MYAKKA CITY (WSNN) – One animal deep in Myakka City is close to extinction, so SNN takes you to their neck of the woods.
The Lemur Conservation Foundation is working to save the Lemurs, which have only about 100 existing species.
“Lemurs are actually the most threatened group of mammals on Earth,” Education Manager and Primate Keeper of the Lemur Conservation Foundation Katie Virun said. “98-percent of lemurs are threatened with extinction. And not only that, but nearly one-third of them are critically endangered.”
This is why the conservation is helping protect these animals on their preserve. Lemurs are native only to Madagascar. They are a unique type of primate known as Prosimian.
“Prosimian is like a pre-monkey,” Virun said. “So one of our most ancient primate ancestors.”
“The reserve has several acres of forests with chain-link fences topped with three feet of electro-net to keep the predators out.
“Our reserve is actually a wildlife corridor, which means we have a variety of native Florida wildlife,” Virun said. “We have alligators, there are otters, there are bobcats, and we don’t want any raccoons or bobcats or other potential predators to get into our lemur Forrests.”
Some of the species of lemurs do jump, so the staff spaced out their reserve appropriately, has 10 feet of clearance on each side of the fence.
“That’s too far for our lemurs to jump, they won’t risk it and it’s too far for predators to jump from the high treetops,” Virun said.
The reserve has 51 lemurs and five different species.
“They are one of the most biodiverse primates in the world and some species cannot be kept in a managed population like the species we have here in Myakka City. And for those species, the wild is all they’ve got, so if those guys go extinct, that’s it.”
Virun says they are going extinct because of habitat loss, being hunted for meat, and some species being killed because of superstitions that they are signs of evil.
“Some species of lemurs, there are less than 1,000 individuals left.”
If you want to donate and protect these animals from extinction, there is information here.
The World Lemur Festival is coming up. For more info on that, stay tuned for our special Suncoast FYI segment this Friday.