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Biodiversity Surveys
ICTE
N-543 SBS Bldg.
SUNY at Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY
11794-4364
631.632.9440
Fax: 631.632.7692
Email Us
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Greater Bamboo Lemur Conservation Project
You *can* make a difference - help us save the greater bamboo lemur. Donations can be made by credit card via PayPal here:
The greater bamboo lemur is one of the most critically endangered primates in the world. Although once widespread and abundant in the Malagasy fossil record throughout the west and north of Madagascar, the only eyewitness accounts of living greater bamboo lemurs come from the eastern rainforest. Prior to the 1970s, greater bamboo lemurs were only known from two sites and following another decade of little research and much forest destruction, it was suspected that this magnificant primate might be extinct. In 1986, research teams found a group near a coffee plantation and another in the Ranomafana forest. The inception of Ranomafana National Park was inspired by the potential to protect rare populations of greater bamboo lemurs and a related species, the golden bamboo lemur, newly described at that time. Currently we are attempting to expand the range and the ability to form new groups for the existing population. We plan to do this through reforestation and planting the bamboo that these animals eat inside reforested areas.
Click the image for a slideshow
Following rediscovery of the greater bamboo lemur in 1986, surveys of south- and central eastern Madagascar over the past twenty years have found less than 75 individuals, with a recent total count of only 60. Compared to their historic distribution, the recent range is an estimated to be approximately 1 to 4 % of the former range for this species. Researchers believe that this precipitous decrease in suitable habitat for greater bamboo lemurs is even more daunting due to their dietary specialization on bamboo. Although the current potential habitat located within protected areas totals 596 km2, population numbers within protected areas are exceedingly low due to availability of suitable food sources.
The precarious status of greater bamboo lemurs is exacerbated by isolated populations at critically low numbers, several of which are currently unprotected, indicating high extinction probability unless immediate action is taken. Although Ranomafana National Park is one of the largest protected areas harboring more than one group, 5 of 11 localities containing critically low populations have no official protection and exist in severely degraded landscapes (including Mahasoa and Morafeno). Numerous surveys outside of protected areas during the past several years could no longer find several critical populations because the patches of bamboo that had sustained them had been completely destroyed due to slash and burn agriculture. The Greater Bamboo Lemur Conservation Project in collaboration with savingspecies.org is implementing project that includes land purchase and reforestation efforts in areas that currently contain unprotected populations.
Factors contributing to the rarity of Greater Bamboo lemurs
Conservation scientists recognize that habitat loss is one of the primary causes for species extinctions, and Madagascar has witnessed drastic deforestation over the last 150 years due to slash and burn agricultural practices (tavy). Less attention, however, is given to species-specific vulnerability to extinction. In addition to habitat loss and hunting, several factors contribute specifically to the greater bamboo lemur's rarity and threat of immediate extinction. Greater bamboo lemurs are gregarious, with observed group sizes ranging from 4 to 26 individuals. Home ranges are large and may be primarily influenced by the distribution of bamboo. As bamboo specialists, greater bamboo lemurs in Ranomafana have diets consisting almost exclusively of bamboo, with 95% made up of just one bamboo species, a giant bamboo that needs abundant water and lives along large rivers. The extremely patchy distribution of this large bamboo species and its absence in most parts of the rainforest away from large rivers may be a crucial factor limiting the current distribution and population continuity of greater bamboo lemurs. It is possible that recent climatic and human influenced changes in the landscape further restrict their ranging and distribution, particularly in relation to available drinking water during the dry season. However, we can help! There is an antidote for this habitat destruction and that is reforestation. We are proposing to rehabilitate and reforest major tracts of bamboo and rainforest to increase populations of this rare lemur. In addition, donations to this project have the added benefit of helping to offset carbon.
Research in Ranomafana National Park
Following the inception of Ranomafana National Park, a group of greater bamboo lemurs was habituated and researchers began to collect vital data. Long-term research is still being collected on habituated individuals near the Centre ValBio research station and recent initiatives have included documenting the vocal repertoire of this species.
Unfortunately, even in this protected population, researchers have observed uncharacteristic processes that may be an attempt to compensate for an extremely small isolated subpopulation. Therefore, continual study of the groups in Ranomafana and studies of additional groups, such as the unprotected population in Mahasoa, will provide crucial data, which will be necessary to implement an immediate large-scale conservation management plan.
Greater Bamboo Lemur Mahasoa Conservation Project
In August 2008, ICTE is initiating a long-term presence to monitor, protect and collect behavioral, ecological and genetic data on a population of greater bamboo lemurs in Mahasoa agricultural plantation, an unprotected 150ha fragment east of the Ranomafana/Andringitra corridor. In addition, we will establish a conservation education program and employ local villagers in these conservation efforts.
In 2007, a survey found a large group of 17 individuals (28% of those known to exist in the wild) in an agricultural plantation known as Mahasoa and a smaller population in the Morafeno agricultural plantation 12 km east of Mahasoa. During the 2007 census, greater bamboo lemurs were found within highly disturbed agricultural plantations and areas of secondary growth relying on the residual bamboo stands, which were being actively eradicated during the survey. Most of the habitat in and around this area is currently degraded and has been isolated from the forest to the west. Any original forest has been almost completely destroyed due to slash and burn agriculture. The remaining plants and animals are in an extremely precarious position unless immediate action is taken to protect and regenerate the area. For example, an area nearby that previously had a population of greater bamboo lemurs, no longer contained any individuals because the habitat had been completely slashed and burned since the previous survey in 2001. Thus, before this sad fate befalls the remaining populations in the area, ICTE is establishing a long-term research presence in this region to monitor and protect the remaining greater bamboo lemurs. Although hunting is a major cause of lemur demise in Madagascar as a whole, it does not appear that lemurs are hunted in the Mahasoa area. Nonetheless, ICTE will reinforce this with education regarding sustainable practices and monitoring of protected areas.
Meanwhile, it is necessary to purchase, reforest and secure a protected status to the land in this area. In collaboration with a Malagasy NGO, MICET, and following the President of Madagascar’s emphasis to preserve endemic biodiversity through responsible governance for protected areas ("Madagascar Naturally", MAP); ICTE is initiating land purchases in an effort to save the surviving greater bamboo lemurs. Once we secure and regenerate their habitat the greater bamboo lemur populations will have a chance to flourish.
Greater Bamboo Lemur References
Arrigo-Nelson, S.J. and P.C. Wright. 2004. Census and survey results from Ranomafana
National Park: new evidence for the effects of habitat preference and disturbance on the genus Hapalemur. Folia Primatol. 75: 331–334.
Ganzhorn, J.U. and S.E. Johnson. 2007. Greater bamboo lemur Prolemur simus (Gray,
1871). In: Primates in Peril: The World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates 2004–2006, R. A. Mittermeier et al. (compilers), pp.4, 21–22. Primate Conserv. (22): 1–40.
Irwin, M.T., S.E. Johnson and P.C. Wright. 2005. The state of lemur conservation in
south-eastern Madagascar: population and habitat assessments for diurnal and cathemeral lemurs using surveys, satellite imagery and GIS. Oryx 39: 204–218.
Jernvall, J. and P.C. Wright. 1998. Diversity components of impending primate
extinctions. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95: 11279–11283.
Konstant, W.R., J.U. Ganzhorn and S.E. Johnson. 2006. Greater bamboo lemur Prolemur
simus (Gray, 1871). In: Primates in Peril: The World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates 2004–2006, R.A. Mittermeier, C.B. Valladares-Padua., A.B. Rylands, A.A. Eudey, T.M. Butynski, J.U. Ganzhorn, R. Kormos, J.M. Aguiar and S. Walker. (compilers), pp.3, 19. Primate Conserv. (20): 1–28.
Tan, C.L. 1999. Group composition, home range size, and diet of three sympatric
bamboo lemur species (genus Hapalemur) in Ranomafana National Park,
Madagascar. Int. J. Primatol. 20: 547–566.
Tan, C.L. 2000. Behavior and Ecology of Three Sympatric Bamboo Lemur Species
(Genus Hapalemur) in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar. PhD dissertation, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY.
Wright, P.C., P.S Daniels, D.M. Meyers, D.J. Overdorff and J. Rabasoa. 1987. A census
and study of Hapalemur and Propithecus in southeastern Madagascar. Primate Conserv 8: 84-88.
Wright, P.C., B. Andriamihaja and S. Raharimiandra. 2005. Tanala synecological
relations with lemurs in southeast Madagascar. In: Commensalism and Conflict: The Primate-Human Interface, J. D. Paterson and J. Wallis (eds.), pp 118-145 American Society of Primatologists, Norman, OK.
Wright, P.C., P. Daniels, D.M. Meyers, D.J. Overdorff and J. Rabesoa. 1987. A census
and study of Hapalemur and Propithecus in southeastern Madagascar. Primate Conserv. (8): 84–88.
Wright, P.C. and J. Jernvall. 1999. The future of primate communities: A reflection of the
present? In: Primate Communities, J.G. Fleagle, C.H. Janson and K. E. Reed (eds.). pp.295–309. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Wright, P.C., S.E. Johnson, M.T. Irwin, R. Jacobs, P.E. Schilchting, S. Lehman, E.E.
Louis, S.J. Arrigo-Nelson, J.L. Raharison, R.R. Rafalirarison, V. Razafindratsita, J. Ratsimbazafy, F.J. Ratelolahy, A.T. Feistner, C. Tan (2008). The Crisis of the Critically Endangered Greater Bamboo Lemur (Prolemur simus). Primate Conservation 23: 14-19.
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