Black lemurs are endemic to Madagascar and reside in the forests of the Sambirano region. Their startling eyes are either orange or brown and their faces are framed by tufts of ear fur used for visual communication.
Not all black lemurs are coloured black. The fur of a male lemur is either very dark brown or black, whereas females are a much lighter shade of brown making it easy to tell them apart.
They live in groups of up to 15 individuals and a dominant female dictates the movements of the entire group. These groups are known as troops and can vary in size. Black lemurs are polygynous (the males live and mate with multiple females) and tend to travel between groups to mate during breeding season. Twins are quite common but one offspring is usually born and weaned for 5 – 6 months.
The story of Madagascar’s environments and habitats in recent years has often been bleak. The island nation’s unique and invaluable biodiversity has suffered at the hands of unsustainable agricultural techniques and devastation of the landscape.
For the last decade, our partnership with the hugely dedicated Malagasy NGO, Madagasikara Voakajy, and the enthusiasm of Malagasy communities for the natural world that surrounds them has allowed fantastic opportunities to prevent extinction.
April 2015 saw the accumulation of years of hard work in the creation of the Mangabe-Ranomena-Sahasarotra (Mangabe) New Protected Area. Mangabe is a 27,346 hectare portion of protected land intended to save Malagasy endemic and threatened species from extinction, while providing ecological, social and economic benefits to the people who live there.
Because ACT FOR WILDLIFE is supported by Chester Zoo, 100% OF YOUR DONATIONS go straight to OUR CONSERVATION WORK! That’s pretty special. We couldn’t PREVENT EXTINCTION without YOU!