Coup In Madagascar Creates Danger for Lemurs

National Geographic has the story:

With Madagascar’s government paralyzed after a recent coup, looters are invading the African island country’s protected wildlife sanctuaries, harvesting trees and threatening critically endangered lemurs and other species, conservationists said this week.
Marojejy National Park in northern Madagascar has been closed to tourism. In other parks, rangers are abandoning their posts, according to reports.

St. Louis Encephalitis, Primates, and Flies

Some interesting science stories for you.

Lemurs! The Evil Greg Laden Beat Me To The Lemurs

Greg scooped me on the lemur research but that’s okay because I beat him to the gorilla sex story. So, what is the story about?

New Species of Lemur Discovered

Ain’t it cute? It’s called Microcebus lehilahytsara and was discovered in Madagascar (where else).

You can find more info here

Added Later: Thoughts from Kansas has a more indepth post on the lemur – as well as pictures of the second new lemur. Check it out.

Added Even Later: One of the more interesting things about Josh’s post is the few tidbits of info we learn about Steve Goodman. We need more of this kind of thing. Not because we should all be name droppers but because it puts a human face on science and makes it harder for those who oppose science. If one knows about someone like Steve Goodman who “…basically lives in the field, coming back to the Field Museum now and then to drop off specimens…” it becomes harder to believe scientists are engaged in some shadowy conspiracy to silence critics and enforce ideological conformity, etc.