Lemur Conservation Foundation founder Penelope Bodry-Sanders and Conservation and Research Director Dr. Erik Patel were recently featured in Stream Digital’s series, Learning from the Suncoast’s Nonprofit Community. The two sat down with host Lisa Moody to provide a behind-the-scenes look at LCF’s Myakka City, FL lemur colony and its vital conservation work in Florida and Madagascar. They also discussed the future of lemurs, which are among the most threatened mammals on Earth.
Listen to the engaging interview here:
“Lemurs are both extremely unique and very rare…
They are receiving a lot of threats – 98% are currently threatened with extinction.”
Dr. Erik Patel
Visionary Bodry-Sanders established the Lemur Conservation Foundation on 30 acres in 1997. The now 130-acre reserve is an Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) Certified Related Facility regarded as a preeminent site for educators and scientific researchers.
Renowned primatologist Dr. Erik Patel has been working in northeastern Madagascar in Marojejy National Park every year since 2000, where he has been studying the behavioral biology and conservation of one of the most critically endangered primates in the world, the silky sifaka lemur (Propithecus candidus). Dr. Patel expanded LCF’s reach and impact in Madagascar. There, in the SAVA region of northeastern Madagascar, staff work with conservation partners and communities bordering protected lemur habitats, focusing on Anjanaharibe-Sud Special Reserve (ASSR) and Marojejy National Park, together spanning 320 square miles of mountainous rainforests.
“I met my first lemur and I became totally
and completely enchanted. They are so magical.”
Penelope Bodry-Sanders
