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A Chat with the National Zoo’s Primate Biologist, Becky Malinsky

Today, we chat with Becky Malinsky, Primate Biologist at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C. about her career as a primate keeper, and what it’s like to work with lemurs and other primates every day at the zoo. Can you tell us about your background and how you got started working at the National Zoo? I received my undergraduate degree in Anthropology from American University, but my passion for primates goes back as far as I can remember. I blame my […]

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Awww... isn't he cute? Photo by Lynne Venart.

A Visit to the Lemur Conservation Foundation’s Lemur Reserve

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the Lemur Conservation Foundation’s lemur reserve in Myakka City, Florida. LCF’s Zoological Manager Caitlin Kenney spoke with me about their work at the reserve and in Madagascar, and introduced me to their seriously adorable—and cheeky—lemurs. In this blog post, I’ll share photos of the reserve and the lemurs it houses, discuss LCF’s history, and explain how this reserve is helping to preserve these endangered primates. In a later blog post, I speak with […]

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bushmeat trade

The Urban Bushmeat Trade in Madagascar: A New Emerging Threat

  “What kind of meat have you eaten in the last three days?” “Have you ever eaten lemur meat?” “What kind of fadys (taboos) do you have against meat?” Imagine asking these questions almost 2,000 times to complete strangers across 21 cities and villages across Madagascar; if you’d been asked, what kind of response would you have given? If you happened to be one of the Malagasy interviewees that my research team spoke to in 2013, you might have said […]

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Dr. Schwitzer in the field

Interview with Christoph Schwitzer: Part 2

Tell me a bit about the threats to biodiversity in Sahamalaza and the programs that respond to those threats? As everywhere, the main threat is habitat loss. In Sahamalaza, it’s slash-and-burn agriculture for rice cultivation. There’s the ever increasing threat of poaching as well. It was first primarily a threat for the blue-eyed black lemur because they are bigger and cathemeral so you could hunt them during the day. However, since we’ve been out there it’s become more and more […]

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Christoph and Nora

Interview with Christoph Schwitzer: Part 1

How did you get started working with lemurs in Madagascar? I was in the right room at the right time. I had just finished my PhD on lemurs in zoos. My PhD supervisor happened to be the vice president of an association that was conducting lemur research and conservation for lemurs in Madagascar. Cologne Zoo, where I did my PhD, was one of the founding members of the zoo consortium. Because its director was my PhD supervisor, I was taking […]

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Inside Andasibe: A Film on Deforestation in Madagascar

Introduction to the Film Madagascar’s ecosystem is one of the most threatened on the planet.  A nation comprised of subsistence farmers, most Malagasy people do not have the luxury to see beyond their daily needs to consider the long-term consequences of deforestation. Nevertheless, there is an air of optimism in the small village of Andasibe.  The film follows the grassroots efforts of community members galvanized to save not only their landscape, but also their longevity as a community. Their solution?  […]

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Seheno with the two representatives from ONTM at their February meeting.

Lemur Conservation Community Secures Meeting with Office of National Tourism of Madagascar

Several months ago, the Office of National Tourism of Madagascar (ONTM) launched a campaign to promote travel in Madagascar by asking tourists to share photos of themselves holding captive lemurs. Maurice Adiba, the president of the NGO Reniala and Kim Reuter, a Technical Director at Conservation International and founder of the Pet Lemur Survey (read more about Kim’s research on pet lemurs in Madagascar in this previous blog post: https://lemurconservationnetwork.org/on-the-ground-kim-reuter/), alerted the ONTM about the negative impacts this campaign could […]

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