How a handful of people managed to save Madagascar lemurs from extinction. The film that tells their story

How a handful of people in Madagascar managed to save lemurs from extinction. The film that tells their story.

He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

I lemurs in Madagascar they are an endemic species, meaning that they only live here or on small islands in the surroundings, which is why they are also one of the major local tourist attractions.

According to the WWF, there are over 100 species present in the country, but unfortunately over time they have suffered serious threats due to the disappearance of forests, hunting and the illegal trade in animals.

90% of these species are threatened and among these are ring-tailed lemurs, which have decreased by over 2000% since 95, as evidenced by the beautiful film shot by Robin Hoskyns, "Guardians of Anja", selected by the National Geographic as one of the best videos dealing with the subject.

But there is good news and to reveal it is Hoskyns himself in his video, where he tells that years ago, a local community, realizing that lemurs attracted many tourists and that they would therefore have helped them to fight widespread poverty, decided to unite the forces to avoid its disappearance. They then founded an association pledging not to destroy the forest, but to keep it intact to ensure the survival of the animals.

From that moment on, many of them realized the mistakes they had made previously, and to remedy this, they started planting new trees where there were none. They also stopped eating lemurs, a habit practiced in various areas of Madagascar due to extreme poverty, of hunting them and selling them as pets.

Thanks to their help, and the awareness gained through years of hard work, today the Anja Coomunity Reserve boasts the highest density of ring-tailed lemurs on the island. And it is an excellent example of sustainable tourism where natural resources have been managed in a constructive way, also positively influencing the community.

Below is the trailer of the film which you can see entirely here.