African

Information about Lemurs:

There are about 1,100 mammal species on the continent of Africa. In the East-African plains, there is an especially large diversity of species. There are more ungulates – or hoofed mammals like the antelope, zebras, wildebeest and gemsbok – in Africa than other continent. There are 64 identified species of primates, including four species of great apes. Of all the continents, Africa was the only one to keep it’s large land mammals. Whereas others, like North America, all large mammals died out thousands of years ago. There are many theories on this, usually involving climate change, meteor strikes, predation by humans or a combination of all three.

Regardless of the reason, African was able to support the largest land animals on the planet alive today. The tallest land mammal is the giraffe and the largest is the African Elephant. African is also home to the fastest land animal – the cheetah. Many of the mammals in Africa face an uncertain future, due to poaching, habitat loss, climate change and a lack of genetic diversity (which could result in devastating loss of life should a disease be introduced.)