Lemurs have long been the face of conservation in Madagascar. Almost all species of lemur are endemic to this island and of the approximately 100 that exist, almost all are threatened.
The best-known inhabitants of this island are in danger of extinction and humans are responsible. Deforestation, hunting to sell bushmeat, as well as the fragmentation and loss of their habitats are the cause of the disappearance of these species. Among the most endangered Malagasy lemurs is the black lemur or macaque lemur.; a small primate with bright eyes and fascinating behavior that, once again, has managed to reproduce successfully BIOPARC Fuengirola.
A few weeks ago a baby black lemur was born in the park; a birth that no member of the conservation center's technical team expected. “It has been a great surprise. We did not expect this birth. Despite having a breeding permit, last year passed without success and this February we said goodbye to the male, who died due to liver cancer,” explains Jesús Recuero, technical and veterinary director at BIOPARC Fuengirola.
This is the sixth offspring that the couple that made up Benji and Lordes, male and female, managed to have. These two specimens had lived in the Malaga animal park since 2001, the year in which they arrived from the Cologne Zoo in Germany and Parco Natura Viva in Italy.
The date count carried out by the Veterinary team places the mating in the month of December. "According to the date of birth and taking into account that the gestation period is about four and a half months, the female had to become pregnant in the first half of December," confirms Rosa Martínez, veterinarian at BIOPARC Fuengirola.
After passing the quarantine period necessary to guarantee its development and survival, the technical team has begun the reintroduction of both the female and the calf, in the outdoor facility.
The black lemur is a species that has marked sexual dimorphism, that is, male and female are different externally. Now, a few weeks after being born, the calf has a grayish coat and by remaining in the mother's lap all the time, the team The sex of the little lemur is still unknown.
After allowing a quarantine period to pass, in which the team has guaranteed the development of the offspring and the well-being of the mother, both are now abroad sharing a facility with other species of lemurs such as the ring-tailed, the black and white and the Red.
Unlike other lemurs and primates, black lemurs leave their young in a nest, usually a hole in a tree. A behavior that they alternate carrying the little ones on their backs. And as they grow, they will acquire the color typical of adults and the sex of the offspring will be discovered. “It will take a few months until your hair color starts to change. The female takes on a copper color, while the male remains black,” says Recuero.
It is an endangered species, with a population in continuous decline.
According to records offered by the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), these black lemurs (Eulemur macaque) are in danger of extinction. Although there is no exact count of the specimens of this species that inhabit the island of Madagascar. The distribution of this species is restricted to a small area in the north of the island.
In Europe there are a total of 160 specimens in more than 50 animal parks under the coordination of the European Exsitu Program (EEP) for these lemurs. One of them is BIOPARC Fuengirola, which has participated in the protection and conservation of the black lemur since 2001 and is currently one of the parks that houses this species in Spain.
La BIOPARC Foundation contributes to the financing of the AEECL Association that promotes the conservation of lemurs in northwest Madagascar which led to the protection and creation of a new National Park in Sahamalaza, where several species of lemur live, including the Black Lemur
The island of Madagascar and its lemurs
Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world. With 587.000 km2 it is comparable to the size of France. This territory separated from the African continent about 165 million years ago and from the Indian subcontinent between 80 and 100 million years ago.
The long isolation he has endured since then has allowed him to develop a fascinating biological diversity and with a independent evolution of plants and animals. More than 70% of its fauna is endemic, that is, it can only be found there. Endemisms include all species of Malagasy lemurs, fossas, radiated tortoises, spider tortoises, sea turtles, flying foxes, mongooses, geckos, snakes, chameleons, crocodiles, frogs and much more.
These characteristics have led some scientists to call the island of Madagascar the “eighth continent”.
Until the arrival of humans to the island there were lemurs the size of a gorilla and elephant birds, flightless birds of three meters and 650 kg; both animals easy to hunt and, in the case of birds, to collect their enormous eggs. This made the indigenous people first and later the sailors who arrived from Europe begin to use them as a meat supply, causing their extinction in less than two centuries.
About one hundred species of lemurs survive today, most of them discovered since the 1990s.
