipitation and elevation
are otherwise suitable.
Using
this relationship, the team was able to come up with the first estimates of
total population size for some lesser-known species, such as Crossley's dwarf
lemur. These estimates can be critical baseline data for managing what's left.
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