A critically endangered Diademed sifaka hanging on for dear life—but losing grip on existence in this world.
Madagascar is stricken with extreme poverty, so hunting these large sifakas for bushmeat has soared, even in protected areas. Slash-and-burn for timber and sugar cane plantations for illegal rum is destroying their food trees.
Touchingly, they diligently patrol their territory every morning, carefully scent marking their trees to protect it—but they are defenseless against the ravages we inflict on them.
Long-lived and slow-to-reproduce, now also with high infant mortality (50%), wasting in adults and stunting in immatures as we systematically remove their means to exist.
The tiny, isolated groups in the fragmented reserves may already be genetically non-viable long-term.
It will take a miracle—or someone with enormous wealth— to save this spectacular species from extinction within my lifetime.