Developments in Brief : Golden-Cheeked Lemur Is Not Extinct After All
A bamboo-eating lemur with rusty-red fur and golden cheeks that was thought to have become extinct has been rediscovered in mountainous Madagascar rain forests.
The finding was hailed as “the most significant primatological discovery of the decade” by Russell Mittermeier, director of the primate program of the World Wildlife Fund-U.S.
The lemur is a four-legged, tree-dwelling creature the size of a large cat, with a raucous, crow-like call, said Duke University primatologist Patricia Wright, who found it during a summer expedition. The creature may be the only survivor among 20 species of lemurs known from fossils to have lived in Madagascar 1,000 years ago, she said.
“It’s a major species, and it’s so distinct that it may be in its own genus,” Mittermeier added. “It seems to be eating just a certain kind of bamboo.”
The last confirmed sightings of the lemur were in 1972, when two Frenchmen captured a pair and brought them to zoos, where they soon died.
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