Belle's Baby, Madagascar's Panda Gives Birth- Port Lympne UK

[wolf567]

Belle's Baby, Madagascar's Panda Gives Birth
Tue, 17/07/2012 - 9:37am


Primate keepers at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park near Ashford were delighted when Belle, a female greater bamboo lemur at the park gave birth.

The newborn baby is still too tiny to tell what its gender is and has still to be named.

Head Primate Keeper, Simon Jeffery said: ‘We are absolutely delighted that Manantena, or Belle, as we call her, and her partner, Zig have a new baby. They are a lovely family unit and Belle is a brilliant first time mum. These wonderful animals are critically endangered in the wild and there are only 22 in collections around the world and this is the third birth in captivity this year, so it’s very special.’

Greater bamboo lemurs are native to Madagascar and are often referred to as the Madagascan panda as they rely entirely on bamboo as their food source. Due to mass deforestation causing destruction of their habitat combined with hunting using sling shots, they are now listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List. With numbers in the wild thought to be around 500, they are one of the rarest animals in the world. Giant panda numbers are estimated to be in the region of 2,500 in the wild.

Simon added: ‘Sadly this species is critically endangered due to the loss of bamboo, the primary food source of the greater bamboo lemur. The bamboo lemur is one of the 25 most endangered primates in the world, so breeding programmes like ours are vital to ensure that this wonderful animal survives.

The Aspinall Foundation, the conservation charity which works alongside the wild animal park has been carrying out surveys in Madagascar to establish the population of greater bamboo lemurs left in the wild. The survey has produced evidence of the lemur from eleven different sites across a 370,000 hectare region, increasing the known population by 500%. The foundation’s project in Madagascar recently featured in an ITV1 Documentary with Martin Clunes, called ‘The Lemurs of Madagascar.’

‘Searching for the world’s rarest and most elusive lemur in this remote forest was a big gamble’ added Damian Aspinall, Chairman of The Aspinall Foundation, ‘but sometimes that’s what it takes to help save a species from the brink of extinction.’

Article Link: http://www.aspinallfoundation.org/news/ ... ives-birth

[paperpaws]

Whoa, that's pretty interesting news considering there are so little of the species left. Thank you for sharing this, I actually had never heard of the species before... Not surprising considering their numbers, but still.

[WolvesOfTheSeas]

Very interesting indeed. And very cute. Thanks for sharing^^