Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: LEMURS in their native Madagascar, an endangered species, are facing a growing threat: Citydwellers with cash to spare love to eat them.
They say that the meat from fruit-eating lemur species tastes sweet and that consuming these primates promotes strength and good health. The meat from these tree-dwellers is valued for its cleanliness and “purity.” The startling revelation comes from the first-ever assessment of Madagascar’s urban lemur trade, according to a report in the New York Times. Conducted over the past four years, it concludes that more than 10,000 lemurs were sold for pricey dishes across 17 cities in the country.
Though dining on wild species from African forests often evokes people trying to survive hunger in desperate situations, this new work suggests that people from a wealthier rung of society in Madagascar, those making perhaps thousands of U.S. dollars a year, are a distinct threat to these endangered primates.
The findings were published recently in the journal Conservation Letters. Cortni Borgerson, a primatologist at Montclair State University in New Jersey, and her co-authors conducted interviews with more than 2,600 lemur sellers, buyers or hunters. This urban consumption problem, she says, is “urgent and growing.” Lemur suppliers and buyers told her team that demand for the animals seemed to be increasing.
Madagascar is the only place in the world where lemurs are found in the wild. In addition to being a major tourism draw, lemurs are essential seed dispersers and pollinators in the country’s forests. The country outlawed lemur hunting more than 60 years ago, but subsistence hunting endures. The animals face additional threats from trafficking for pet trade.
