Illegal Trade of Wild-Captured Lemur catta within Madagascar

Abstract

Lemur catta is the most reported illegal captive lemur. We document 286 L. catta that were held in illegal captive conditions in Madagascar. Coastal tourist destinations are “hot spots” for sightings. Many of the L. catta reported were in businesses (49%) and were perceived to be held captive for the purpose of generating income (41%). Infant/juvenile L. catta were overwhelmingly observed annually in December (41%) and may suffer high mortality rates given that they are not weaned during this month of the year. Population growth modeling suggests that known capture rates may be sustainable in all but small populations of 500 individuals and when infants/juveniles are targeted. However, of the seven remaining populations of L. catta with more than 100 individuals, only one is known to contain more than 500 animals, and we present evidence here that infants/juveniles are targeted. Moreover L. catta face significant other threats including habitat loss, bushmeat hunting, and climate change. Several actions could reduce the illegal capture and ownership of L. catta in Madagascar such as tourist behavior change initiatives, enforcement of laws, and alternative livelihoods for local people. These interventions are urgently needed and could be adapted to protect other exploited wildlife in the future.

Development and Validation of a Novel Five-Dye Short Tandem Repeat Panel for Forensic Identification of 11 Species

“…With the increasing occurrence of illegal incidents such as meat fraud and adulteration or illegal trade of protected animals (Cawthorn et al, 2013;Tibola et al, 2018;LaFleur et al, 2019), it is fundamentally important in forensic genetics to be able to identify the animal species in an unknown sample. Compared to morphological observation and protein-based method, DNAbased method is regarded as one of the most suitable techniques for species identification due to their tolerance for heat or other environmental influences.…”

A national survey of household pet lemur ownership in Madagascar

“…Many lemurs are not successfully kept as pets for a more than a few months [5], either because the species simply cannot survive on a captive or translocated diet (e.g. many Indriidae or Lepilemuridae, [15,16]), poor captive conditions [20], or because they are wild captured well before they are weaned from their mothers [12]. One-third of attempts at owning pet lemurs ends with the death of the lemur [32].…”

“…This is an added pressure to animals already facing rapid loss of habitat, and for some species or locations, unsustainable hunting for bushmeat [8]. Large and important areas for biodiversity conservation in Madagascar have experienced recent illegal clearings for agriculture [37] or mining purposes [38], and/or are devoid of lemurs because of illegal over-hunting and possibly extraction for the pet [12,14], despite the animals being present as recently as a decade ago. These trends of targeted biodiversity loss resulting from illegal activity needs to be urgently addressed by the government of Madagascar [39].…”

“…The same paper also hypothesized that ownership is more common in urban than in rural areas [5]. More recently, it has become evident that the illegal extraction of lemurs from the wild for captivity is disproportionately affecting some species [12–14]. Lemur catta is the species most commonly kept as a pet and population modeling suggests that relatively modest levels of extraction for pet ownership (i.e.…”

“…Lemur catta is the species most commonly kept as a pet and population modeling suggests that relatively modest levels of extraction for pet ownership (i.e. 10% of infants/juveniles targeted in populations of 500 or less animals), will result in localized population declines for the species [12]. This is problematic in the context of the pet trade adding additional pressure to populations that are already facing hunting and habitat degradation threats [14].…”