El bamboo lemur, whose scientific name is prolemur simus, is a primate that lives naturally in the southeast of Madagascar. It is a species with a very sweet face and look, with white ears and grayish fur, which is in critical danger of extinction, not only due to loss of habitat and being a victim of illegal animal trafficking, but also because their main food, bamboo, is dying from lack of water.
Thus, climate change is one of the main reasons why the bamboo lemur might not see the light of the new century.
The climate affects the plants, and consequently also the animals that eat them. The bamboo lemur feeds almost exclusively on bamboo, but due to the lack of regular rains they are no longer as nutritious or as tasty, as revealed by a study published in the journal Current Biology.
The document, which has been prepared by a group of researchers from Australia, the United States, Finland and Madagascar, explains that These primates have to adapt to a drier environment, and in order to survive they have also begun to eat the woody trunk of bamboo instead of the most tender and nutritious shoots.
With a rainy season delayed for up to three months, both the flora and fauna of Magadascar are being forced to adapt to an environment that they are increasingly unaware of. So, bamboo lemurs are developing more complex and specialized teeth to be able to ingest bamboo cane. But climate change is being faster: the population is declining.
The sad thing is that not only lemurs are in this situation, but also pandas in Asia, which also feed on bamboo.
Unless something is done to prevent it, both animals will probably go extinct sooner than we might imagine.