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Species Extinction in Madagascar
Madagascar is one of the highest conservation priorities on the planet both for its strikingly high levels of endemic species and its severe environmental degradation. Since humans arrived less than 2000 years ago, Madagascar has lost its largest animals including at least 15-17 species of lemurs, a pygmy hippo, enormous tortoises, the largest bird to ever walk the planet, and a species so unusual it has been assigned to its own order. Today, species loss continues. The IUCN Redlist, the official tally of species at risk of going extinct, currently includes 472 entries for Madagascar though this is probably a significant undercount.
No one knows how many species have many species have gone extinct in Madagascar for the simple reason that no one really knows how many of species are found on the island. The most obvious losses have come with the disappearance of Madagascar's megafauna -- all of its animals larger than pounds are gone -- although it is likely that a number of smaller species have also perished.
Below is a roster of selected species that the world has lost:
Afrocyclops pauliani
Coua delalandei or the Snail-Eating Coua
Hippopotamus lemerlei or the Malagasy Dwarf Hippo
Hippopotamus madagascariensis or the Malagasy Pygmy Hippo
Rheocles sikorae
Tropodiaptomus ctenopus
Lemurs (from Duke)
Megaladapis madagascariensis
Megaladapis grandidieri
Peloriadapis edwardsi
Daubentonia robusta
Archaeolemur majori
Archaeolemur edwardsi
Hadropithecus stenognathus
Palaeopropithecus ingens
Palaeopropithecus maximus
Archaeoindris fontoynomtii
Babakotia radfilai
Mesopropithecus globiceps
Mesopropithecus pithecoides
Mesopropithecus dolichobrachion
Pachylemur jullyi
Pachylemur insignis
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