The erosion of traditional cultural taboos in Madagascar has led to an unsustainable number of lemurs being killed for bushmeat, a study suggests.
Locals revered the primates, believing that the animals were family ancestors, but the influx of outside influences has seen a breakdown in these views.
Some species do not reach maturity for up to nine years and produce offspring once every two or three years.
Lemurs, especially indris, have been associated with very strong taboos that traditionally ensured that the primates were not hunted.
For example, one story tells of a man who was looking for honey in the forest when he fell from a tree. Before he hit the ground, he was caught by an indri.
He was so grateful that he went back to the village and said from that moment on, no lemur was to be harmed.
Another belief is that the creatures are ancestors that became lost in the rainforests and turned themselves into lemurs in order to survive.
Chickens suffer terribly from disease in rainforest areas, so do not survive that well - so there is not much protein from domestic animals around.
The survey of 1,154 households showed that the majority of meals eaten over a three-day period did not contain any meat at all.
However, when respondents were asked if they had ever eaten a protected species, 95% said that they had.
And here is one major conundrum.
Although unsustainable, the hunting and consumption of non-threatened wildlife in Madagascar is important for human nutrition - particularly for children.
In a recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Dr Golden found that removing access to bushmeat for Malagasy families could increase the number of childhood anaemia cases by up to a third.
Dr Jones said improving the availability of alternative meat sources would be one way to overcome the lack of non-bushmeat supplies.
The fact that people are not eating lemurs as a delicacy means that it is easier to reduce demand through substitutes, such as chickens.
However, she added, this would have to be supported by other projects, including improved veterinary vaccination programmes in order to ensure poultry or livestock did not get wiped out by viruses.
If the indri and other lemurs disappear from the forests then you are going to get fewer tourists and much less international interest.
It would be a really positive step and would be worth some investment from the government, given the importance of wildlife to Madagascar's economy.
