“Lemur Rescue Mission in Madagascar,” a conversation with award-winning Stony Brook primatologist Patricia C. Wright, is featured in the Science section of today’s New York Times. In the interview Wright discusses how she became involved in studying lemurs and their fate — with 90 percent of lemurs endangered or about to become extinct — as well as Ranomafana National Park, how she stays hopeful, and what observing lemurs has taught her:
“That this old saw about that male dominance being the natural order of things ought to be more rigorously examined,” said Wright in the interview. “Among lemurs, females lead. They go into the fruit tree first, and the males must stay out until the females decide they can come in. Interestingly, the female leaders don’t strut around a lot. They work out the relationships in the group peaceably. That’s made me think it might be time for our species to do things more the lemur way.”
Wright’s acclaimed documentary adventure film Island of Lemurs: Madagascar, opens in theaters across the U.S. on August 22 (it was originally released in select theaters on April 4). The movie, narrated by renowned Hollywood actor Morgan Freeman, is filmed in IMAX® 3D and showcases the groundbreaking work of Dr. Wright, a professor of anthropology at Stony Brook University and founder of Centre ValBio, a research campus located in the rainforest of Madagascar.
Professor Wright recently received the prestigious Indianapolis Prize for her heroic and selfless dedication to protecting the lemurs, ecosystems and people of Madagascar.
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