DURHAM, N.C. -- U.S.-bred black and white ruffed lemurs, descendants of animals originally removed from Madagascar to conserve their species, will be carefully returned to the wilds they never knew next fall in a first-ever restocking project.
Madagascar Fauna Group (MFG), the project's international sponsor, plans to systematically repatriate as many as 20 of the adaptable lemurs to their ancestral island nation over the next three years. The long-tailed, tree-climbing primates now live in two U.S. research and breeding habitats: the Duke University Primate Center and a Wildlife Conservation Society site on St. Catherine's Island off the coast of Georgia.
One of many endangered species in Madagascar, these lemurs are known for the ruffs of fur that frame their faces. Their coats are various pastiches of black and white. Also characteristic are their group vocalizations, a barking roar so evident during feeding times at the Duke Primate Center. Next fall's deployment will be the "first well-planned and monitored release" of captive-born lemurs to a native rain forest environment where they will live apart from humans, said Andrea Katz, Duke Primate Center's conservation coordinator and an MFG technical advisor who will serve as the project's field administrator in Madagascar.
"It will be what is called a `soft release,'" added MFG technical adviser Charles Welch, the project's on-site director and Katz's husband. "On a soft release, you try to help the animal adjust to that first habituation period."
The animals' new home will be Betampona Natural Reserve, a protected area of more than 5,000 acres. It is one of the few remaining parts of the lowland rain forest that once dominated much of eastern Madagascar. Most of that forest has now been cleared for farming and local wood consumption, said Katz and Welch. Betampona, in fact, is itself surrounded by rice fields.
Besides releasing lemurs, organizers hope to stimulate a stronger
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Contact: Monte Basgall
basgallm@mail01.adm.duke.edu
919-681-8057
Duke University
15-May-1997