Assessment of ring-tailed lemur Lemur catta populations in south-western Madagascar
S YL VA IN RAN D R IA NJ A K A,SAMANTHA CALK I NS,TIM O T HY M. S EFCZEK CYN THI A L. F RA SIER,RICHARD RANDRIAMAMPIONONA
JEAN CLAUDE RAKO TONIAINA,LIL Y-ARISON R. DE ROLAND ANDREA L. BADEN and EDWAR D E. LOUI S J R
Abstract Anthropogenic activities are negatively affecting the flora and fauna of Madagascar, including its Endangered flagship lemur species, the ring-tailed lemur Lemur catta. Population numbers at some sites are rapidly declining, yet much of the species’ habitat is insufficiently surveyed. Because widespread population assessments are critical to guiding conservation management strategies, additional data are needed to monitor L. catta population trends and to identify the limits of their geographical range. Here we report survey results confirming the presence of this species at 65 of 83 sites in southern and south-western Madagascar, including three subpopulations that were previously consid- ered likely to be locally extinct. We identified aminimum of 792 L. catta individuals (summing only maximum group sizes at each site) and as many as 1,221 individuals (using estimated population counts). These findings help refine the distribution of L. catta and reaffirm their presence in areas of their historical geographical range. Identifying spe- cies occupancy at sites such as these provides valuable data
SYLVAIN RANDRIANJAKA* École Doctorale de Biodiversité et Environnement Tropicaux, Université de Toliara, Toliara, Madagascar
SAMANTHA CALKINS* Animal Behavior and Conservation Program, Department of Psychology, Hunter College of the City University of New York, New York, USA
TIMOTHY M. SEFCZEK‡ (Corresponding author,
orcid.org/0000-0003-3612-
3216,
tsefczek2@unl.edu) University of Nebraska, 1400 R Street, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA
CYNTHIA L. FRASIER (
orcid.org/0000-0002-5416-2000) Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, Omaha, Nebraska, USA
RICHARD RANDRIAMAMPIONONA and JEAN CLAUDE RAKOTONIAINA Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership, Antananarivo, Madagascar
LILY-ARISON R. DE ROLAND (
orcid.org/0000-0003-2149-8170) The Peregrine Fund’s Madagascar Project, Antananarivo, Madagascar
ANDREA L. BADEN†§¶ (Corresponding author,
orcid.org/0000-0002-4722-0532,
andrea.baden@
hunter.cuny.edu) Department of Anthropology, Hunter College of the City University of New York, New York, USA
EDWARD E. LOUIS JR†‡ (
orcid.org/0000-0002-3634-4943)MadagascarBiodiversity Partnership, Antananarivo, Madagascar
*Co-first authors †Co-last authors ‡Also at: Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, Omaha, USA §Also at: Department of Anthropology, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, New York, USA ¶Also at: The New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology, New York, USA
Received 2 November 2022. Revision requested 20 December 2022. Accepted 27 February 2023. First published online 16 May 2023.
to support species conservation, but also highlights the need for additional surveys throughout the range of the species.
Keywords Broad survey methods, conservation, Lemur catta, line transect surveys, Madagascar, population counts, ring-tailed lemur, species distribution
The supplementary material for this article is available at
doi.org/10.1017/S0030605323000273
A
ccording to the IUCN Red List, c. 94% of the .100 lemur species of Madagascar are threatened, making
them the most endangered mammalian group globally (Schwitzer et al., 2014). The Endangered ring-tailed lemur Lemur catta, a flagship species for the country, is believed to be suffering precipitous population declines (Gould & Sauther, 2016; LaFleur et al., 2018; LaFleur & Gould, 2020). Once considered widespread throughout southern Madagas- car (Sussman, 1977), L. catta is now considered locally extinct or nearly extinct at several locations where it was found his- torically (Gould & Sauther, 2016;LaFleur et al., 2016, 2018; LaFleur & Gould, 2020; Fig. 1). Nevertheless, much of the historical range of the species remains under-surveyed, raising concerns that current population estimates potentially under- represent L. catta numbers in the wild (Murphy et al., 2017). Accurate population assessments are essential for inform-
ing species-orientated conservation management (Rylands et al., 2020), including that of L. catta (LaFleur & Gould, 2020). To aid these efforts, we present survey results from 83 sites to verify the species’ occurrence, refine knowledge of its distribution andcontribute to population estimates (Fig. 1). During June–July 2019 we conducted surveys at five sites
where L. catta occurred historically that were either excluded from recent population estimates or had not been systemat- ically surveyed since 1995 (Hawkins, 1999): (1) Zombitse Forest, (2) Vohibasia Forest, (3) Fiherenana Forest, (4) Ranomay Forest, and (5) two trail circuits in Isalo National Park (Namaza Circuit and Piscine Naturelle) (Fig. 1). We conducted week-long surveys using a standard line transect methodology along existing trails, to minimize forest dis- turbance (Whitesides et al., 1988; Hilário et al., 2012; see Supplementary Material 1 for full details). During 2-week periods in June, August, September and
October 2018 andMarch,April andAugust 2019,wesurveyed afurther 78 sitesacrossseven fokontany (an administrative
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Oryx, 2024, 58(2), 164–166 © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605323000273
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