The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

["Adam Thorsell" <athorsell AT meditech.com>]

(From AP via the South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-0305lemurpreserve,0,56825.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

Lemur preserve thriving in southwest Florida

By Scott Radway
The Associated Press
Posted March 5 2005, 1:55 PM EST

MYAKKA CITY, Fla -- With a couple of lemons, a cardboard box and an audience 
of wide-eyed lemurs, Laurie Santos and her assistants feel like magicians.

Their trick? First, a lemon is shown to a curious lemur and placed inside the 
lidded box. Then another lemon is demonstrably placed in the box. For the 
finale, the box lid is raised, and lo and behold, one lemon is missing.

The lemurs stare in confusion.

"We get the feeling we are David Copperfield to them,'' said Santos, a Yale 
University research scientist. "Shocking the lemurs.''

Santos is nicknamed by colleagues the "lemur illusionist,'' but the research 
quietly going on in Myakka City, about 70 miles southeast of Tampa, is real. 
Lemurs are primates like monkeys and humans, and more than any other primate 
they resemble our shared ancestor from 50 million years ago, Santos said. The 
lemur lemon stare suggests basic number recognition in us is genetic, not 
just learned, she said.

And her research is not the only activity at the Myakka City Lemur Preserve, 
which is quickly growing from a grassroots nonprofit group to a premiere 
conservation and research institution, scientists say.

While the secluded preserve is largely unknown even locally -- tourists are 
not permitted -- primatologists are taking notice of the rare potential of 
studying humans' oldest evolutionary cousin.

"I thought it would take a long time to develop, but the initial success 
attracted the kind of support that really makes for a world-class facility,'' 
says George Amato, conservation and science director for the Bronx Zoo-based 
Wildlife Conservation Society and a scientific advisory board member for the 
preserve.

Run by the Lemur Conservation Foundation, the Myakka preserve spans 90 acres. 
Today, 20 lemurs live on 10 acres that are sectioned off with 8 feet of fence 
crowned with 3 feet of electrified chain-link fence.

There are ring-tailed lemurs, mongoose lemurs, red-ruffed lemurs and brown 
lemurs. Some live high in the trees, some huddled under shrubs. They are 
furry, a little bigger than a cat and move like laid-back monkeys.

And they have big eyes.

Another 12-acre section is expected to be completed by June so more lemurs 
can be moved to the preserve. If funding comes through, an education center 
is planned. The center would then invite school children to watch lemurs from 
afar with binoculars.

The University of Miami and New College already send students there for 
training and research.

The foundation's ultimate goal is to save lemurs from extinction. Lemurs are 
native to Madagascar, where economic struggles continue to take a toll on 
their habitat and bode ill for their survival.

In North America, there are only two comparable facilities to the Myakka 
preserve, one on St. Catherine's Island in Georgia and the Duke University 
primate center in North Carolina, Amato said. St. Catherine's preserve will 
soon close, and Duke is prone to cold weather in the winter, so lemurs cannot 
live outside all year.

Lemurs vocalize to alert each other of a predator. There are sounds for 
predators on the ground and ones that fly above. When the first lemurs 
arrived at the Myakka preserve in 1999, they would signal each other when 
planes flew overhead.

They used to call out for turkey vultures, too, says Penelope Bodry-Sanders, 
the founder of the preserve.

Bodry-Sanders was working at the American Museum of Natural History in New 
York City when she received a small inheritance in the mid-1990s. Her friend 
and colleague at the museum, anthropologist Ian Tattersall, convinced her of 
the need for a lemur preserve.

So she got a map of Florida, found the frost line and called a real estate 
agent. Land along the coast was too expensive. That led her to Myakka and a 
deal for the 90 acres that was closed by 1997. For the next few years, she 
flew down a couple times a month, living in her African safari tent while she 
oversaw the construction of the preserve.

At first, neighbors and even police didn't know what to make of the place. 
Some thought they were training terrorists because of the elaborate fence. 
Others thought they were doing AIDS research.

Bodry-Sanders says the facility conducts only behavioral research. In other 
words, they mostly just watch the lemurs.

Lemurs long ago virtually disappeared from everywhere except Madagascar. In 
Africa, researchers say smarter primates -- and later humans -- emerged from 
a harsher, more competitive environment.

But after Madagascar -- an island a little smaller than Texas -- separated 
from Africa, lemurs managed to thrive there and evolve in more hospitable 
environments, minus the bigger-brained primates.

The result is about 50 kinds of lemurs in Madagascar changed less than other 
primates.

"They are the closest living creature to an evolutionary stage we passed 
through 50 million years ago,'' said Tattersall, curator of the anthropology 
department at the museum. "They are the basis on which human beings were 
ultimately built.''

At the same time, compared to other primates like chimpanzees, little is 
known about lemurs, he said. So a place like the Myakka preserve is critical.

For Santos, studying math skills in lemurs can determine what degree those 
skills are wired into human genes. Their basic genetic math abilities are 
essentially isolated as they were in humans millions of years ago -- the 
findings could be used to enhance the way children are taught math.

Hoffine, a New College graduate who did her thesis on lemurs, believes 
another benefit of the preserve is that it allows scientists to study lemur 
behavior, like what they eat, how much room they need to live and their 
social groupings. That information could help improve management practices in 
Madagascar.

"That is why a site like this is so important,'' said University of Miami 
anthropology professor Linda Taylor, who does research at the preserve and 
also brings students there for field training.

"We are going to run out of them before we know them,'' Taylor said.







Adam Thorsell, Supervisor, 781-774-3174
Medical Information Technology, Inc.
Mailstop: C3S114W, MEDITECH Circle, Westwood, MA  02090