This is grave, grave news. I blame Beirut.
Would you eat this lemur?
Madagascar's rare primates are illegally hunted and sold for their meat.
[I]llegal loggers are hunting Madagascar’s iconic lemurs for for their meat. The problems are compounded by the island's chronic poverty that forces many to join the pillagers just to put food on the table. [...]
Observers say loggers regularly hunt lemurs for meat while they work in the forests, and the lemurs, primates that are unique to Madagascar, have also been sold to restaurants.
“What is happening to the biodiversity of Madagascar is truly appalling, and the slaughter (of) these delightful, gentle, and unique animals is simply unacceptable,” said Russ Mittermeier, Conservation International’s president and a renowned lemur expert. “These poachers are killing the goose that laid the golden egg, wiping out the very animals that people most want to see, and undercutting the country and especially local communities by robbing them of future ecotourism revenue.”
Who knew that the natural enemy of the noble lemur was the seedy, smelly, unshaven lumberjack?
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