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IPFS News Link • Environment

Lemurs the world's most threatened mammal: study

• http://phys.org, AFP
An IUCN workshop met in Madagascar this week to discuss the world's 103 lemur species as conservation deteriorates amid political turmoil that has lasted three years.
 
"Madagascar has, by far, the highest proportion of threatened species of any primate habitat region or any one country in the world. As a result, we now believe that lemurs are probably the most endangered of any group of vertebrates," said primatologist Christoph Schwitzer, one of the conference organisers.
 
Over 90 percent of the world's lemur species -- found only on the Indian Ocean island -- were upgraded to critically endangered, endangered, or vulnerable on the IUCN's Threatened Species list.
 
The destruction of the primates' tropical forest habitat and an upsurge in bushmeat hunting have depleted lemur numbers since conservation efforts broke down after a coup in 2009, the body said in a statement late on Friday.

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