A new Sewall Lab publication, led by doctoral student Kim Reuter, has been published.\u00a0 The new peer-reviewed article, entitled “Live capture and ownership of lemurs in Madagascar: extent and conservation implications,” clarifies the volume and impacts of lemur ownership (as pets and for other reasons) by people living close to natural areas and in urban areas within Madagascar.\u00a0 The ownership of lemurs, the endemic primates of the western Indian Ocean island of Madagascar, is illegal, but we found lemur ownership was widespread, including in all regions of the country.\u00a0 We estimated that more than 28,000 lemurs of a diversity of species were held in captivity within Madagascar between 2010 and 2013.\u00a0 Lemurs are one of the most threatened groups of vertebrates globally, and are currently imperiled by habitat change, hunting, climate change, and other anthropogenic changes.\u00a0 Of the more than 100 species of lemur, several have small global populations (four have populations less than 500 individuals, and nine have populations less than 10,000).\u00a0 Thus, the previously unappreciated extent of lemur ownership, which is fueled by capture and removal of lemurs from their natural habitats, provides a new cause for concern for the continued persistence of several endangered and critically endangered lemur species.<\/p>\n
The publication was co-authored by three Sewall Lab members – doctoral student Kim Reuter, recent undergraduate student Haley Gilles, and Dr. Sewall – as well as Abigail Wills of the Mpingo Conservation and Development Initiative.\u00a0 The article will appear in a forthcoming issue of the international conservation journal Oryx<\/em>, and can be found online here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A new Sewall Lab publication, led by doctoral student Kim Reuter, has been published.\u00a0 The new peer-reviewed article, entitled “Live capture and ownership of lemurs in Madagascar: extent and conservation implications,” clarifies the volume and impacts of lemur ownership (as … Continue reading