MYAKKA CITY – Lemurs are adorable, playful and inquisitive creatures. But they are endangered and disappearing from their only natural habitat in the world – Madagascar.  

The Lemur Conservation Foundation’s lemur colony, in Myakka City, may be located in our very own backyard here in Florida, but its work stretches across the globe and impacts all of humanity.

This is the Red ruffed lemur (Varecia rubra) and one of the species of lemurs at the lemur colony. Photo by Larry Roberts, for Lemur Conservation Foundation.

Penelope Bodry-Sanders, founder of the reserve, and Michael Stern, its newly appointed executive director, sat at a table in the reserve’s library on Feb. 8.

They are joined by the reserve’s research biologist Monica Mogilewsky and all three lemur conservationists are meeting about the future of these primates and how it affects the global human population.

“There’s a famous scientist named Edward O. Wilson,” she said. “He has said that at the end of this century half of the species on earth, half, will be gone. They call this the age of loneliness.”

Bodry-Sanders added that the realities we – as a human race – are dealing with are horrific.

She retired from the foundation in Feb. and passed her vision along to Stern, who just arrived from the Kibale forest region in Uganda where he spent nine years working with Ugandans to find alternative methods for fuel to save their forests.

“When we see what’s going on in Madagascar, it brings us to our knees and we get so depressed,” she said.

The tone around the table is solemn, as they each glance out the windows towards the direction of their lemurs. The view out from the reserve’s library captures a feeling that one could be in Madagascar.

Earlier in the day Stern had said that the deforestation and the hunting of lemurs in Madagascar continued to worry the staff at the reserve.

“They are still discovering species of lemurs,” he said. “There, in the little corners of the forest. They just discovered a new bamboo lemur.”

But Stern said the amount of species that are going extinct each year is alarming. He said we are losing species faster than we can discover new ones, and this is a problem and the reason why the foundation’s focus is just lemurs.

This is a Ringtail lemur (Lemur catta) and one of the species of lemurs at the lemur colony. Photo by Noel Roe, for Lemur Conservation Foundation.

“We still don’t know what’s out there,” he said. “A lot of folks think we discovered things years ago, but we are discovering new species every day.”

Bodry-Sanders shook her head and added in that this loss causes in humans “eco-grief” or “cosmic depression.”

It is why she started the foundation in 1996 and it is why she believes in saving one of our earliest ancestors, since what is happening to lemurs is a direct reflection on what is happening to humans.

“At LCF we have to put our head down and just go,” she said. “When we see Madagascar we get so depressed, but you can not do that to yourself. This is our mission: If we just do lemurs really well, then, perhaps, we can die peacefully.”

This mission translates over to a lemur insurance policy against their extinction.

“If the captive population collapses and they completely stop breeding, we will have no captive animals to help the wild animals,” Mogilewsky said. “We will have no lemurs left in the world.”

For example, the collared brown lemurs are only found in a couple places in Madagascar. So while their populations are doing well currently, if anything happens that species of lemur is in big trouble.

“The captive population in the U.S. and in Europe are not breeding as well, now,” she said. “We only have 16 breeding individuals In the U.S.”

This is a very small number of breeding collared brown lemurs, for a creature teetering on extinction.

Collared lemur (Eulemur collaris) and one of the species of lemurs at the lemur colony. Photo by staff at Lemur Conservation Foundation.

She said that the red ruffed lemurs are even more endangered than the collared brown lemurs; there are about 200 in the wild, currently, that they know of.

The reserve is hosting seven species of lemurs, including both the red ruffed and collared brown ones. The reserve does not host nocturnal lemurs, since they are harder to study and manage.

“We could bring them in if it were needed,” she said.

What the foundation is doing, has been done before to save other species of animals that were on the brink of extinction.

“It’s a big mission, right?” Stern said. "It’s happened before. Captive breeding has saved several species from extinction, like the Przewalski's horse, Golden Lion Tamarin, California Condor and the Père David's Deer.”

Bodry-Sanders agreed with Stern and said these are all the animals that would be extinct today if it were not for captive breeding.

“These are the realities that we are dealing with,” she said.

But the question the foundation has to answer often is why take all this time and money saving lemurs?

“We need nature to survive,” she said. “We need nature to survive.”

Stern said that the theory “biophilia” states if humans were to live in a concrete city, void of natural life, they would go “nuts.” He said that possibly the spread of diseases, like Ebola virus, is due to lack of bio-diversity in the forest and the destruction of the forest. Thus, causing human diseases to increase.

“We, as a species, in the natural place need to be surrounded by the beauty of nature,” Bodry-Sanders said. “We depend on it and we need it for our well being.”

Video: Visiting the Lemur Conservation Foundation’s Lemur Reserve

Scientists and staffers at the private reserve specialize in lemur conservation and preservation

Erica Newport is a daily reporter for The Bradenton Times. She covers art, culture and community. If you have a story that might interest Erica, please e-mail her using erica.newport@thebradentontimes.com address.  She also takes your questions related to our weekly theme days and provides advice and opinions for our readers.

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