New Pocket of Greater Bamboo Lemurs Found
Several Lemurs were found where they don’t belong.
The discovery was made in the Torotorofotsy wetlands of east central Madagascar, more than 400 km (240 miles) north of the isolated pockets of bamboo forest where the rest of the known populations of the species live.
This is exciting, at least to me and other lemur fans in the audience, as the 30 to 40 individuals in the newly discovered territory add the possibility of introducing genetic diversity to the exiting populations (100 individuals) of the Greater Bamboo Lemurs (Prolemur simus) living in the southeastern parts of the island. This would massively curb the effects of interbreeding in a small population, and as such increases the viability of the species existence over time.
Greater Bamboo Lemurs (along with a few other lemurs) are particularly awesome because they consume massive amounts of Giant Bamboo, but suffer no deleterious effects from the cyanide in the bamboo.
July 23rd, 2008 at 5:23 am
Perhaps,
Unfortunately, it may turn out that this population is so far from the other known sites that artificial translocation for interbreeding would be more damaging to its long-term conservation. After all, such an action would dilute the diversity that may exist between these two populations. An extremely difficult decision to make…
Jonathan