Lemurs Conservation Efforts
One of the biggest problems for the Lemur is that fact that the trees where they live are being cut down. They are losing their natural habit as people come in and destroys everything around. They want to use the land for other needs and that has resulted in some Lemurs dying out.
There are certain species of Lemurs including the Aye Aye that are considered to be bad spirits. As a result many of the people that live in this area have placed traps to capture and kill them. This makes it very hard to get their numbers up. At this point in time, some of them are believed to be in serious need of protection if they won’t be extinct in the near future.
In fact, the Lemur is considered to be one of the type of primate at the highest risk of extinction. That is a serious issue and one that is going to take substantial conservation to help them to survive. Many advocates are trying to educate people about the needs of the Lemurs and to protect them from being hunted. They also want to keep the forest areas where they live intact.
One of the issues with getting their numbers to increase has to do with the fact that the Lemur can control breeding. When food supplies are low they won’t engage in it. This means when their natural environment is being destroyed they aren’t going to continue to offer new generations to Lemurs. That contributes to the problem of getting their low numbers out of the red zone.
The Save the Lemur Campaign is in place by the Madagascar Fauna Group is one of the largest organizations trying to help them to survive. They continue to try to raise money for these animals to be saved. You can contribute to their efforts by going to their website and seeing what all they are involved with to help take steps in the right direction.
It is important to understand that all species of Lemurs are only found on Madagascar Island. Unfortunately every day their habitat is destroyed. This is a huge problem because it means those that remain out there are in significant danger of not finding enough to live on.
It also means that it may be unrealistic to release more Lemurs back into that environment. There wouldn’t be enough shelter or food for such an increase in population to survive. There are many wildlife refugees that are continually doing all they can to protect Lemurs as well as to keep them in a natural type of environment. These are likely to be the locations where many of those bred in captivity will one day be released to.
Even though people know the Lemurs need protection it is very hard to get the government in Madagascar to do much. While they have made it illegal in many areas to hunt them the practice continues. There aren’t effective means in place to monitor those that are hunting and trapping them.
Even when such individuals are caught they don’t seem to get much more than a simple fine. There are also reports of people coming from around the world to hunt for the Lemurs on Madagascar Island. These are avid hunters that want to be able to hunt exotic creatures.
They want to be able to kill some Lemurs before they are extinct. They often pay the poor villagers of Madagascar money in order to guide them on such hunting expeditions. The government is aware of such issues but they don’t seem to be making it a priority to change things.
