Banner image: A ring-tailed lemur in a tamarind tree in a reserve 在马达加斯加. (来源: CC的照片 作者:Frank Vassen via 维基共享)

In 2003, 由博彩平台推荐领导的灵长类动物学家小组, 标记并释放了一只雄性环尾狐猴 贝兹·马哈法利特别储备 在马达加斯加. 2004年，研究人员再次捕获了他, 但在那之后, 狐猴消失了, 再也不见了.

这是, 直到2008年他在内部放置了电子标签, 类似于狗的微芯片, 出现在一堆森林猫的粪便里. This predator is related to domestic cats and was likely introduced to the island off the coast of Africa hundreds of years ago.

现在, that case of cat predation is part of a new study exploring how such attacks could endanger the conservation of lemurs. 在14个月的时间里, researchers from the United States and Madagascar became lemur crime scene investigators. 他们收集了广泛的数据, 包括相机陷阱照片, scat samples and eye-witness reports to unravel the mystery of who is eating these primates at Bezà Mahafaly. 

Their findings suggest that predators not native to Madagascar, 比如森林猫和狗, 可能杀死的狐猴比科学家曾经认为的还要多. Lemurs live only 在马达加斯加, and several species are already in danger of going extinct. 

“It’s not that people didn’t know that predation was happening,米歇尔·索瑟说, lead author of the new study and a professor of anthropology at CU Boulder. “But they’ve mostly been looking at other conservation priorities like the effects of deforestation.”

她和她的同事 上个月发表了他们的研究结果 发表在《博彩平台推荐》杂志上.

这项研究的重点是贝兹·马哈法利, a roughly 242-acre protected area at the southwestern tip of Madagascar. 在这里, 罗望子树沿着河道生长, turning a lush green during the rainy season from October to March. The reserve is home to four species of lemurs: the ring-railed lemur (狐猴雌猫)和弗罗丝狐(Propithecus verreauxi), which are out during the day; the white-footed sportive lemur (Lepilemur leucopus)和灰棕色鼠狐猴(Microcebus griseorufus我晚上睡不着. Of those, all but the mouse lemur are considered endangered or critically endangered. 

Sauther, who has been studying lemurs in Bezà Mahafaly since the late 1980s, sees the research as an example of what scientists can discover when they really get to know a natural area.

“When you’re doing a long-term study and you come back year after year, you find out things are not always the way you think they are,”她说。.

拟声唱法侦探

狐猴有几个天敌. 它们包括fosa (Cryptoprocta猛鲑), a strange mammal that is related to the mongoose but is much bigger and looks a bit like a puma. Before this study, researchers thought that the fosa had been extirpated from the area. 

In 2008, Sauther and her colleagues noticed that something seemed to be amiss in the reserve. 有一天,, they heard 一群环尾狐猴 screaming and found a recently killed lemur on the forest floor.

“那一年, 博彩平台推荐穿过森林寻找狐猴, 博彩平台推荐不断发现死人,”她说。. “博彩平台推荐想:‘一定发生了什么事.’”

她的团队, 包括弗兰克·库佐, who earned his doctorate in biological anthropology from CU Boulder in 2000, 决定调查. The study was a massive operation: From June 2008 to July 2009, the group set up cameras at nine locations throughout the reserve. Researchers walked for miles along trails every week to search for scat and lemur predation. They then sifted through those droppings to look for bones or other evidence of predation.

总共, 研究小组收集了13个捕食者攻击狐猴的例子, including the case of the ring-tailed lemur whose electronic tag showed up in cat scat. At least six of those primates were probably killed by dogs or cats. Another five may have been the victims of either cats or fosa, 会留下相似的牙印吗. 研究小组得出结论，这是fosa的组合, forest cat and dog predation can lead to potentially dangerous spikes in lemur deaths.

“那时博彩平台推荐才真正开始思考:‘哇, there's a lot of predation here from endemic animals like the fosa, 还有引进的动物，比如狗和森林猫,库佐说, now affiliated with the Lajuma Research Centre and the Mammal Research Institute at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. 

捕食者频谱

Sauther noted that cats and dogs may be so effective at preying on lemurs because the primates haven’t had much time to evolve defenses against these new arrivals. 在之前的一项研究中, she and her colleagues used DNA evidence to show that Madagascar’s forest cats are 由家猫进化而来 from the Arabian Sea region—and likely came to the island aboard merchant ships.

She and Cuozzo can’t be sure how much of a dent these predators are making in lemur numbers. But they suspect that it’s more than scientists have previously accounted for. Across Madagascar, populations of most lemur species are continuing to decline today.  

The researchers urge scientific funding groups to support more long-term research projects that can unravel the full spectrum of threats facing endangered species. 

“捕食是一个动态的过程，”索瑟说. “You can’t just say: ‘Cats are doing this, and dogs are doing that.’ You really have to look at what the whole predator group is doing.”