Learning from endangered lemurs

In August 2023, Theoluc, Greater Bamboo Lemur Field Supervisor, snapped this photo of Luna, a female greater bamboo lemur who lives in Sangasanga. We've known Luna since September 2008. At this point she was already an adult, making her more than 15 years old today!

Luna and the other lemurs in her group have been living in this giant bamboo since Cyclones Batsirai and Emanti in 2022. This particular species of Asian bamboo was planted as a specimen in the FOFIFA station on Sangasanga and is not part of the lemurs' natural diet. However, they've been feeding heavily on it for more than a year now and rarely travel to the patches of native bamboo in the forest upon which they used to sustain themselves.

Theoluc predicts that greater bamboo lemurs may return to the forest bamboo later this year when the young, nutritious shoots emerge from the ground. The lemurs love this stuff! Plus, it might be a critical part of the diet of lactating mothers who are nursing their babies when the shoots are in season. Funds raised through GlobalGiving are used to monitor animals like Luna to understand how they cope with changing environments, document human-wildlife interactions, and learn about all the stages of lemur lives from infancy to their sunset years.