Golden bamboo lemur

Originally published October 14, 2009 (The Manitoban, Vol. 97, No. 9)

The golden bamboo lemur, Hapalemur aureus was not formally discovered until the ripe old year of 1987 on that beautiful and mysterious island located off the eastern coast of Africa: Madagascar. This wonderful little primate is typically about 11-18 inches long (not including the 9-13 inch long tail) and weighs an average of only 3.5lbs. It tends to travel in groups of 2-6 individuals, often a male, female and offspring of varying ages. 

The range of H. aureus overlaps with that of two other closely related species--the greater bamboo lemur, H. simus and the grey bamboo lemur, H. griseus. All three species eat, as their name implies, bamboo. But let's get specific; these lemurs eat from the giant bamboo known in Latin as Cephalostachyum viguieri so just try saying that one 5 times fast. Go on, try it... 

"Who cares what the damn bamboo is called! I've got more important things to do, like studying or procrastinating about studying!" you very likely have just exclaimed in a fit of rage over your pronunciative failure. But you should care about what the bamboo is called, because it is full of cyanide! The giant and grey bamboo lemurs eat from parts of the plant which are very low in cyanide (safe doses like in almonds) or from which cyanide is virtually absent. But the reason I am writing about little buddy the golden bamboo lemur is because it eats primarily the fresh young shoots of the giant bamboo, which are just chock full of cyanide. 

Cyanide is really interesting to talk about all on its own, but for now let's just consider that it works by preventing the uptake of oxygen by the blood...spooky. Some enthusiastic researchers (Glander et al. 1989.) observed the golden bamboo lemur to eat roughly 500g of bamboo each day, and then they did some fancy math based on weights and lethal dosages and found out that our friend H. aureus is eating approximately 12 times the lethal dose of cyanide just like it was a bowl of ice cream and you skipped dinner. Not even a belly ache! And how do they do it? Nobody knows!

Well, winter is coming, and most Winnipeggers hate winter. Why live in a province that spends at least 6 months of the year deep in miserable, "I don't wanna go outside, it's too cold and depressing and the city can't get it together to plow the freakin' sidewalks in a timely fashion" winter? That answer I don't have but what I will leave you with for this edition is a bleak thought to nurse along with all the other bleak thoughts of winter you will probably be thinking soon enough: the golden bamboo lemur is now classified by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) as endangered. The major reason for the decline in H. aureus numbers is thought to be a result of "slash-and-burn" agricultural practices, i.e. habitat loss in the form of deforestation (derainforestation?). The only known populations according to the IUCN are found in two of Madagascar's National Parks and a small captive breeding program for golden bamboo lemurs was in place until recently. Woah, bummer. Sorry friends.