SCIENCE LAB SCREEN : MADAGASCAR'S LAND GRAB

FRUIT-BEARING plant prized by lemurs has a ravenous appetite of its own.

Madagascar maybe facing a tough choice : restore its disappearing forests or feed its endangered lemurs?

Just a quarter of the island's native forests remains. But the recovery of woodlands damaged by  deforestation is being undermined by the strawberry guava, a highly aggressive invasive plant species.

In places where the guava has taken hold, it has choked out native vegetation, diminished insect populations and altered soil nutrients, according to research published in January, in the journal Biological Conservation.

But conservationists have been hesitant to wage an all out eradication often against the plant because many of the 100 species of lemurs on the island, nearly all of which are at risk of extinction, love to eat its sweet fruit and seem to thrive where it is dense.

'' For a long time some conservationists thought it's not that harmful. It feeds lemurs, so maybe it's good,'' said Amy Dunham, an ecologist at Rice University in Houston and an author of the study.

'' Now we know that while it can provide short-time benefits to wildlife, it also causes long term ecological harm. ''

The Publishing continues to Part [ 2 ].

The World Students Society thanks Rachel Nuwer.