Leaps Beyond Lemurs

Naples Zoo BecomeIn the 1990s, Naples Zoo first began promoting the wider efforts of the Madagascar Fauna and Flora Group (MFG) in the midst of them releasing three sets of zoo-born lemurs to reinforce the low population in the Betampona Natural Reserve. While the MFG gained recognition for those reintroductions, lemurs are just the best-known animal on an island where nearly 90% of its species live nowhere else on Earth. But superlatives like this both bless and curse Madagascar. The abundance of endemic wildlife and botanicals is cruelly matched only by the extreme lack endured by the Malagasy people.

Adam Britt with released lemurs in 1990s?

MFG has successfully charted this dual course of helping people and wildlife for over three decades using every resource at its disposal. For example, when a family loses chickens to Newcastle disease, they hunt lemurs. So the MFG now coordinates chicken vaccinations. As standard three-stone fires wastes firewood, the MFG purchased fuel efficient rocket stoves to cook rice faster, and save the forest - coordinating a logistics wonder hand-carrying 1,400 stoves to the villages around Betampona assisted by only dugout canoes and pick up trucks.

?Vaccinating chickens

Projects like these combined with patrols and long-term reforestation efforts pay off. A ten-year study using WorldView-3 satellite imagery research showed the areas where MFG works around the Reserve has seen a 59% increase in forest cover!?At their other site, Parc Ivoloina, the staff have successfully bred critically endangered lemurs and collaborated in international breeding programs - plus care for lemurs and tortoises confiscated from the illegal wildlife trade.

Seedlings growing for reforestation work.?

The success of these programs is mirrored in MFG’s education efforts which include four Saturday Schools that have succeeded in elevating the lowest performing students to match their fellow students and has helped over 125 students receive Master’s and PhD degrees. And the Girls Leadership and Science Camp is showing the way out of the once nearly inevitable path into very early marriage.

Girls Camp?

This list just scratches the surface. To sustain this long-term impact, the MFG is a collaboration of thirty member zoos, botanical gardens, aquariums, and universities across Europe, Asia, North America, and Australasia who meet each year and annually contribute to the core operations.

Naples Zoo Becomes the MFG's International Headquarters

In 1988, the MFG was initially headquartered at San Francisco Zoo before moving to the Saint Louis Zoo in 2004. Thus, in 2018, it was a great honor when our Director of Conservation Tim L. Tetzlaff was elected as the MFG’s fourth Chair in its 30-year history, which brought the international headquarters to Naples Zoo. We’re soberly excited about the work ahead. Your ongoing membership helps make this work possible As a former Malagasy governor stated in the 2005 MFG annual meeting, “For biodiversity to win, poverty must lose.” Indeed. If you believe the same, you can come along side us with a donation dedicated to “Madagascar” at https://www.napleszoo.org/donate. 100% is dedicated to the MFG.