Scientists sound alarm over extinction threat to lemurs
Scientists sound alarm over extinction threat to lemurs
Source: Reuters - Thu, 20 Feb 2014 07:52 PM
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Some of the world's top experts in lemurs sounded the alarm on Thursday about an imminent extinction threat to these primitive primates that live only in Madagascar and unveiled a three-year plan to try to prevent them from disappearing altogether.
Lemurs are now the world's most threatened mammal group.
Habitat destruction and fragmentation caused by illegal slash-and-burn farming, logging of rosewood and ebony trees and mining are major threats to lemurs, as is bushmeat hunting by impoverished local people, the scientists said.
A five-year political crisis in Madagascar and a broad breakdown of environmental law enforcement have worsened the situation for the roughly 100 species of lemurs, they said.
"Extinctions could begin very soon if nothing is done," said Christoph Schwitzer, head of research at the Bristol Zoological Society in Britain who led a team of 19 scientists that drafted the emergency lemur preservation plan.
More:
http://www.trust.org/item/20140220193127-xrbh2/