Ninety-five percent of the world’s lemur population is on the brink of extinction, making them the most endangered primates on Earth, announced the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Lemurs, cute arboreal primates with elongated snouts and large eyes, live only on Madagascar, where they are threatened by deforestation, the expansion of agricultural land, hunting, and mining.
>>>Sudan, the last male white rhino in the world, has died
– This is, without a doubt, the highest percentage of endangerment of any large group of mammals and any group of vertebrates, said Russ Mittermeier from IUCN.
Of the total 111 species and subspecies of lemurs, 105 are endangered, the association claims.
– The trend that is most concerning is the increase in hunting lemurs, including commercial hunting, says Christoph Schwitzer, director of the conservation department of the British Zoological Society.
>>>Grizzly removed from the endangered species list, hunting allowed for trophies
– This has reached an unprecedented level, he emphasizes.
– Lemurs are to Madagascar what giant pandas are to China, ‘golden eggs’ that attract tourists and nature lovers, highlights Jonah Ratsimbazafy from the Madagascar animal protection group GERP.
Madagascar is one of the most well-known countries in the world for its biodiversity.
IUCN concludes its statement by emphasizing that it is launching a major action plan for the protection and survival of lemurs.
