Dominance.

Female dominance is less obvious in Brown Lemurs and their many subspecies,
which happen to be forms with the smallest color difference between female and male.
Most of the Lemuridae feed mainly on fruit. They also eat leaves, flowers, nectar and
insects in varying, but smaller, amounts. The Mongoose Lemur eats mainly nectar during the dry
season, and may play an important role as a pollinator, as may many other lemurs due to their
taste for nectar and flowers. By eating much fruit and traveling around the forest, lemurs also
spread the seeds of many important tree species. This is vital for forest regeneration and shows
how protecting lemurs from extinction benefits humans, because we need the forests to maintain
the health of the planet.
Varied habitats
These lemurs occupy many different habitats across Madagascar, from dry scrub in the
south to mountainous rainforest in the east and coastal forests all around the island. The Alaotran
Bamboo Lemur subspecies (Hapalemur griseus alaotrensis) has filled a highly unusual
ecological niche for a primate-it lives in the marshy reedbeds surrounding Lake Alaotra in the
northern central plateau. Mongoose Lemurs are the only lemur found away from mainland
Madagascar, with a population on the nearby Comoros Islands, but this was probably established
by human introductions. All species in the family live in trees, although the Ring-tailed Lemur
(see left) may be best described as semiterrestrial because it spends up to a third of its time on
the ground.
 Left Ring-tailed Lemur females are receptive to mating
for only 24 hours in April each year, then give birth to a single infant in late August. The female
carries the infant on her back for the first two weeks of its life.
PRIMATE PROFILE
TRUE LEMURS
SIZE Head and body length: 11-18 in. (28-46 cm); weight: 2.5-10 lb. (700 g-4.50 kg)
APPEARANCE Thick, woolly fur (color varies between species and sometimes between
sexes); long, bushy tail
HABITAT Scrub and desert; dry and humid forest; bamboo; plantations
DIET Fruit, leaves, seeds, nectar, stems, bamboo, small vertebrates, insects
LIFE HISTORY Gestation: 4-5 months; sexual maturity: 20-30 months; life span: up to
27 years
BEHAVIOR Active at night, during the day, or during both day and night, according to
species; social structure varies; highly vocal; scent used to mark territory
Dwarf and Mouse Lemurs
Scientists have recently uncovered a staggering diversity of dwarf lemurs in the
family Cheirogaleidae, which has grown steadily to include no fewer than 22
species. Among them are the world’s smallest primates-the tiny mouse lemurs.

Above The Pygmy Mouse Lemur weight on average just 1 oz. (30 g).
It is difficult to imagine a primate with a head about the size of a human thumb, but in
Madagascar evolution has sprung come surprises. Primates don’t come more compact than the
mouse lemurs. They are not only the smallest primates; they are also the only ones known to
estivate (become dormant in summer). Some animals become dormant in order to survive cold
conditions (hibernation), but for these tiny lemurs, estivation is a way of coping with food
scarcity during the dry season. This state of decreased activity lasts for up to seven months of the
year.
During the months leading up to estivation, most dwarf and mouse lemurs gorge
themselves, increasing their body weight by as much as 40 percent. Fat-tailed Dwarf Lemurs, as
their name suggests, store this extra fat in their tail, which swells massively to look like a big
sausage. There are some exceptions to this rule: greater mouse lemurs in the genus Mirza do not
estivate; and than in the west, so it follows that dormancy is less common in eastern species.
During the rest of the year, the dwarf, mouse and fork-crowned lemurs that make up the
Cheirogaleidae family are busy scampering around the forests of Madagascar. They are able to
leap between branches, although most seem to prefer quadrupedal locomotion.
Diet and Behavior
The family’s feeding habits are fauni-frugivorous, meaning their diet contains fruit,
flowers and insects in varying amounts. Due to their fondness for fruit and flowers, they play an
important role in the forest as seed dispersers and pollinators. All of these lemurs vary their diet
depending on what is available in different seasons. Fork-crowned and Hairy-eared Dwarf
Lemurs eat lots of tree gum and other discharged substances, known as exudates, scraping them
from the bark of trees using the tooth-comb (a clustered formation of lower canine and incisor
teeth), just as bushbabies do. Their long, narrow tongues help to obtain the sticky exudates, while
specialized bacteria in the cecum (a chamber in the gut) help to digest it. Exudates also make up
a large proportion of the diet of greater mouse lemurs, although usually of the kind secreted by
insects rather than trees. The smaller mouse lemurs feed more on insects. An exception is the
Mittermeier’s Mouse Lemur: its small size would suggest that it should feed on insects, but it
mostly eats fruit. The larger dwarf lemurs are not as carnivorous as their smaller counterparts,
preferring fruit and nectar.
Having woken up after sunset, dwarf and mouse lemurs set out to forage alone, and any
social interactions occur later in the night. Since they are nocturnal animals, sound and smell are
more important than vision to their social life. Their vocalizations include
PRIMATE PROFILE
DWARF AND MOUSE LEMURS
SIZE Head and body length: 5-11 in. (12.5-27.5 cm); weight: 1-17 oz. (30-470 g)
APPEARANCE Short, dense fur; long body, short arms and legs; coat color varies
between species; large eyes
HABITAT Wide range of moist and dry forest habitats
DIET Fruit, gums, leaves, flowers, buds, seeds, insects (and their exudates), small
vertebrates
LIFE HISTORY Poorly known
BEHAVIOR Tree-living, nocturnal, solitary and group foraging; some species have
complex social structures
True Lemurs, Including Bamboo Lemurs
The members of the Lemuridae family form a large and diverse group of species
known as true lemurs, and their classification is a subject of much scientific debate.
Over the years, several lemur forms have been upgraded to full species,
downgraded, presumed extinct and then discovered again, and today the family
may contain up to 20 species, depending on which view you favor. This family
comprises the familiar Ring-tailed Lemur, the charismatic Ruffed Lemurs, the
many subspecies of Brown Lemurs and the highly specialized bamboo lemurs.

Above True to its name, the male Black lemur (left) has a black coat. The female,
however (right), has a brown back and white ear tufts. This species is active by day
and night and feeds upside down on the tips of branches, foraging in groups.
Main true lemur species
The Ring-tailed Lemur is one of the best-studied and the most frequently filmed of all
primates. But despite being well known, this lemur has uncertain taxonomy and its exact position
on the lemur branch of the primate family tree has been much debated. It shares some behavioral
traits with the bamboo lemurs and also with the many Eulemur species, which were originally
classified in the same genus. Ring-tails now stand alone in the genus Lemur. The Eulemur genus,
in contrast, is large and highly diverse, containing as it does the many different subspecies of
Brown Lemur (recent studies suggest some may even be species in their own right). Brown
Lemurs are very flexible in both diet and habitat and therefore are widely distributed across
Madagascar. In contrast, the bamboo, or gentle, lemurs in the Hapalemur genus have specialized
in feeding on bamboo. Last, but certainly not least the Lemuridae includes the beautiful Ruffed
Lemur, which is renowned for its loud, raucous calls.
Most members of the Lemuridae organize themselves into multimale-multifemale groups
that contain anything from 3 to 24 members. The Ring-tailed Lemur forms particularly large and
complex groups with strict social hierarchies, but unlike the other species, a typical group of
Ring-tails consists of a dominant adult female and several males that will later disperse between
various other groups when they reach three to four years of age. The red-bellied Lemur is one of
the few monogamous lemurs, in which bonded pairs actively defend a territory, although
Mongoose and Ruffed Lemurs have occasionally been observed in male-female pairs as well as
in the more usual mixed-sex groups.
One of this family’s many fascinating features is different coloration between the sexes,
known as sexual dichromatism. It can be seen to varying degrees in each species, and is at its
most extreme in the Black Lemur (see left). The color differences in other species are more
subtle-often being restricted to facial markings-while the Common Brown Lemur subspecies
(Eulemur fulvus fulvus) shows no sexual color difference at all. Interestingly, sexual
dichromatism appears to be linked to the degree of female