The Smallest Primate?

Ultimate Explorer's (MSNBC) "King Kong in My Pocket" chronicles Anthropology doctoral candidate Mireya Mayor's journey deep into the jungle in Madagascar to locate and help promote the protection of a new species of mouse lemur (microcebus). She first discovered the new microcebus, with researcher Ed Louis, a year before while studying lemurs' numbers and genetic diversity. But she needed to go back to further study the primate so that she would have evidence and information that could be used to help protect its habitat.

Madagascar, an island nation off the west coast of Africa, is the only place in the world where lemurs naturally occur in the wild. It is considered a "biodiversity hotspot" because of the great diversity of wildlife concentrated in such a relatively small place. But because of deforestation and forest fragmentation (where patches of forest become isolated from each other) many of the rare species, especially primates, are critically endangered. It is estimated that in the past 50 years alone about 50% of the forest in Madagascar has been lost.

Mayor is completing her dissertation on two critically endangered lemurs, silky sifakas and Perrier's sifakas, and how they are affected by forest fragmentation and isolation. A Fulbright Scholar, Mayor is a field specialist and on-air correspondent for MSNBC's Ultimate Explorer and has appeared in numerous episodes devoted to primate research and protection.

Stony Brook Anthropology Department
Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences (IDPAS)

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