Urban appetite for lemur meat piles pressure on iconic primates

ANTANANARIVO — Ninety-five percent of lemur species are threatened by habitat loss, hunting and climate change. The direct threat is often understood to result from the actions of poor rural communities, but a forthcoming study has found that thousands of threatened lemurs are being hunted and killed every year to feed a lucrative urban market for their meat in cities across Madagascar. “And 95% of that is through a hidden, direct-to-consumer trade, not restaurants,” study author Cortni Borgerson told Mongabay. “A single specialist trade-hunter can sell over 200 lemurs a year to their city clients.” Borgerson, an anthropologist at Montclair State University in the United States, has uncovered a highly organized luxury trade carried out by specialist hunters armed with shotguns. Lemur meat