by: Etolab - Laboratorio di Etologia e Bioacustica | data 02/12/2021
Have you heard how nice their songs are? This could quickly become only a memory, as indris’ survival is highly threatened!
Lemurs are one of Madagascar’s symbols. There are more than 100 different species, living uniquely in Malagasy forests. Almost all lemurs’ species are endangered: one of the biggest threats to their survival is deforestation for timber and charcoal production, but habitat loss is also caused by the slash-and-burn traditional agriculture, which impoverishes the soil to the point that nothing will grow on it after few years.
To protect the lemurs, we have to protect the forests too. Madagascar’s rainforests, in fact, are essential to the survival of a multitude of species that lives only on this special island. Sadly, these forests are also a very fragile habitat: only 12% of the original forest cover has remained.
In one of the last remaining forest patches, there is the Dragon Tree Forest of Maromizaha which is our aim to protect! This rainforest is, undoubtedly, one of the most fascinating places on the entire island. It has an extension of 2.150 hectares, of which 725 are still intact and have never been affected by human activity. Nevertheless, deforestation is very high in the surrounding areas and where once there was a beautiful, pristine forest, now there are only dry and empty fields and barren hills.
Indris are adapted for living on the trees and, therefore, they need the forest to survive! And we, instead, need your help to start a new adventure that will bring us, our students, and our rangers out of Maromizaha’s borders to search, find and protect indris and other endangered lemurs.
For 15 years we have studied the singing lemurs in Madagascar’s rainforests to protect this tremendous biodiversity treasure. Each year, our students spend several months in Maromizaha to collect data that are essential to discovering the link between us and these amazing primates, as their melodic and rhythmic songs that are very similar to our own music! Thanks to these studies we are beginning to understand how much specials these lemurs are, but more importantly, we have understood how uncertain is indris’ survival.
In fact, it is unknown how many indris are left in the remaining forest patches and specific surveys have never been carried out. However, this number is very important to plan an effective conservation strategy. With your help, we can contribute to the first indri’s population survey to understand how many individuals remain in the wild, both in the protected part of the forest and also in the unprotected zones. We want to understand where they live and how are they using the forest resources to survive.
Help us to save the singing lemur!
Thanks to your support, we will be able to buy the necessary tools to equip 5 rangers to find and conduct a census of the lemurs.
25 camera-traps (130,00 EUR/each): they are devices for wild animals’ automatic detection. They can record and photograph the animals without disturbing them, thanks to an infrared sensor. They are very useful to find and study indris that are not habituated to the researchers’ presence.
5 GPS (200,00 EUR/each): these devices are used to record an animals’ spatial coordinates so that the rangers will know where to find indris’ group or specific individuals in the dense forest.
5 Recorders (150,00 EUR/each): with these, we can record the indris’ songs and create a database to collect all the songs given by all individuals, so that we can recognize them individually. In fact, each indri has a peculiar way of singing, as an acoustic fingerprint!
5 cameras (200,00 EUR/each): The rangers will use the camera to record videos of indris’ activities and identify each animal individually based on natural marks, such as the specific pattern in the fur color.
If we will reach our budget goal, the University of Turin will double it!!
With this additional funding, we will:
We are researchers of the Ethology Lab of the Department of Life Science and Systems Biology (DBIOS) at the University of Turin. We started studying indris in the Madagascar rainforests 15 years ago, and in 2009 we built a research field station in the Maromizaha forest.
Cristina met the charm of the signals emitted by the emerald toad in a backdunal pond in Calabria, and since then she has been describing the diversity of forms and functions in animal acoustic communication in search for the intrinsic, but not exclusive, mechanisms of human language. This has led her to record sounds of many terrestrial and aquatic species, through Asia and Africa, up to meeting the singing lemur. The astonishment she felt led her to promote the creation of a Multipurpose Research Center in Maromizaha. The presence of the center has allowed the launch of a long-term study, as well as many actions for the conservation of biodiversity and sustainable development in collaboration with numerous partners. Cristina coordinates the Italy-Madagascar International Doctorate in Sustainable Development and Cooperation.
Marco has been a volleyball player for more than half his life and is still a heavy metal fan and a pizza lover. He discovered his love for Bioacoustics and Primates while working for a record label... Marco is Associate Professor of Zoology at the University of Turin, where he teaches "Invertebrate Zoology" for the bachelor degree "Natural Sciences", and "Techniques and Methods of Ethology" and "Evolution of Behaviour" in the Master's Degree "Evolution of Animal and Human Behaviour", of which he is also President. He was Visiting Professor at the Universities of Mahajanga, Antananarivo, Comoros and St. Andrews
Valeria is a research technician dealing with bioacoustics, animal behavior and biodiversity conservation. She has seen the very early stages of the Maromizaha project, and since then, every year, she has spent every year a period in the forest to record and monitor the population of indris and other lemurs. She knows all the singing lemurs by name and has contributed to the training of many undergraduate and PhD students who have passed through Maromizaha. The Research Center is her second home and the rangers are her second family. For this reason she hopes to be able to have many camera traps available shortly to always have an eye open to spy on the forest and its animals, even when she is in Turin.
Chiara is a Post-Doc researcher. She obtained her PhD abound indris’ song rhythm at the University of Turin. Born and raised in Emilia region, she has been adopted by Piedmont, but she has Abruzzo in her heart. Between 2015 and 2019 she has spent in total an entire year in the Maromizaha forest studying lemurs. Literature lover, she collects bookmarks and still love to send postcards when she travels. One of her dreams is that, one day, all the postcards she has sent from Madagascar finally reach their destination.
Teresa is a PhD student in Biological Sciences and Applied Biotechnologies at the University of Turin. She was born in Turin, she ran away, for the benefit of a life in the mountains, and then she returned to Turin to study natural sciences. Her natural habitat consists of an armchair, blanket, cat and Mac, alternating with walks in the forest at varying altitudes and latitudes. She is passionate about sounds, whether they come from animals that communicate (with a predilection for birds and primates) or from an inexhaustible streaming of music, a trusted companion for working hours and not, and a nourishment for the mind.
Filippo is a PhD student in Biological Sciences and Applied Biotechnologies at the University of Turin. From an early age he was bewitched by the animal world and by the multiplicity of forms and strategies shaped by evolution, with a particular predilection for reptiles, amphibians and primates. Since 10 years he has been a nature photographer, a passion that leads him to hike in the mountains, immerse himself in the seas and get muddy in swamps and tropical forests, as well as earning some parasites and, occasionally, awards in national and international photographic competitions. You can find him, when not in the laboratory or in nature, in some bars in Turin, probably rambling on vipers or “Rick and Morty”.
