As we made our way to the Kirindry Forest, my mom and I were talking about all the cool lemurs we saw. I told her that I wanted to see all different kinds, and asked why some lemurs are extinct. She explained that lemurs have predators, too. How could anyone or anything hurt a lemur???
Well, my mom said that humans don’t always mean to hurt the lemurs, but sometimes their actions do. Even though there are laws to stop people from buying wood from Madagascar forests, people from America and other countries will pay a lot of money to have special wood. When people cut the trees down, the lemurs lose their homes and have nowhere to live. That makes me really sad. I mean, if humans take away the lemurs homes, does that make ME a lemur predator?
My mom said that there is another lemur predator… the fossa. Fossa hunt lemurs and other smaller mammals for their food. They look like cats, she explained, but they are actually related to mongoose. They like hunting alone, and don’t usually hang out with other fossa. They seem like more of a threat to lemurs, since the fossa hunt in the trees AND on the ground. Their bodies are 70 centimeters long, and that is shorter than me! My mom reminded me that with their tail, that body length doubles. For an animal that weighs only 8 kilograms, it is pretty fierce!
LEMUR FEVER! 