Conservation
Habitat Conservation: The distribution of the black and white ruffed lemur is poorly known, especially in its northern limits. This lemur is distributed in low concentrations throughout the remnants of Madagascar's eastern rainforest, from the Antainambalana River southward to the Mananara River. There is an introduced population on the island of Nosy Mangabe in the Bay of Antongil. Although found in ten protected areas, black and white ruffed lemurs are thought to occur in low densities in all but the Nosy Mangabe Special Reserve. The animals are very patchily distributed, and are gravely endangered due to deforestation and hunting by the local people who regard them as a great delicacy.
There are numerous color variations in the black and white population throughout their range, with populations in the north tending to be darker than the whiter forms of the south. As many as four distinct color varieties have been recognized. Because so much of the animals' habitat has been degraded, however, the original geographical distribution of the different color forms and its significance will never be fully understood. However, recent studies by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the American Museum of Natural History show no appreciable genetic differences among the different color variants of the black and white ruffed lemurs. This was important information in regard to planning for the reintroduction of captive born ruffed lemurs to the Betampona Reserve, eliminating the possibility that a different subspecies might inadvertently be introduced to the wild population.
Due to the great breeding success of captive ruffed lemurs, captive population size is currently too large and is descended from too few founders. The SSP coordinator determined years ago that captive breeding needed to be more carefully controlled, and that individual ruffed lemurs which were genetically overrepresented needed to be contracepted and fresh founder stock had to be imported from Madagascar. Hence, eight wild born, unrelated black and white ruffs, Varecia variegata variegata were imported into the United States in 1996 from a confiscated population in Madagascar which had been held at Zoo Ivoloina. After quarantine at the St. Louis Zoo, breeding pairs were sent out to various zoos across the country (Atlanta, Tulsa, Philadelphia). The DLC population of black and white ruffed lemurs currently stands at six animals.