Leading Earthwatch-supported scientists will share their fascinating findings at a special lecture hosted by the environmental charity. Dr Jonah Ratsimbazafy of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and Dr Luke Dollar both work with Earthwatch volunteers to protect lemurs and their predators in the wildlife hotspot of Madagascar. Home to rainforest animals and plants found nowhere else in the world, Madagascar is threatened with large-scale destruction by unsustainable human activities, such as poaching and logging. It is home to eight species of lemurs, including the critically endangered black-and-white ruffed lemur – under threat from cyclones and human disturbance. Inspired from a young age to protect lemurs, Dr Ratsimbazafy is working to ensure not only the conservation of these endearing creatures, but also the recovery of the magnificent rainforest they rely on. Sharing his results with the local community, and encouraging them to protect their environment with local government, Dr Ratsimbazafy is a valuable source of information about Madagascar’s wildlife and people.

Although Madagascar’s famous lemurs have been the subject of extensive research, very little is known about their much rarer predator, the cat-like fossa, found nowhere else in the world. Their habits are virtually unknown, their population status a mystery. Dr Luke Dollar is the only scientist studying this enigmatic species, and is working in the remote forests of Kirindy Mitea where no scientist has gone before. Earthwatch volunteers come at a crucial time, as deforestation and hunting for bush meat threatens many of these unique mammals and their habitats.
Dr Dollar’s team has successfully formed a collective of local managers, villagers, students, educators, researchers, and politicians, all working together to safeguard Madagascar’s unparalleled and irreplaceable natural treasures – its wildlife and its people.

“As large carnivores of the forests, fossas are important flagships for the island,” says Dr James Burton, Earthwatch Senior Research and Education Officer. “They are also one of the first group of species that will be most affected by the negative factors impacting on the forests, and therefore the most threatened. This means our research is all the more vital.” He adds: “At Manombo in south-east Madagascar, Dr Ratsimbazafy’s field research and high level of community engagement is helping to conserve a lemur species that is among the world’s 25 most endangered primates, and on the brink of extinction.”

Dr Jonah Ratsimbazafy, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, Madagascar Programme. Jonah Ratsimbazafy, a native of Madagascar, grew up on the island and received his primary education in a public school and his college degree from the University of Antananarivo, in the capital of Madagascar. He started studying lemurs in the field in 1994, visiting Manombo to do a lemur survey and has been leading Earthwatch teams since 2004. In June 1996 Jonah decided to study Varecia at Manombo as his species of interest for his Ph.D. project. Jonah teaches at the Department of Water and Forests at Agronomy school and the Department of Paleontology and Anthropology at the University of Antananarivo.

Luke Dollar is a graduate student completing his Ph.D. (2006) at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment Program in Ecology. He is also a Research Associate with the Duke University Primate Center and Founder of the Carnivore Conservation and Research Trust. His research specialties include carnivore ecology, specifically the Fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox) in Malagasy rainforests. Luke has been working on the fossa and its conservation for more than a decade. As director of this Earthwatch project, he has managed teams from five continents in more than a dozen field sites. In addition to being an avid outdoorsman, he is a compassionate conservationist, focusing equally on the human and biodiversity components of environmental management.

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