The first female winner of the Indianapolis Prize visited campus Sept. 30.
The Indianapolis Zoological Society gave Patricia Wright the award for her conservation work. Michael Maggiotto, dean of the College of Science and Humanities, said the award is a great honor.
Wright is known for her work to protect lemurs. She has spent the last three decades working to preserve their habitats and teach the people of Madagascar the importance of protecting their native primates.
Wright said students should care about the lemurs, despite the lack of obvious connection.
They could be used to solve humans’ medical issues. Researchers are studying their tolerance for cyanide, hibernation habits and the presence of Alzheimer's disease in lemurs in captivity.
“There are many questions that are relevant to our lives that we should study in lemurs,” Wright said.
Wright said if people were to see lemurs in person, they would never question whether they should care.
“They are so beautiful, and you would never want them to disappear from this earth,” she said. “I would, of course, recommend that you come to Madagascar and see the lemurs for yourself.”
Wright encouraged students to use the many social media sites available to help save lemurs.
“There’s a lot of things you can do to refer people to sites where they can learn about lemurs,” Wright said.
Wright’s first experience with lemurs in the wild was during a trip to Madagascar in 1986 to search for the greater bamboo lemur, which was thought to be extinct. She found the lemur, but that wasn’t the only thing she discovered. Wright found a previously unknown species of lemur, called the golden bamboo lemur.
“That was an accident,” Wright said, regarding her discovery.
Since then, she has established a protected habitat for the lemurs, called Ranomafana National Park. There, lemurs have a safe place to live, and scientists can conduct studies without removing the lemurs.
Wright said her life has changed drastically since she received the award.
“I’m going to go on the Martha Stewart radio show next week … things like that are [a fun] way to spread the word to people who never really thought about lemurs before,” Wright said.
She is also working to bring other research stations around Madagascar and around the world up to her standards.
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