Researchers at a United States zoo have discovered two new species of lemurs in Madagascar, the Indian Ocean island nation that is the only place the highly endangered small primates live.
Scientists from the Henry Doorly Zoo in the US state of Nebraska said the new lemur species were found in forests on Madagascar’s east and west coasts, and that details of the discovery will be published in the December 2005 issue of the International Journal of Primatology.
”The discovery of any new species is noteworthy; the discovery of two new primate species is extraordinarily significant to science and conservation,” zoo director Lee Simmons said in a statement seen in Madagascar on Friday.
A team led by Edward Louis, a geneticist at the zoo, found one new species in the rain forest on Madagascar’s east coast and named it Seal’s sportive lemur (Lepilemur seali) in honor of Ulysses Seal III, a former official with the International Union of Conservation of Nature, the zoo said.
The team found the second species in the dry forest of Madagascar’s west coast and named it the Mitsinjo sportive lemur (Lepilemur mitsinjonensis) after the region, the zoo said.
Louis has been collaborating on conservation genetics with Madagascan wildlife agencies, academics and preservation organisations since 1998. He and his team have taken DNA samples from more than 1 800 lemurs that were captured and then released back into the wild, it said.
Madagascar is home to more than 50 different types of lemur, a mostly tree-dwelling mammal, including the tiny pygmy mouse lemur discovered in 1985 and the unusual aye-aye, which has huge ears, shaggy fur and a very thin middle finger on each hand.
New species are still being found — the golden bamboo lemur was discovered in 1986 and the critically endangered Tattersall’s sifaka was identified only in 1988.
And in 1997, German researchers announced the discovery of a species (Allocebus trichotis) that had been thought to be extinct.
It is one of the smallest of the lemurs, weighing only 80g. — Sapa-AFP