Golden Bamboo Lemur
Hapalemur aureus Meier, Albignac, Peyriéras, Rumpler and Wright, 1987
CR A2cd

Discovered only in 1985, the golden bamboo lemur remained undetected by science for centuries in Madagascar’s eastern rain forests, despite a profound international interest in the island’s rich and unique primate fauna. The new species was found close to Ranomafana about 200 kilometers southeast of the capital city of Antananarivo, oddly enough during an expedition in search of the greater bamboo lemur, which itself hadn’t been seen in 20 years. One of three species of bamboo or gentle lemurs, Hapalemur aureus gets its name from its golden facial color. As the rest of its common English name suggests, this lemur feeds primarily on giant bamboo, mostly the new shoots. This food source contains incredibly high levels of cyanide, as do the blood and feces of the golden bamboo lemur, but apparently these primates suffer no ill effects from their selective diet. Instead, the thousand or so animals estimated to remain in the wild are much more threatened by increasing slash-and-burn agriculture in and around the 41,600-hectare Ranomafana National Park, a protected area established specifically to safeguard the golden bamboo lemur’s future, and the Andringitra Nature Reserve.