A place for primates to be safe

Patricia Wright first traveled from New York to the country of Madagascar, an island nation off the east coast of Africa, 25 years ago. The scientist was looking for a bamboo lemur. People thought that this small primate had died out in the wild. But deep in the rainforest, Wright found a noisy group of animals chewing on bamboo.

Wright knew the lemurs were safe. That's because people was cutting down the forest for its wood. She asked the government to create a park so the lemurs always had a home.the government agreed to set up a park but Wright had to figure out its boundaries. Wright and her team spent weeks hiking through the muddy jungle.

After years of planning Ranomafana National Park was established in 1991. Today at least 14 types of  lemurs live inside of the park, along with millions of other plants and animals. Wright wants to make Ranomafana bigger to protect even more of  Madagascar's wild forest. Wright spent months hiking through the jungle to define the perimeter of  Ranomafana National Park.

Source for image: Lanting