Skip to main content

Lemur Shenanigans

 


Lemur Shenanigans


I never thought I would ever see lemurs in real life, let alone have them scramble all over me. I giggled like a little child with a playful new kitten as the lemurs of Madagascar climbed and frolicked while accompanying my friends and me on a hike during a journey to this island a few years ago. The country is a bit on the wild side when it comes to nature. Over 70 species of lemurs live in the rainforests, chameleons are everywhere, and any number of other animals exist only on the fourth largest island in the world.  


Its history is colorful and diverse. Queens once ruled Madagascar before French colonization, and pirates rested on its beautiful beaches before continuing on raids. Rainforests covered most of its land, and baobab trees, the glorious tree of life, populated the dense forests.  


Sadly, and over some time, this pure yet impoverished land fell victim to greed and resource rapers. 


Deforestation from slash and burn agriculture, logging, coffee farms, and many other factors has reduced the forests by 80%.  


Only a smattering of baobabs remains in a famous tourist site called the Avenue of the Baobabs. Spectacular, but the thought of dense forests once filled with the trees is eye-opening as to what has happened to Madagascar over a century or two of outside influences. 


And now the people are suffering from the worse drought this island nation has experienced in decades. The UN World Food Program has pushed the country to level 5, the highest, famine. And, as reported by Al Jazeera, the drought was. “. . . brought on by one of the world’s first famines to be caused by climate change”.


Is it too late to save this once unique and isolated land? Maybe not. Reforestation has begun, and if the pillagers can leave this country to heal itself, perhaps there is hope for future visitors to experience the wonder of Madagascar.


https://www.reforestaction.com/en/reforestation-madagascar

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/3/madagascar-is-on-brink-of-first-climate-induced-famine-un-warns


#madagascarnotthemovie #baobabtrees #lemurs #personalessays #writingmemoirs #slashandburn #colonization #famine #mylastmonthsinafrica #savetherainforests #deforestation #reforestation #climatechange #carefortheworld


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Tragedy of Human Despair

  The Tragedy of Human Despair in South Africa I came across this scene while running errands. The person, a man, I think, sat on the dirty, tar road at a robot, straddling the center and right turn lanes on a busy street. The light had turned red, so I was forced to face the human tragedy of poverty, hunger, and hopelessness.  It’s not like I hadn’t seen people on the streets begging for food, clothes, jobs, or anything to sustain them for another day, but this was different.  He rested in a fetal position, head bowed and covered by a white t-shirt juxtaposed against black clothing. And what about the books? I couldn’t see their titles; maybe one was a bible.   He was as still as a statue and as quiet as the dark before the dawn. He did not flinch or moan, nor did he have pleading hands reaching out for a tidbit of salvation.  The human was simply there, a tableau worthy of a production by the Ontological-Hysterical theatre company in New York City’s lower...

A Baboon Family

  A Baboon Family This baboon family makes me happy. The setting is peaceful, all four calmly sitting on a rock, at rest. Except for the baby looking directly at our game vehicle with curiosity, the other three's eyes gazing elsewhere.  Despite their sharp as daggers canine teeth, nut-crushing jaws, naughty opportunistic foraging of camper's food, and a hierarchy of dominating male bullies, baboons can be quiet and peaceful, going about their daily business in a well-defined social order.  These old-world monkeys thrive in friend and family units; females form strong bonds to raise and protect the kids, forage for food, and stay loyal to the troop for their entire lives. Like human families, they comfort each other, play, and squabble but ultimately come together for the good of the community and protection from predators - for the most part. Yes, there's a bit of infanticide by the males, beating females for the heck of it, violently tossing little ones to the side when ...

Giraffes

  A couple of things are going on in this photo.  First, the ubiquitous bush butt shot. The rear-angle view of animals is so common that a friend of mine has a series of animal bottoms framed and hung on her bathroom wall.  I have about a million bottom shots languishing on a flash drive, I hate to get rid of them, but I’m not sure what I should do with the backside collection. Secondly, have a look at this trio of male giraffes. Elder, younger, and the one in the middle.  In this photo, the animals seem like pals. The three were playing rather than foraging on the treetops for food, so the sighting was special. Playing around to male giraffes looks like a neck-swinging dance and is weirdly elegant. The behavior is called “necking,” and it can cause damage if the play turns aggressive. It’s a dominance thing, a way to sort out who’s the boss of the females in the tower (or journey if they are moving).  As it turns out, male giraffes, like human males, have testo...