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 Madagascar |
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Lemurs are in the monkey family.
There are different kinds of lemur.
Some kinds have big eyes.
Some kinds sleep in the day and move about at night.
Some kinds move about in the day and sleep at night.
There are 88 different species of Lemur (say lee-muh), all found only on the island of Madagascar, near Africa. The smallest is the Pygmy Mouse Lemur (weighing 30 grams) and the largest is the Indri (weighing 10 kilos).
The Ring-tailed
Lemur spends
almost half the day on the ground, unlike the other species, which
are almost completely arboreal (living in the trees). The Ring-tailed
Lemur, called Maki by the Malagasy (which is what people of Madagascar are called), travels on all fours and can often be seen sitting in the sun. It sits with its tail used for balance, and with its arms either outstretched or placed on its knees.
Its body is grey, with a long black-and-white
striped tail. It is about the size of a domestic cat: Head and
body about 42.5cm long, black and white striped tail 60cm long,
and weight: about 3.5kg.
Ring-tailed lemurs are found in groups of 3 - 25. Females remain for their whole life in the group into which they were born, and are the dominant animals over males. Males may change groups when they reach maturity. The groups range over a large area each day in search of food and are often aggressive towards other groups where their areas meet.
Ring-tailed lemurs have scent glands on their wrists and chests and they use these to mark their territory. Males have a spur on each wrist gland that they use to pierce tree branches before scent marking them. When a Ring-tailed group travels through their territory, they keep their tails raised in the air as signals to help keep the group together. They have several different alarm calls to alert members of their group to dangers.
Ring-tailed lemurs are found in south and southwestern Madagascar in arid, open areas and forests. There are a small number near the mountains on the southeastern plateau. They eat fruit, leaves, flowers and other plant parts, occasionally insects and small vertebrates. They live for 20 - 25 years.
Ring-tailed females
usually give birth 134 - 138 days after mating. They usually have
just 
one young each time,
but when food is plentiful, twins are not uncommon. At first,
young cling to their mothers, hanging on in front. After about
two weeks the young ride on their mother's back. They begin to
try solid food when they are just one week old. They begin to
spend increasing amounts of time away from their mother from about
4 weeks, returning to suckle her milk until they are finally weaned
at about 6 months of age.
The Sifaka are tremendously agile. These arboreal lemurs leap more than 9 metres from branch to branch or tree to tree. If they do go onto the ground to pick up fruit or cross open space, they leap along the ground on hind legs with arms outspread.
Sifaka Lemur
The Indri is the tallest of the
Lemurs, and the Malagasy believe it to be magical, a human changed
into this form after death. It only eats leaves, and it eats a
large variety of different kinds of leaf in order to balance its
diet. The Indri lives in small groups, and makes incredibly loud
noises. This species of Lemur is critically endangered.
Bamboo Lemurs are so named because bamboo forms a large part of its diet. There are three different Bamboo Lemurs: the grey, the greater and the golden, which is extremely rare. They occupy different habitats in Madagascar.
The
Aye-aye is a species of lemur,
known by the Malagasy as Hay-Hay, Ahay or Aiay.
Lemurs are endangered because of habitat loss: the places where they live are gradually being cut down.
Go here to find out more about lemurs
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/Primates/Facts/FactSheets/Lemurs/
Next page: Reptiles and Birds on
Madagascar
Acknowledge
this source in your bibliography like this:
Madagascar
(2004).
[Online], Available: www.kidcyber.com.au
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Updated January 2007