Ring Tailed Lemur Research Paper

The island of Madagascar, off the east coast of Africa, is home to many endemic species of plants and animals since of its relative isolation after it split from India around 88 million years ago (Ratsirarson 2003). A primate who is native to the island of Madagascar is the Lemur Catta, also known as the ring-tailed lemur. Lemur Catta are endemic to southern and southwestern Madagascar, with an additional population on the southeastern plateau of the Andringita Mountains. The ring tailed lemur’s classification is of the following, Domain: Eukaryota, Kingdom: Animalia, Phylum: Chordata, Subphylum: Vertebrata, Class: Mammalia, Order: Primates, Family: Lemuridae, Genus: Lemus, and Specific Epithet: Lemur Catta. The reason why this species of
Lemur is so familiar is due to its recognizable appearance. Lemur Catta has black skin, mostly covered by fur with white patches on their faces, ears, and underbelly.
They are most known for their long tails which have a fur pattern of alternating black and white rings. Male Ring-tailed lemurs have black scent glands on their wrists and chest in which they use during mating season. These Lemurs also have heterodant teeth, which is well adapted for their diet of fruits, seeds and leaves. Ring-tailed Lemurs are also active, tree-dwelling primates with a cat like nose, whiskers, and amber colored bead-like eyes. Although Lemurs do not have exceptional eyesight, they do have a great sense of smell with had adapted to recompensate for its other senses. L. Catta have bilateral symmetry, with a head and body length of 385 to 455 mm. Their most noticeable characteristic, their tail, is actually longer than their body, measuring 560 to 624 mm. Their tails have also been engineered for better balance when jumping from branch to branch. Individuals only weigh between 2.3 and 3.5 kg therefore making it easy for them to maneuver through trees. Another great adaptation that they have developed for tree climbing is the long nails on their fingers and toes in order to have a better grasp on tree
branches. Although Ring-tailed Lemurs do spend most of their time in trees, out of all of the Lemur species they spend the most time on the ground.
Their quadrupedal locomotion allows them to travel by foot, on the ground, while other Lemur species travel by jumping from tree to tree. Although they do prefer gallery forests their habitat also varies to open brush/scrub forests. (Grskey and K.A.I. 127-146). Of course, the range in L. Catta’s habitat size is directly proportional to the growth in need of resources and deforestation caused by humans. These lemurs are “frugivorous/folivorous primates that can shift their diet toward either leaves or fruits as one main food category in different seasons” depending on the season and what is available (Mowry B. and Campbell L. ) They have also been seen eating termites and other small insects in rare occasions. This flexibility in food source is an adaptation to their variable
habitat.
Once waking some of the ring-tailed behavior consists of daily sun bathing between breakfast and lunch and grooming. Since they are social animals usually stay in groups ranging from 12-24 individuals, called a troop. With females being dominant to males their usually is a single, top ranking females which directs the group. This female’s dominance is referred to female philopatry. Their days consist of eating, sleeping, sun bathing, and grooming each other. Just like in apes and monkey, the act of grooming is a form of bonding and creating a friendship. Males have a separate dominance hierarchy based on age. During mating season, the male in his prime, will be the central male who interacts more with females than the other males. The mating season is the time when the most fighting occurs. Females compete among themselves for space and resources, and males fight for reproductive access to females. These fights include the infamous stink fights, where males rub their tails with scents from glands in their wrists and genitals, and then aim their tails at their opponents. Females are in estrus for less than one day, and a normal gestation period is 4 to 4.5 months after which females have viviparous birth of 1 or 2 offspring. The young are born altricial; therefore they hang on their mother’s abdomen, until they are around 5 months old (Tuttle 86-99).
Ring-tailed lemurs avoid predation by watching, making alarm calls, and “mobbing” potential predators. The act of “mobbing” is referred to all members of the troop begin to make their loud call which may annoy and distract the predator. Likely predators for these lemurs include domestic dogs, hawks, raptors, fossas, and of course humans. Although ring-tailed lemurs do not have many predators, they are a threatened species in Madagascar due to the loss of habitat from fires, overgrazing by livestock, and tree cutting for charcoal production. The fact that they are also endemic to Madagascar also hinders this species variability. Since the arrival of humans into the island, about 80% of the total forest cover has been lost due to extraction of precious hardwoods, fuel wood and other products as well as to clear land for agricultural and grazing lands (Mowry B. and Campbell L. ). Forests are also destroyed by fires ignited to clear grasslands. At higher elevations, where the soil quality is much better, the forests on which ring-tailed lemurs depend are threatened by slash-and-burn agriculture, fires that burn uncontrollably, and exploitation of firewood. Population density is directly linked to habitat quality, and as these forests are destroyed, ring-tailed lemur populations are unable to recover. For this reason, they have become an endangered species. There are many conservation efforts on progress, such as the Lemur Conservation Foundation and the Madagascar Fauna Group (Mittermeier et al. 1994). Laws have been implemented to protect all Lemurs from being captured, exploited, and hunted however, they are not sufficiently enforced. Since they are easily bred and raised in captivity there has been much success of captive breeding programs. This has been vital in restocking lemur populations that have dropped significantly. Even though there are a lot of conservation strategies, if their habitat continues to be destroyed, this species will eventually become extinct.
Literature Cited
Grskey, Sharon, and Nekaris K.A.I. Primate Anti-Predator Strategies. Oxford, UK: Library of Congress Control N Ratsirarson J. 2003. Conservation: Réserve Spécial de Beza
Mahafaly. In: In: Goodman, SM, Benstead JP, editors. The natural history of Madagascar. Chicago: Univ Chicago Pr. p 1520-5. umber, 2007. 127-146. Print.Mittermeier RA,
Mittermeier RA, Konstant WR, Nicoll ME, Langrand O. 1992. Lemurs of Madagascar: an action plan for their conservation 1993-1999. Gland ( Switzerland ): IUCN. 58 p.
Mowry, C.B. and J.L. Campbell (2001), Nutrition. In: Ring-tailed Lemur (Lemur catta)
Husbandry Manual. American Association of Zoos and Aquariums
Robles, Mike. Endangered Ring-Tailed Lemur. 2010. Photograph. Academic Dictionaries and EncyclopediasWeb. 13 May 2013. .
Tattersall I, Konstant WR, Meyers DM, Mast RB. 1994. Lemurs of Madagascar. Washington DC: Conserv Intl. 356 p.
Tuttle, Russwell L. Ringtailed Lemur Biology. Chicago, Illinois : Springer Science Business Media, LLC, 2006. 86-99. Print.

Ring-tailed Lemur
(Lemur Catta)

(Robles)