Page "Madagascar" Paragraph 16

Habitat destruction and hunting have threatened many of Madagascar's endemic species or driven them to extinction.

The island's elephant birds, a family of endemic giant ratites, went extinct in 17th century or earlier, most probably due to human hunting of adult birds and poaching of their large eggs for food.

Numerous giant lemur species vanished with the arrival of human settlers to the island, while others became extinct over the course of the centuries as a growing human population put greater pressures on lemur habitats and, among some populations, increased the rate of lemur hunting for food.

A July 2012 assessment found that exploitation of natural resources since the 2009 coup have had dire consequences for the island's wildlife: 90 percent of lemur species were found to be threatened with extinction, the highest proportion of any mammalian group.

Of these, 23 species were classified as critically endangered.

By contrast, a previous study in 2008 had found only 38 percent of lemur species were at risk of extinction.