The information that is displayed on this post is mostly copied and pasted for external sources that I have discovered when conducting secondary research on Ring Tailed Lemurs.
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Research:
Source 1:
Lemurs
are primates found only on the African island of Madagascar and some tiny
neighboring islands. Because of its geographic isolation, Madagascar is home to
many amazing animals found nowhere else on Earth. Lemurs may have floated there
eons ago on "rafts" of vegetation and evolved in isolation over
countless centuries.
Ring-tailed lemurs are unmistakable
because of their long, vividly striped, black-and-white tail. They are familiar
residents of many zoos.
Lemurs use their hands and feet to
move nimbly through the trees, but cannot grip with their tails as some of
their primate cousins do. Ring-tailed lemurs also spend a lot of time on the
ground, which is unusual among lemur species. They forage for fruit, which
makes up the greater part of their diet, but also eat leaves, flowers, tree
bark, and sap.
Ring-tailed lemurs have powerful
scent glands and use their unique odor as a communication tool and even as a
kind of weapon. Lemurs mark their territory by scent, serving notice of their
presence to all who can smell. During mating season, male lemurs battle for
dominance by trying to outstink each other. They cover their long tails with
smelly secretions and wave them in the air to determine which animal is more
powerful.
Ring-tailed lemurs live in groups
known as troops. These groups may include 6 to 30 animals, but average about
17. Both sexes live in troops, but a dominant female presides over all.
Ring-tailed lemurs are endangered,
largely because the sparse, dry forests they love are quickly vanishing.
Source 2:
Found only in the southern part of Madagascar in
the dry forest and bush, the ring-tailed lemur is a large, vocal primate with
brownish-gray fur and a distinctive tail with alternating black and white
rings.
Male and female ring-tailed lemurs are similar physically. They are roughly
the same size, measuring about 42.5 cm (1.4 ft.) from head to rump and weighing
roughly 2.25 kg (5 lb.).
Highly social creatures, ring-tailed lemurs live in groups averaging 17
members. Their society is female-dominant, and a group will often contain
multiple breeding females. Females reproduce starting at 3 years of age,
generally giving birth to one baby a year.
When born, a ring-tailed lemur baby weighs less than 100 g (3 oz.). The
newborn is carried on its mother’s chest for 1-2 weeks and then is carried on
her back. At 2 weeks, the baby starts eating solid food and begins venturing
out on its own. But the juvenile is not fully weaned until 5 months of age.
Although they are capable climbers, ring-tailed lemurs spend a third of
their time on the ground foraging for food. They range far to find leaves,
flowers, bark, sap, and small invertebrates to eat. When the lemurs travel over
ground, they keep their tails in the air to ensure everyone in the group is in
sight and stays together.
Aside from using visual cues, ring-tailed lemurs also communicate via scent
and vocalizations. They mark their territory by scent. A male lemur will also
engage in stink fights during mating seasons, wiping his tail with the scent
glands on his wrists and waving it at another male while staring menacingly.
Eventually one male will back down and run away.
Vocally, ring-tailed lemurs have several different alarms calls that alert
members to danger. They have several predators, including fossas (mammals
related to the mongoose), Madagascar Harrier-hawks, Madagascar buzzards,
Madagascar ground boas, civets, and domestic cats and dogs.
Ring-tailed lemurs are considered endangered by the IUCN Red List. The main
threat to their population is habitat destruction. Much of their habitat is
being converted to farmland or burned for the production of charcoal. However,
the ring-tailed lemur is popular in zoos, and they do comparatively well in
captivity and reproduce regularly. In captivity, ring-tailed lemurs can live
for nearly 30 years, compared to up to 20 in the wild.
Source 3:
Impossible to confuse with any other lemur
species, the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) is a distinctive primate with a
long, bushy, black-and-white ringed tail. A medium-sized lemur, it is the most
terrestrial of Madagascar’s primates (2) (6).
The ring-tailed lemur’s dense fur is greyish-brown on the back and grey on
the rump and limbs. The underparts are cream to off-white, and the neck and
crown are dark grey. The ring-tailed lemur has a white face with large, dark
triangular patches around the eyes, a dark snout, and large, white, well-furred
ears (2) (6). Dark black skin is visible on the ring-tailed lemur’s nose,
eyelids, lips and feet. This species’ distinctive tail is longer than the head
and body, and is tipped with black. Male and female ring-tailed lemurs are
similar in appearance and body size (6).
The only species in its genus, the ring-tailed lemur receives its genus
name, Lemur, from the Latin for ‘ghost’ or ‘spirit’, and its species name catta
in reference to its cat-like form (6).
Size
Total length: 95 - 110 cm
(2)
Head-body length: 38.5 - 45.5 cm
(2)
Tail length: 56 - 62.5 cm
(2)
Average weight: 2 - 2.4 kg
(3) (
The ring-tailed lemur is a diurnal species (2) (6) and spends much of its
time on the ground, although it is also able to move well through the trees
(6). This lemur can often be seen sunning itself by sitting on its haunches and
spreading its limbs in a yoga-like position, exposing its underside to the sun.
The ring-tailed lemur often sleeps with its nose tucked between its hind legs
and its long tail curled up over its back (6).
The diet of the ring-tailed lemur is quite varied, consisting of fruit,
leaves, flowers, bark and sap (10), as well as large insects and even small
vertebrates such as chameleons (9). This species usually feeds primarily on
fruit, but the exact composition of the diet varies between habitats and
seasons (2) (6). The ring-tailed lemur is also known to supplement its diet by
consuming soil, possibly to increase its sodium intake (6).
A social species, the ring-tailed lemur occurs in larger groups than any
other primate in Madagascar (2). Groups usually contain equal numbers of males
and females, plus their young, and typically number between 3 and 25
individuals (2). Within the group, females are dominant over males (2) (6),
with the ‘alpha female’ forming the focal point of the group as a whole (2).
There are well-defined dominance hierarchies between group members (2).
Ring-tailed lemur groups are not strictly territorial, but do occupy
preferred, overlapping home ranges and show strong territorial defence when
they come into contact with another group. Territorial confrontations are
generally dominated by females, and involve facing off against the opposing
group, sometimes calling and alarm barking and occasionally fighting (2) (6).
After such an encounter, the group will usually retreat towards the safety of
the centre of its home range (2).
Both male and female ring-tailed lemurs use scent marks to mark their home
range. Females use genital smears and males use scent from a wrist gland which
has a horny pad that allows the male to gouge scent into bark (2). The
ring-tailed lemur also communicates using a wide range of vocalisations (6).
Mating in the ring-tailed lemur is highly synchronous, taking place over a
short period in mid-April (2) (6). The young are then born around September (2)
(6) (9), after a gestation period of about 130 to 144 days (6), with this
careful timing ensuring that the young lemurs are weaned just as food becomes
most plentiful (2) (9). Male ring-tailed lemurs compete for access to females
by daubing their tails with scent from their wrist glands and wafting this
pungent odour towards their opponent (2) (6) (9). These ‘stink fights’ are
usually sufficient to establish rank, but physical aggression can also occur
(2) (9).
The female ring-tailed lemur occasionally gives birth to twins, but a single
infant is more common. The young lemur clings to the female’s underside at
first, but after two weeks or so it moves around to ride on the female’s back,
and begins to explore its environment (2) (6). The ring-tailed lemur reaches
sexual maturity at about 2.5 to 3 years old, and females usually give birth
once a year (2) (6). Female ring-tailed lemurs rarely leave the group into
which they were born, but males leave the group on reaching maturity, and will
continue to move between groups every three to five years throughout their
lives (2) (6) (9).
In the wild, the ring-tailed lemur is thought to live for up to 15 or 16
years (6). Predators of this species include the fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox),
Madagascar harrier-hawk (Polyboroides radiatus) and Madagascar buzzard (Buteo
brachypterus) (2) (6).
The ring-tailed lemur is endemic to south and southwest Madagascar, where it
is patchily distributed from Tolagnaro in the southeast to just south of
Morondava on the west coast, and inland as far as Ambalavao (1) (2) (6) (7). An
apparently isolated population occurs in the Andringitra Massif on the
south-eastern plateau (
The ring-tailed lemur is found in a broader range of habitats than any other
lemur species, and can tolerate a variety of extreme environments that other
lemurs cannot (9), including some of the hottest, driest and coldest in
Madagascar (1). It is commonly found in spiny forest, lowland gallery forest,
dry scrub, dry deciduous forest and even rock canyons (1) (2) (6) (9).
Although the ring-tailed lemur generally occurs at low elevations (2) (9),
the population in the Andringitra Massif is found at higher elevations,
occurring above the tree line at around 2,600 metres in one of the most
climatically extreme areas in Madagascar. Its habitat there includes exposed
rock, low bushes and subalpine vegetation (8).
Despite being a well-studied species and an iconic symbol of Madagascar (9),
the ring-tailed lemur is thought to be at serious long-term risk of extinction
(2). The greatest threat to this species comes from widespread habitat loss,
with its bush and forest habitats being reduced by a combination of burning,
overgrazing and wood harvesting for charcoal production (1) (2) (6).
The ring-tailed lemur is also hunted for food in many areas, and individuals
are often trapped and kept as pets (1) (2) (6).
The ring-tailed lemur is classified as Endangered (EN) on the IUCN Red List
(1) and is listed on Appendix I of CITES (5).
Unfortunately, despite being protected by national and international law,
the ring-tailed lemur is still at risk from illegal hunting and from the
effects of habitat loss. It is commonly kept in captivity and is seen in many
zoos around the world, as well as being a common sight in some of Madagascar’s
most visited reserves, but this may give the public a false impression of its
abundance (6).
The ring-tailed lemur is found in a number of protected areas across its
range, including six national parks, and many of the best remaining patches of
forest within its range are found on sacred lands (1). International trade in
the ring-tailed lemur is banned under its listing on Appendix I of the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) (5).The isolated population of ring-tailed lemurs in Andringitra occurs within
the Andringitra National Park. Further surveys of this population have been
recommended, together with the development of a system to control the fires
that threaten the habitat of this iconic Madagascan primate (8).
Source 4:
Ringtailed lemurs (Lemur catta) are the most
intensely studied of all the lemurs: they are also the most easily recognizable
lemur and the most common in captivity. They are also the most terrestrial of
all the lemurs. Although widely distributed throughout the dry forests of
southwestern Madagascar (some of the hottest, driest and least hospitable
forests in the country), they exist in only a few protected areas.
Unfortunately, the sparse, level
forests inhabited by ringtails are easily felled by even the most primitive of
tools. Hence ringtailed habitat is shrinking at an alarming rate. In fact,
satellite images suggest that ringtailed lemur habitat is vanishing at an even
greater rate than forest habitat in other parts of Madagascar.
Male ringtails are equipped with
scent glands on their wrists which are used in “stink fighting” with a rival
male. Here, two males stand facing each other a few feet apart and, repeatedly
drawing their tails through these glands, they proceed to wave the tails over
their heads, all the while staring in a hostile fashion at their rival.
Eventually, one of the males will break down and run away. During breeding
season in the N.C. autumn, competition between the normally “laid back” males
becomes fierce as they fight for the right to breed. Like the other diurnal
lemurs, ringtails are seasonal breeders, and their matings and births (which
occur in the fall and spring) are highly synchronized. All infants in a large
troop may be born in a matter of days.
Due to the large number of L.
catta in captivity, the ringtailed SSP calls for only a few breeding pairs of
animals each year so that precious captive breeding space can be occupied by
the rarer species of lemurs.
Their diet consists of fruit,
leaves, flowers, bark, sap and the occasional invertebrate. Due to the fact
that vegetation in forests inhabited by these lemurs is sparse and
non-continuous, they are often found traveling on the ground. As an adaptation
to survival in a harsh climate, the ringtails range far and feed from a wide
variety of vegetation.
Ringtailed females usually give birth first
at three years of age and produce offspring annually thereafter. In the wild,
mating begins in mid-April with infants born in August and September. Single
infants are most common, but twins are a frequent sight in ringtail troops when
food is plentiful. Initially, infants cling to their mother’s bellies, but can
be seen riding, jockey style, on their backs after approximately three weeks.
Infants begin to sample solid food after their first week, and will take their
first steps away from mom at 3 – 4 weeks. Over the next five months, infants
will spend increasing amounts of time on their own, returning to mom to nurse
or sleep, until they are finally weaned at 5 – 6 months of age.
Ringtail groups are larger than any other
lemur group, containing up to 24 animals (the DLC has two large free-ranging
groups of these animals, each containing about ten individuals).
There is a well-defined hierarchy within
the group. Females are dominant over all males with the alpha female forming
the focal point for the group as a whole. Females live in one group their
entire lives, while males migrate from group to group.
When ringtailed troops travel throughout
their home range, they keep their tails raised in the air, like flags, to keep
group members together. Constant vocalizations among members also keep the
group together. Ringtailed lemurs are one of the most vocal primates. They have
several different alarm calls to alert members of their group to potential
danger.
Ringtailed lemurs are found in south and
southwestern Madagascar, from Fort-Dauphin west and as far north as Morandava on
the west coast. A small additional population lives near the mountains of
Andringitra on the southeastern plateau.
The gallery forests that ringtailed lemurs
prefer are rapidly being converted to farmland, overgrazed by livestock, and
harvested for charcoal production. Ringtailed lemurs are also hunted for food
in certain areas of their range and are frequently kept as pets. Fortunately,
ringtails are found in several protected areas in southern Madagascar, but the
level of protection varies widely in these areas, offering only some
populations refuge from hunting and habitat loss.
Ringtailed lemurs breed very well in
captivity, and over 1000 can be found at approximately 140 zoos around the
world. The Duke Lemur Center currently houses 35 animals – 15 males and 20
females – with two breeding groups.
