Black-market lemur meat trade driving species to extinction, new research shows
Madagascar's lemurs are declining due to a spike in demand for their meat – and an alarming illegal trade.
Black-market operations are threatening Madagascar's lemur population, according to new research published last month in the Conservation Letters journal.
The findings show that almost 13,000 lemurs are sold each year for food, even though the practice is illegal under Madagascan and international law and punishable by up to five years in prison.
Researchers interviewed 2,600 people across 17 locations in Madagascar over four years to create the report, featuring varied participants across the trade pipeline including hunters, sellers, buyers, and restaurant workers.
Although the research showed that many restaurants across the country have lemur meat available, the trade is largely hidden, with 95% of sales occurring directly between suppliers and a trusted clientele. The meat of these animals is more expensive than beef, goat or chicken, and is considered a “delicacy”.
“While entrepreneurial peri-urban suppliers are lured by a dependable economic opportunity, affluent urban consumers desire lemur meat as a luxury food perceived as providing wild-sourced flavor and vitality,” the study states.
Lemur meat is also believed to be medicinal and offer health benefits, further driving the illegal hunts.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List reports that 98% of lemur species could soon be extinct, which survive in the wild only in Madagascar. As the planet’s oldest living primates, lemurs descend from ancestors who date back as far as 70 million years.
There are over 100 species of lemurs in Madagascar, most of them critically endangered. For a long time, loss of habitat (due to the climate crisis and human activity such as agriculture and mining) and the exotic pet industry have been to blame for the decline in lemur numbers, but with the rising bushmeat trade, the issue is even more pressing.
Enforcement of the hunting ban is lax and tightening regulations around the trade is not a simple matter. Food-security programmes, while important in protecting the most vulnerable citizens, will not affect the sale of a meat that primarily exists due to taste preferences and status.
Conservation biologist Cortni Borgerson, who led the study, warned: "Without a comprehensive data-driven approach, the world's most endangered mammals may soon be eaten into extinction."
The authors of the study suggest measures such as stricter enforcement of existing rules around firearms, expansions of the licensing requirements, and assisting hunters in leaving the trade without risking their livelihood.
Campaigners and animal defenders everywhere hope that this will be enough to save the primates.
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