hot spots

In E.O.Wilson's book The Creation I learned about hot spots. Hot spots are  places that are rich in biodiversity and in danger of being destroyed by humans . Madagascar, the home of the lemurs, is one of the hot spots.

There are many types of lemurs, including the golden bamboo lemur, the ring-tailed lemur, the fork-marked lemur and the gray mouse lemur.

Lemurs live exclusively in Madagascar which is why we must protect it. If humans destroy the lemur's habitat on Madagascar the only places lemurs can live will be zoos, even if lemurs adapted to a new environment it would upset the ecosystem.

This is a picture of a sifaka lemur (found on Panoramio.com):

Many lemurs are very unique, for example Wikipedia says the adult golden bamboo eats lemur eats 500 g (18 oz) of bamboo which contains 12 times the lethal dose of cyanide for most other animals of this size. The safaka lemur feeds on the flowers of trees covered with thorns. The safaka carefully places it toes in between the needle like thorns; even the babies can navigate the thorny trees. There are many more types of lemurs, each unique in it's own way please help to protect them.

This is a picture of a Golden Bamboo Lemur (picture by Antony Stanley, found on Flickr):

In The Beginning

In March of 2014 it dawned on me that:

1. I was uncomfortable about certain conditions in the world,
2. My 10 year-old grandson Zion also had concerns about certain conditions in the world,
3. Maybe we could work together on a project of his choosing to make something better in this world.

I live in Ojai, CA. Zion lives in Valley Cottage, NY.

In late March I called, and asked Zion if he would like to work on a project with me. Got to admit, I expected a yes and I expected, given some recent history, that he would opt for improving conditions for abandoned pets in America.

50% right. His immediate "yes" was connected to an immediate statement of desire to protect lemurs.

I asked if there were particular lemur populations that he was interested in protecting, which gave him the opportunity to remind/teach me that the only native habitat of the lemur is Madagascar.

It was a GO!

The following e-mails ensued:

April 2, 2014
Hello Zion!
Have you seen this site?
http://www.lemurreserve.org/
Grampa

Sent: Thursday, April 3, 2014 10:25 AM
Subject: Re: for Zion and the lemurs
dear grampa,
thanks i will check out
http://www.lemurreserve.org/ .
love
zion

Sent: Thursday, April 3, 2014 5:58 PM
Subject: Re: for Zion and the lemurs
Super Zion!
Grampa :)

April 7, 2014
thanks for the idea to help lemurs.
love
zion