Adorable but Endangered: Lemurs Face Possible Extinction

July 21, 2009— -- If there were a contest for cutest animal on the planet, the lemur would be a strong contender. But cuteness alone can't save the creatures from the political forces threatening their existence, especially not the illegal loggers destroying the lemurs' precious rainforest habitat.

Lemurs are small primates that are endemic to Madagascar and are not found living in nature outside the island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa.

There are nearly 100 different species of lemurs, including the black and white lemur, the ring-tail lemur, the tiny mouse lemur and even the mischievous dancing lemur.

"Nightline's" Dan Harris visited a lemur park about 15 miles outside Antananarivo, the capital city, where he got to know these impish little animals and saw, firsthand, the emerging threats to their survival.

Watch "Nightline" tonight at 11:35 ET for the full story.

A recent military coup in the impoverished, unstable country left a power vacuum that has allowed heavily armed illegal loggers, known as the "timber mafia," to pillage the lemur's natural habitat.

One of the forests is the Marojejy National Park, a towering, dauntingly beautiful landscape reminiscent of a set from "Jurassic Park." A few weeks ago, the forest in northeastern Madagascar had largely been taken over by looters and had to be shut down.

Marojejy is also home to one of the most rare and beautiful lemurs of all, the silky sifaka. Between 100 to 1,000 of these animals are left on earth.

White as snow, the sifakas look like cotton balls with tails. Humans who want to see the sifakas in the wild must make a long, slippery trek through humid, leech-infested forests.

Their remote forest habitat keeps them safe from natural predators, but it offers little protection from the more dire threat of human encroachment.