Stray dogs and cats pose a significant threat to native wildlife in Madagascar, with studies indicating a decline in native carnivores and lemurs near villages where these stray animals are prevalent.
To address this issue, the American NGO Mad Dog Initiative is taking proactive measures. Their approach includes annual campaigns for sterilization and rabies vaccination, aimed at reducing the stray animal population around two national parks in Madagascar. Additionally, the initiative works closely with local communities to foster environmental education and mitigate further damage to native wildlife.
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Transcript
Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.Stray dogs and cats are a big problem for native wildlife in Madagascar.
Dogs in particular are bad about harassing wildlife. …
Their presence, the barking, they tend to stand underneath the trees and bark up at the lemurs. So a lot of their impact is indirect through harassment and stress as well as spreading diseases.
In the case of cats, cats are different; we see lots of different images of cats directly predating or preying upon wildlife species. Everything from snakes, lizards, small mammals. We’ve got images of cats killing those and walking in front of cameras. But also lemurs as well. Multiple images of cats walking by cameras with lemurs in their mouth.
Studies show that native carnivores and lemurs are declining in areas near villages with dogs and cats.
The Mad Dog Initiative, a Malagasy NGO, is taking action to combat this issue.
By carrying out annual sterilization and rabies vaccination campaigns, the program is decreasing the population of stray animals around two national parks in Madagascar in the hopes of reducing the animals’ impacts on native wildlife.
The NGO is also actively engaged with communities to promote environmental education and prevent further harm to native wildlife.
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