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Lemur post for speakertocustomers
Feb. 20th, 2005 10:30 amLast month, two new species of lemur were discovered.
I am currently reading Alison Jolly's Lords and Lemurs. Jolly has studied lemurs for more than forty years. and her seminal work, Lemur behavior: a Madagascar field study (1966) was one of the first books I read on the topic. She was the first primatologist to accurately observe the violent matriarchal society of the ring-tailed lemur, lemur catta.
Much of her fieldwork was done near the southern tip of Madagascar, at a small but remarkable reserve called Berenty, where ring-tailed and brown lemurs wander the forest without fear of humans. Lords and Lemurs describes Berenty, its geography, history and inhabitants (both human and protosimian). This is not a look focused solely on lemurs; her explicit aim is to describe the place as a whole, including sketches of its local peoples, including French colonials, the Tandroy "people of the thorns", and the "Science Tribe" of visiting naturalists.
I'm only part of the way through, but so far this is proving to be an enjoyable read, although I wonder whether the loose structure of the book will confuse me later on. Certainly, her love of the locale is clearly conveyed. But those of a weak stomach should know that it contains scenes of both gross human stupidity and infanticidal lemur savagery.
I am currently reading Alison Jolly's Lords and Lemurs. Jolly has studied lemurs for more than forty years. and her seminal work, Lemur behavior: a Madagascar field study (1966) was one of the first books I read on the topic. She was the first primatologist to accurately observe the violent matriarchal society of the ring-tailed lemur, lemur catta.
Much of her fieldwork was done near the southern tip of Madagascar, at a small but remarkable reserve called Berenty, where ring-tailed and brown lemurs wander the forest without fear of humans. Lords and Lemurs describes Berenty, its geography, history and inhabitants (both human and protosimian). This is not a look focused solely on lemurs; her explicit aim is to describe the place as a whole, including sketches of its local peoples, including French colonials, the Tandroy "people of the thorns", and the "Science Tribe" of visiting naturalists.
I'm only part of the way through, but so far this is proving to be an enjoyable read, although I wonder whether the loose structure of the book will confuse me later on. Certainly, her love of the locale is clearly conveyed. But those of a weak stomach should know that it contains scenes of both gross human stupidity and infanticidal lemur savagery.
