Rainforests of the Atsinanana, Madagascar Essay

success was found, behavioral isolation is very likely to have been the reason why. Our data supports this as well since the St. Kitts rodent spends 12.6 seconds during courtship display while the Nevis rodent spends 21.3 seconds, almost

This is a summary of the video we saw on the fifth of july’s lecture about John Cleese’s documentary about lemurs. He went on a three week expedition to the forest of Madagascar, to follow five black and white lemurs known as”Carolina five” that were born into captivity and then released into the rainforest. The video discusses the characteristics of several primate species. Lemur behaviors shown include bipedalism, leaping, climbing, playing, sunning, eating, feeding, vocalization, clinging, grooming, and defecation.

At the north of the mainland, a dense tropical forest spans across nearly one hundred seventy kilometers of the island. The forest will be rich with life and vegetation only native to that environment. Bananas, cocoa beans, and coffee are only a few of the things the forest produces while monkeys, dolphins, and tropical birds will roam around the large rainforest.

The Madagascar Rainforest is home to thousands of different species. 70% of which can’t even be found anywhere else in the world. The rainforest is known for it’s 5 layers of plant and animal life; the overstory , the canopy, the understory, the shrub layer, and the forest floor. The primary focus in this project is the rainforest floor. In the Madagascar Rainforest, the abiotic factors directly impact the biotic factors (Madagascar Lowland Rainforest). An example of this would be with sunlight. Because such a small amount of sunlight reaches the forest floor due to the amount of vegetation from other layers, there isn’t much plant life on the forest floor. However, some plants in the forest have adapted to the lack of sunlight and grow up

The Bornean Orangutan lives on the island of Borneo, a part of Malaysia and an Indonesian province. The Sumatran Orangutan lives on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. They can be found in the heavily canopied rain forests, low elevation forests, and sometimes in grasslands . Due to their surroundings, the diet of the Orangutan consists of over 500 plant species, with fruits being the primary staple food but they also eat leaves, bark, insects and flowers. The results of this diet mean that they are one of the main distributors of seeds throughout the forest, creating the cycle of growth to maintain their food source. In their environments orangutans are not known to form large communities, but small groups with specific

Prosimians are those primates that evolved before the anthropoids. The first prosimian appears in the fossil record about 55 million years ago. Before the appearance of anthropoids, prosimians were quite prevalent. Their fossils have been discovered in all corners of the world, including Europe, Asia, Egypt and even in the northwestern United States. Madagascar is the world’s fifth largest island located off the east coast of Africa. While Madagascar broke away from Africa, more than 120 million years ago, it 's puzzling to scientists that lemurs evolved only 55 million years ago. Madagascar is world-famous for its lemurs, primates that look something like a cat crossed with a squirrel and a dog. These animals are unique to the island and display a range of interesting. One of the theories of how lemurs got to Madagascar is that they rafted there on clumps of vegetation. Once monkeys and apes appeared, daytime active prosimians were out competed and disappeared. Only nighttime active prosimians occur outside of Madagascar because there are no nocturnal monkeys or apes in those regions, except for the night monkey in South America.

Madagascar is a huge island nation off of the southeast coast of Africa. It's home to thousands of animals, such as lemurs,Coton de Tulear that are found in rainforests, beaches and reefs. Near the busy capital, Antananarivo, is Ambohimanga, a hillside complex of royal palaces and burial grounds, as well as the Avenue of the Baobabs. Madagascar has 24.24 million people and the official language is Malagasy, and French. Madagascar lies in the Indian Ocean off the southeast coast of Africa.

Present Lemuroids are present in the island of Madagascar, off the shores of the African continent (Doyle). Their dentition pattern has what is known as a toothcomb (Larsen). They posses a pattern of two front incisors, 1 canine, three premolars, and three molars on both top and bottom. The two bottom incisors, and canines are long, finely spaced and procumbent, to facilitate the grooming of the coat (Doyle).

Conservation of our biodiversity not only demonstrates foresight, it protects the natural resources so vital to our own continued existence. The value of any single species to an ecosystem is immeasurable; the environment will not endure without its species, despite size or niche. These animals are not dispensable. And, they are apt to face extinction in the not too distant future, unless a resolve for their preservation is insisted by the public and enforced by governments internationally.

Lemuroids, including true lemurs, lorises and galagos are the most primitive ones among the living primates. As they are the first grade of primates, they evolved in about 65 million years ago, in Paleocene epoch. Lemurs and lorises are the most primitive because they are more close to ancestral traits such as their reliance on olfaction, which enhances the sense of smell. Having dental comb, which formed by forward-projecting lower incisors and canines for feeding and grooming claw on the second toe are some distinguishable identities. Lemurs are only found on Madagascar and its adjacent islands. They vary in numerous species and ecological niches since they

There are many dispersal theories for how primates, such as platyrrhines, found their way into South and North America. Unfortunately, the fossil record for primates from the Caribbean islands and Greater Antilles is poor compared to the fossil records of North and South America. The geography of the Caribbean

Predators are always out on the prowl for other animals. Lemurs have a few predators. The first predator is the Fossa. The fossa is a type cat-like mammal that is related to the mongoose. The search of a lemur by a fossa keeps increasing due to the decrease of resources animals can find in Madagascar. A Harrier hawk is another predator that lemurs should always be watching out for. A Harrier Hawk swoops in at night and grabs young Lemurs directly off their mother’s back.Even trees cannot completely hide the Lemur from the Harrier Hawk’s great eyesight. Other predators are Madagascar buzzards, ground boas, civets, and domestic cats and dogs.The most shocking news that Lemurs face as a dangerous predator are humans. Humans are the major cause for different species of Lemurs being endangered. Some villagers kill Lemurs because they are said to be a bad omen. Then we have humans that keep endangering Lemurs by deforestation. Lemurs are known to leap far lengths, but when resources are low and several trees are cut down, then it creates a huge problem. This is the top leading reason Lemurs today are extinct and

They were discovered in the kindly forest in western Madagascar an island east coast of Africa. Even though they can be found in almost all parts of the forest most of them only stay in a “small space of 220 square kilometers and never near the north part of the Tsiribihina River”(Lane). But they also inhabit the Reserve Speciale d'Andranomena since they are endangered having most of them rescued and placed there. Madame Berthe Mouse Lemur’s choice of food changes depending on what the seasons are and what's offered during those seasons. Since Microcebus berthae are omnivores they will go hunt for insects, find different fruits and flowers like fruits of mistletoe, eat insect secretions, gum arthropods and small vertebrates like geckos and chameleons. The choice of their food doesn’t really change from season to season even though their choices of food is so little. Microcebus berthae is known to be the smallest animals on earth with “height ranging between 8.6 to 12.9 cm for both male and female”(Gron KJ). And With their “weight ranging from 30.6 to 71.1

Overall, this short movie provides a good point of view on the situation, however, I believe that there is not a strong enough emphasis on the other threats possible like global warming, hunting or any other possible conservation issues. It is mainly focused on the wood trade and the danger concerning lemurs in this place, but usually species are not endangered just because of one cause. Global warming is a growing concern all around the world and Madagascar, being an island, could be touched even more by the sea level

Deforestation on the island of Madagascar, an island off of the coast of Africa, has caused major destruction of habitat for species and a reduction in numbers of plants and trees. The island used to be largely covered in dense forests which were home to many species of lemur and other animals. Now, ⅘ of the island is bare and uninhabitable for these animals. Deforestation on the island progresses at around 150,000 to 200,000 hectares of forests cut down each year. Because of this many plants and animals that only occur in the wild on Madagascar are endangered. The problem has effects on both abiotic factors as well as the biotic factors, which include animals and plants. Some of the abiotic things impacted include lakes and shorelines. One of the main causes for the deforestation is slash-and-burn agriculture. In this technique, small areas of forest are cut down and everything is burned to clear the area and introduce some nutrients into the ground. Then, rice is planted and grown for a few years. After some time, all of the nutrients are depleted from the ground and rice cannot grow well anymore. Because of this, farmers have to continuously cut down more and more forest. The reason that this is such a common thing on Madagascar is because most people are poor and need food, so they resort to this destructive technique that leaves land barren and unable to support growth.