Preserving Endangered Species - All 22 species of lemur

Lemurs: Tails From The Canopy
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Preserving Endangered Species

All 22 species of lemur are endangered or threatened in the wild. This is due at least in part to the fact that all live on an island, and are found nowhere else in the world. Human population growth and loss of habitat are the primary reason for dwindling numbers of Lemurs in the wild.
While captive breeding programmes are not an ideal way of preserving a species, in some cases, at least for the moment, it is a partial solution to the problem of conserving populations. Good captive programmes like that practiced at Tiger Homes involve an in-depth awareness of the animals’ wild habitats, food sources, and social structure.

CLICK HERE TO SEE ANIMAL WEBCAMS

Have students pick an endangered species that interests them. Have them research the behavior of these animals in the wild and then design a captive breeding and care programme that would help preserve the species until it is safe for them to live in the wild. They should take into account such things as home range size, territorial habits, social structure, food sources and methods of attainment and anything else they consider significant.

Lemurs: Tales From The Web
The internet is a wonderful research tool for investigators of all ages and levels of interest. It is also a tool which requires critical assessment. The following activity is designed to help students learn more about lemurs, sharpen their investigative skills, and apply critical judgement to their sources on the World Wild Web.

Have each student do a search of ‘The Web’ for lemur and/or primate web sights. Each student should find and review 3 different sites (excluding tigerhomes.org), rating each by one of the following criteria:

a)most informative b) most imaginative c) most amusing d) most geographically interesting (where did the site originate… a lemur web site based in Trinidad might fall into this category) e) weirdest f) worst.

In their reviews each student should identify (internet address and title) and describe the web site, write a synopsis of its content and style, explain why it fits into the chosen category and list something new that they learned at the site, or a fact or claim about which they have a question.

When individuals have completed their reviews, the class should go to and explore some of the more outstanding sites. If the class (or instructor) finds sites of particular interest that are not already linked on the TigerHomes.org web page, forward them and see what the naturalists at the sanctuary think of them.

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