Megaladapidae is one of the families of primates that is often argued over by taxonomists. Everyone has an opinion in taxonomy. I have decided to put it as a separate family because honestly, sportive lemurs are pretty cool. Megaladapids were said to be extinct because the taxonomic group originally covered all of the giant lemurs the size of gorillas that use to roam Madagascar. But like most megafauna, it was killed off by humans.
Primates in the family Indriidae are also found on the island of Madagascar, but these primates are a bit different from the lemurs we have been talking about so far. The species included in the family indriidae are indris, sifakas, and woolly lemurs. Although I said they were different they still share several commonalities like the fact that indriids are not monkeys, but also lemurs, they are also strepsirrhines who have wet noses, and are diurnal.
Forward: This is a long post, but it is my hope that you will make it to the end. Getting the chance to meet someone as inspiring as Jane Goodall is an experience I could not limit to a few hundred words. And although this is a post that may not introduce to you a new species or a conservation crisis, I think that it can introduce you to hope if you will let it.
I arrived exactly one hour early. I stood and watched the meerkats outside of the Woburn Safari Park’s Safari Lodge, biding my time until the doors opened and I could find my seat. Even before seeing Jane Goodall standing a mere 10 feet from me the day was perfect. I had seen my first ever wild pheasant, which could seem silly to many people, but for me it was incredibly exciting. Even the mundane turns magical on the day you get to meet your life-long hero.
Continue reading Jane Goodall speaks from atop a chair at Woburn Safari Park
One of the few animals I saw on a regular basis while in Sierra Leone was the Great Blue Turaco. The first time I was told by Papanie that the giant blue bird that flew overhead was a turaco I was shocked. The turaco I had worked with in Dallas had barely been half that size! But the more I saw them the more resemblance I saw to Marty, my Dallas-dwelling turaco. So in honor of the Great Blue Turaco and the amazing wildlife of Sierra Leone, lets have them be the next focus for an Odd Animal Profile.
Corythaeola cristata. I don’t normally include the scientific names in my O.A.P.s but Corythaeola crostata rolls off of the tongue with such grace. It is a name that couldn’t belong to any other animal than this giant, blue bird. Continue reading OAP: Great Blue Turaco
The Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park is one of the largest national parks in the world and one of the few national parks that actually covers multiple countries. This was in hopes to create a protected migration path for a variety of the species found in this park. So lets learn a little bit more about this amazing park.
Everything you need to know about orangutans. There are a lot of things, but if you want a quick run down of the species, what they’re like and the troubles they are facing in the wild. Orangutans are critically endangered, as over 50% of the orangutan population has been lost over the last 50 years. This is mainly due to hunting and habitat loss. There are quite a few different organizations working to save the orangutan, most notably OFI which was started by Dr. Birute Galdikas who conducted the first ever long term study of orangutans in 1971. Since then we have learned a lot about orangutans, especially in that they are extensive tool users and they are much more social than previously thought.
Click on the photo for the full infograph! (You won’t regret it!)
I got to meet up with lead okapi keeper Megan Lumpkin at the Dallas Zoo last week and she told me all about the DZ’s leading okapi breeding program! She was so nice and welcoming and let me see the DZ’s new baby okapi and the process by which they weigh her every morning and I even got to meet their oldest okapi and give her a good ear scratching!
A little while back I posted about the Aceh Protected Forest, a national park in peril and some ways that it might be improved. But there are still a lot of parks in peril out there, one that especially comes to mind is Masoala National Park in Madagascar. Madagascar has lost 85% of it’s forest to slash and burn farming, but it’s also one of the most unique ecosystems on the planet. How can we keep the lemurs leaping through the quickly falling forests of Madagascar? Well I guess you’ll just have to keep reading…
After 13 years of searching, setting up over 1,500 camera traps, baited traps the Formosan clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa brachyura) has been declared extinct. This has been suspected for some time, though scientists still held out hope, even though there has not been a confirmed sighting in over 30 years.
I am very excited to announce Endangered Living’s first video in our new video blog series “Videos About Your Wild World.” I have been wanting to branch into video blogging for a while now, but I wasn’t quite sure which route to take. This is a short educational video that focuses on bumble dart frogs, a species of South American poison dart frog.
Hopeful within the coming weeks I will get the chance to add some sound and a better title/introduction. But for now, I am proud of my self seeing as I had to learn a whole new version of Final Cut to make this video. I promise if you stick around the videos will only get better in quality from here on out.
Endangered Living 