Mammal
The crowned sifaka
The crowned sifaka is a mammal from the Indriidae family. A Madagascan tradition says that ancestors are reincarnated in this animal, so touching or killing it is taboo.
It owes its nickname of "sifakas" to the resounding whistle it emits to signal the presence of a predator to the other members of a group.
The crowned sifaka: an endangered species
It is estimated that there are only a few thousand wild individuals left in Madagascar. The population decline is mainly due to the destruction of forest cover by fire, agriculture, grazing and urbanisation. Hunting and illegal catches are also to blame.
Only around a thousand individuals remain in the wild, 700 of them in the protected area managed by the Museum since 2000 in north-west Madagascar.
The Museum's action to protect the crowned sifaka
The Parc zoologique de Paris was the first institution to successfully breed crowned sifakas. It coordinates the management of their population in zoos. This breeding programme is extremely fragile, with only 18 individuals in 5 zoos. The Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle is also involved in conserving this species in its native environment, working with biologists, researchers and conservators in Madagascar.
Propithèque couronné
© MNHN - F.-G. Grandin
Propithèque couronné
© MNHN - F.-G. Grandin
Propithèque couronné
© MNHN - F.-G. Grandin
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