Madagascar Fossa Threatened Species

 One of the most unusual of all big predators, the odd-looking, cat-like fossa, is the largest carnivore on the island of Madagascar,is facing extinction.Villagers hunt this animal as bushmeat in a bid to protect their own livestock, which the fossa eats. as a result,few fossa can now be found in this area that was once their stronghold.

The Fossa population is declining rapidly, says one of the few scientists to have studied it in the wild,Ms Mia-Lana Lührs. She further stated that indications are, that it could already be critically endangered.The Fossa are a highly specialised predator, secretive and cat-like, they are expert climbers and well equipped for chasing down lemurs in the forest. They prey on even the largest lemur species.This weird, fascinating and unique creature might soon go extinct according toLührs.

 Fossa also take small shrew-like creatures called tenrecs and almost any other animal living in Madagascar with the exception of humans, crocodiles and wild boar.There unfortunately, is  very little is known about them, as only a handful of scientists have ever been able to study fossa up close in the wild.

But according to Ms Mia-Lana Lührs the one scientist studying it, the fossa could actually be in an even worse state than previously assumed.She is currently studying the fossa for her PhD at Germany’s University of Göttingen and the German Primate Center.

Within the past three years, she has recorded a substantial fall in the numbers of fossa living in Kirindy, a reserve within forests on the west of the island where in 2007 18 different males regularly visited a certain tree used for mating. In 2008 she recorded 14 males and in 2009 t5here were only ten of the original group of males left. In 2010 only two males were recorded. Kirindy used to be a fossa stronghold.

Overall, her studies, in which she makes use of GPS tracking collars to follow individual fossa, now suggests that only 30 fossa of either sex  exist in Kirindy.A forest fragment that size would be expected to be home to many times that number.“Fortunately, I have seen seven males shortly before in another part of the forest where I observed, so I know that at least nine males are still alive,” she told BBC News.

But“That is not sufficient for the population to survive without management,” she says.Deforestation is one of the significant causes of the fossa’s recent decline.But the large predator is also coming into conflict with people, as it leaves the dwindling forest in search of food.A survey conducted last year by colleague Moritz

Image via Wikipedia

 in villages surrounding Kirindy found that 12 fossa had been killed recently by people living in just eight villages, to prevent the fossa from stealing their chickens.

These villages butcher the carcasses for bushmeat and to sell as body parts to shamans for traditional medicine. Fossa are hunted for food by people within 55 to 60% of all the villages in northeastern  to  PhD student Christopher Golden of the University of California, Berkeley.

“If the killings continue at such high rates, we have three years left to see fossa in Kirindy,” says Ms Lührs.