Ring-Tailed Lemur (Lemur catta) of Madagascar

Geographers consider Madagascar the world’s fourth-largest island and 47th-largest country. The island-country demands access either by plane or ship. Less than 200 miles (321.87 kilometers) away, the southeast African country of Mozambique nowadays functions as Madagascar’s nearest continental neighbor. But anciently it is what became India, Kenya, Sri Lanka, and Tanzania that shared proximity to what is now Madagascar.

With the ancient super-continent Gondwana’s break-up less than 90,000,000 years ago, Madagascar moved into a position of biogeographical isolation. The ancestors of all lemurs resided just about everywhere except Antarctica until about 30,000,000 years ago. They then were beaten and starved in all territorial ranges by non-resource-sharing monkeys who nevertheless could not cross the Mozambique Channel to Madagascar.

Madagascar’s 228,900 square miles (592,848.28 square kilometers) currently can be divided into drier and wetter sections.

• Broad-leaved, moist tropical forests cluster along Madagascar’s eastern coastal lowlands up to elevations 2,624.67 feet (800 meters) above sea level.
• Minimal broad-leaved, moist, subhumid, tropical forests still embellish the central highlands with closed-canopy evergreen and open-canopy woodland patches at elevations 1,968.50 – 5,905.51 feet (600+ - 1,800+ meters) above sea level.
• Dry deciduous, spiny forests and drought-tolerant shrublands up to elevations of 2,624.67 feet (800 meters) give way to mangrove swamps on the western coast.

The ring-tailed lemur is adaptable to all of the above-mentioned forested and wooded habitats.

Adaptability additionally surfaces among Andringitra National Park’s treeless rocky outcrops and vertical cliffs.

Within their sylvan habitats, ring-tailed lemurs are arboreal nocturnally and terrestrial diurnally. They begin their days with lotus-postured, meditative-like, opened-palm sunbaths to warm up in the cool morning. They couple up for mutual grooming with comb-like lower canines and incisors after and before self-grooming with the longest, second toe of each rear foot’s claw-like nail. In family-defined groups forming orderly files and holding tails vertically, they exercise and forage mornings and afternoons for:

• Bark, flowers, fruits, sap, and seeds of benono (Acacia rovumae), kily (Tamarindus indica), and voleli (Neotina isoneura) trees;
• Herbs;
• Protein-filled insects and small vertebrates.

Adult females intimidate terrestrial predators and rivals with deafening, frontally-launched howls while adult males prepare stink-bombs impacting 10+-foot (3.05-meter) radiuses.

Family groups generally contain:

• 6 adult females;
• 4+ pre-adult females and males;
• 2 - 4 adult males.

They typically control overlapping home ranges of 14.83+ riverside forest acres (6 hectares) and 59.31 dry scrubland acres (24 hectares). Their success converges upon:

• Female decision-making;
• Resource availability.

August to October, each group’s adult females in fact deliver 1 – 2 offspring measuring 4 inches (10.16 centimeters) and weighing 1.76 – 2.82 ounces (50 – 80 grams) apiece within 2-week spans after:

• Breeding April to June;
• Gestating 130 – 144 days.

Newborns experience:

• 3 days of clinging to the mother’s stomach;
• 11 days of looking like a belt around the mother’s stomach;
• 2-1/4 months of straddling the mother’s back;
• 2-3/4 – 3-3/4 months of weaning. 

Pre-adults achieve physical maturity at 18+ months (and sexual maturity at 18 – 30 months) with:

• Dental formulas of 4 incisors, 2 canines, 6 premolars, and 6 molars per lower and upper jaw;
• Head-and-body lengths of 15 – 18 inches (38.1 – 45.72 centimeters);
• Tail lengths of 22 – 24 inches (55.88 – 60.96 centimeters);
• Weights of 6.5 – 7.5 pounds (2.95 – 3.41 kilograms).

From Tolagnaro northwestward and Ambalavao westward to Belo sur Mer, they blend into lush, rocky, or scrubby niches. Their camouflage involves:

• Black, fox-like, moist muzzle;
• Black triangle-ringed, forward-facing, orange-/red-brown eyes with yellow-white eyeshine;
• Forward-facing, triangular-shaped, white-furred ears;
• Grey crown and nape;
• Grey to grey-brown limbs, rump, sides;
• Red-brown back;
• White cheeks, forehead, lower-sides, tail with 13 – 14 black rings.

Ring-tailed lemurs benefit from long-term group learning and solidarity. They bring unexpected weapons to their sustainability. They practice avoidance by employing:

• Anal- and arm-located scent glands for gagging emissions and escape-route markings;
• Deeply-ridged, leather-like, long, smooth palms and soles for infallible footing over slippery branches and steep rocks;
• Each hand’s hallux (“big toe”) and each foot’s pollex (“thumb”) opposable to four human-like nailed digits for firmly fleeting holds on moving vines and spiny vegetation (Alaudia, Aloe, Euphorbia, Kalanchoe, Opuntia, Xerisicyos);
• Individual-specific vocalizations (6 infant calls trilling mothers or whitting/yelping stree and 22 adult calls chirping, hmm-ing, huh-ing, meowing strategy; purring victory; rasping, shrieking threats);
• Plush tail for gracefully perfect balance;
• Strong hind-limbs for unerringly 32.81-foot (10-meter) leaps.

The Malagasy call ring-tailed lemurs hira and maky. They concur with the Ministry of the Environment and Forests-supervised Madagascar National Parks in considering ring-tailed lemurs national symbols. They find worldwide concern continuing unabated since:

• Samuel Purchas’s (1575?/1577? – 1626) passing descriptions in 1625;
• Carl Linnaeus’s (May 23, 1707 – January 10, 1778) scientific categorization of the genus Lemur in 1758;
• Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas’s (February 21, 1858 – June 16, 1929) scientific support for the species catta in 1911.

They therefore know that captive reintroductions will realize sustainability if ring-tailed lemurs imminently go extinct in their native southern Madagascar’s habitats super-fragmented by:

• Charcoal producers;
• Meat- and pelt-hunters;
• Predatory buzzards (Buteo brachypterus), ground-boas (Acrantophis madagascariensis), and harrier-hawks (Polyboroides radiatus);
• Slash-and-burn agro-industrialists.

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

K. Samonds et al. "Imperfect Isolation." PLOS ONE, vol. 8, issue 4 (April 2013), Figure 3: PLOS ONE, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Biogeographic_timetable_of_Madagascar_-_journal.pone.0062086.g003.png

Madagascar range map template: Alex Dunkel (Maky); IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, species assessors and the authors of the spatial data, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lemur_catta_range_map.svg

Wingham Wildlife Park, Kent, England: Keven Law from Los Angeles, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ringtailed_lemurs.jpg

Berenty Reserve, southern Madagascar: David Dennis, CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ringtailed_Lemurs_in_Berenty.jpg; David Dennis (DavidDennisPhotos.com), CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/50852241@N00/2479239444

Toothcomb of a Lemur catta; taken during a routine physical examination: Alex Dunkel (Maky), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lemur_catta_toothcomb.jpg

Berenty Private Reserve in Madagascar: Alex Dunkel (Maky), CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lemur_catta_-_tail_length_01.jpg

Dierenpark, Gelderland province, central eastern Netherlands: Tim Strater (Tim Sträter), CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/41601691@N02/8097907255/

George Shaw, Museum Leverianum (1792), opposite page 43: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/29568778

Infant clings underneath mother (right) in lemur procession; Berenty Reserve, southern Madagascar: Alex Dunkel (Maky), CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lemur_catta_003.jpg

Andringitra National Park, southeastern Madagascar: Chris (Effervescing Elephant), CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Andringitra,_Madagascar_by_Effervescing_Elephant-09.jpg

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