Madagascar's lemurs — found nowhere else on Earth — face extinction as deforestation reduces and fragments their habitat, causing population isolation and the welfare consequences of inadequate food and range.
Lemurs in fragmented forests face resource depletion, social disruption, and the chronic stress of inadequate range. Small isolated populations cannot maintain the foraging patterns or social structures that their behavioral repertoire requires. Individual welfare and population viability are inseparable here — animals in degraded fragments may survive for years while experiencing chronic nutritional stress, social conflict, and impaired reproduction. The welfare cost of deforestation is borne by every individual lemur living in habitat that can no longer support them.