Why are ring tailed lemurs endangered?
The ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) (Ring-tailed Lemur, 2003) is an endangered species found on, and only on, the island of Madagascar, off the western coast of Africa. They inhabit only the southwestern portion of Madagascar, the fourth largest island in the world, which is roughly twice the size of Arizona (Madagascar, 2004). A plan to help save these unique creatures from the extinction that threatens them would be to crack down on their main reason for extinction: habitat degradation (2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, 2004). One cause for this problem is livestock overgrazing; cattle and other animals are slowly but steadily consuming the lemur’s natural habitat. To prevent this, a large part of the ring-tailed lemur’s habitat span should be made into a protected area, where farming and cattle ranching would be made illegal. Their habitat is also shrinking due to the extraction of wood; cutting down the rainforest trees. There are numerous programs in place trying to save t
