Lemurs in Madagascar: Surviving on an Island of Change Transcript

Lemurs in Madagascar Surviving on an Island of depart Transcript Speakers Ian Tattersall, Jonah Ratsimbazafy, Michelle Sauther, Frank Cuozzo (Rain trickling, lemur sounds squeaking and calling) (Music play in background) IAN TATTERSALL I think everybody who is involved with lemurs is concerned for the future. Were in a delimited island that can non infinitely be exploited and ravaged. And if present trends continue, the outlook for any of the internal habitat or any of the lemurs is fairly poor. (Birds chirping) Lemurs be members of the order primates, that is to imagine the large group of mammals to which human beings also belong.And theyd found they are uniquely in Madagascar and on a couple of the adjacent islands of the Comoros group. (Music playing in background) An evolutionary radiation is the diversification of antithetical species from the same antecedent and once a new change of organism like a primate comes into a new environment as happened in Madagascar to th e highest degree sixty million years ago thither are many an(prenominal), many distinguishable ways in which that environment can be exploited. Its very hard to say exactly how many species of lemur there are because new species are being described all of the time.But in worldwide terms, there now looks to be slightly thirty to thirty-five species of lemurs and it shows us just what the potential of primates is to occupy an enormous range of different habitats. (Music playing in background) Habitat destruction trains place on a much shorter time scale than evolutionary exchange and the amount of change that is happening so rapidly in Madagascar as a import of human activities is clearly almost(prenominal)thing with which no evolutionary process can fill in. hex RATSIMBAZAFY Now we are here in Ranomafana National Park in the southeastern rainforest of Madagascar.This place used to be loved by loggers but since the park was created, the forest started to be productive. Here in Ranomafana, there are twelve different species of lemurs. Seven are active during the daytime and five are active during the night. There are many different ways of studying lemurs. It depends on what you want to look at. (Speaking in background) I look at the behavior and how the behavior fits in the habitat. For example, if you want to chouse which foot and what prints they rely on because if we can continue to nurture the habitat, that testament help to protect them or to conserve them.Every five minutes we take note what species of tree, who the closest neighbor is, the closest trail, because we want to know where do they go to estimate the home range and if they eat, what do they eat. Some species cope better than the others. If you are a specialist on your diet and if pack curl down your food, you are gone. For example, the bamboo lemur. They exclusively eat bamboo and if commonwealth cut down those plants, they are gone. They can disappear very fast. (Music playing in background) IAN TATTERSALL Different lemurs are affected in different ways by the environmental destruction that is going on in Madagascar.Some lemurs are in danger, some are critically endangered, some are vulnerable, and some are threatened. The less vulnerable ones are the ones that do well in subaltern habitats, in habitats that have been altered by people. MICHELLE SAUTHER Were at a site called Beza Mahafaly, and it incorporates a protective reserve as well as areas outside of the reserve and our research here focuses on the effects of atomization and changes in habitat on lemur biology and their behavior. We study lemur catta which is the ring-tailed lemur. Its the compositors case of lemur close to people have seen in zoos.They are one of the most far ranging of the lemurs. They are incredibly adaptable and one of the things that we are kind of interested in is what is the biology of adaptation or what is the biology of avoiding decent extinct. And because ring-tailed lemurs are so widespread, and thats not to say theyre not threatened, but they seem to be able to deal a hole behaviorally and biologically with habitat change. I think what were seeing in terms of the processs we were looking at today is a troop that is actually utilizing some of the anthropogenic change.They will go out and employ local peoples crops so they are actually exploiting some of the habitat that has been degraded and turned into crop land for their own use. outspoken CUOZZO In terms of the ring-tailed lemurs, because they are rather generalist, they do seem to lay to different types of disturbance. As Michelle mentioned a few moments ago, it doesnt mean that we come int have to watch out or think about it and it doesnt mean there arent very real threats to long-term survival, but ring-tails specifically seem to deal with things in ways that some of the more specialized lemurs dont.MICHELLE SAUTHER But there is always limitations to those though. Thats what were trying to understand is where are you when you urinate to the limits of even a ring-tailed lemur in terms of being able to adapt. (Music playing in background) I used to feel depressed when I came here because, again, you see the habitat changing and a lot of fragmentation occurring. I feel a bit better now because were trying to really get a handle on what sort of ways you can interact with local people because that is the reality.What you saw around here is the reality of Madagascar. IAN TATTERSAL I think what we ought to be looking for in terms of conservation is habitats to protect and what we need to do is to find those places where, with the least disturbance to local people or to the greatest benefit of local people, tracks of forest that support the internal fauna of Madagascar can be conserved. (Lemur sound) End of Audio Copyright 2006 by Films Media Group. All rights reserved. adapt with permission.