Fork-crowned lemur
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.png/200px-Katzenmaki_(Chirogaleus_furcifer).png) An Eastern Fork-marked Lemur lithograph from Brehms Tierleben (1860)
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| Lemur furcifer Blainville, 1839 |
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Phaner furcifer |
Fork-crowned lemurs are four lemur species of the genus Phaner.[1] Like all other lemurs, all species in this genus are native to Madagascar. They are named due to the two striking black stripes which run from their eyes to the end of the snout.
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[edit] Description
Fork-crowned lemurs have a body length of 23 to 28 centimeters, a bushy tail of 29 to 37 centimeters and weigh between 0.3 to 0.5 kilograms. Their coat is light brown with a lighter ventral side which are cream, white, or pale brown.[3] These lemurs have a specialised diet of tree sap so their hands and feet are relatively large to get a good hold of the tree trunks.[4] They have long anterior premolars that are caniform and are utilised to extract gum by breaking through tree bark. They have a long tongue which assists obtaining the gum.[5]
[edit] Behaviour
Fork-crowned lemurs are forest dwellers, they can be found both in rainforests as well as in dense trees in savannah areas. They are nocturnal and sleep during the day in tree hollows or on branches. At night they go to search for food, running quadrupedally across branches and leaping up to 10 meters between trees.[5]
These primates are territorial, and require approximately 4 hectares. The territory boundaries are marked with a cutaneous throat gland, this is called allomarking.[4] This prevents different males from inhabiting the same area, while females may overlap. This often leads to the formation of monogamous couples, who sleep and forage together.[4] Fork-crowned lemur are considered very vocal animals, a have a complex range of calls.[4]
Their diet consists mainly of gum from trees in the genus Terminalia[4] and small arthropods for protein.[4]
Fork-crowned lemurs have one infant per season, usually in November or December.(Harcourt and Thornback, 1990) When mature enough, the infant will cling to the stomach of the mother, as it gets older it is transported dorsally.[6] The life expectancy of animals in human care is up to 12 years.
[edit] Conservation
The main threat to these primates is the destruction of their habitat due to forest clearance. According to estimates from the 1990s there are about 1000 to 10,000 individuals left in the wild. The IUCN lists three of the four species as vulnerable, the fourth, the Masoala Fork-crowned Lemur is near threatened.[2]
Fork-crowned lemurs are found in the following Madagascan reserves.
- Ankarana Reserve
- Manongarivo Reserve
- Andranomena Reserve
- Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve
- Tsaratanana Reserve
- Andohahela National Park
- Mt. d'Ambre National Park
- Analabe Reserve (private)
[edit] Species
Like all lemurs, these species are found on the African island of Madagascar.
- Masoala Fork-marked Lemur (Phaner furcifer), found on the Masoala peninsula in the north-east of the island.[7]
- Pale Fork-marked Lemur (Phaner pallescens), found in west of the island.[7]
- Pariente's Fork-marked Lemur (Phaner parienti), found in the Sambirano region in the north-west.[7]
- Mt. d'Ambre Fork-crowned Lemur (Phaner electromontis), found in the Amber Mountain National Park in the far north of the island.[7]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Groves, Colin (16 November 2005). in Wilson, D. E., and Reeder, D. M. (eds): Mammal Species of the World, 3rd edition, Johns Hopkins University Press, 114. ISBN 0-801-88221-4.
- ^ a b Ganzhorn, J. & Members of the Primate Specialist Group (2000). Phaner furcifer. 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2007. Retrieved on 2008-04-01.
- ^ Tattersall, I. (1982). The Primates of Madagascar. Columbia University Press: New York.
- ^ a b c d e f Charles-Dominique, P. and Petter, J.J. (1980). "Ecology and social life of Phaner furcifer in Nocturnal Malagasy Primates: Ecology, Physiology, and Behavior". Academic Press: New York.
- ^ a b Fleagle, J. G. (1988). Primate Adaptation and Evolution. Academic Press.
- ^ Klopfer, P.H. and Boskoff, K.J. (1979). Maternal behavior in prosimians. In The Study of Prosimian Behavior. Academic Press: New York.
- ^ a b c d Groves, C.P. and Tattersall, I. (1991). "Geographical variation in the fork-marked lemur, Phaner furcifer (Primates, Cheirogaleidae)". Folia Primatologica 56: 39–49.
[edit] Further reading
- Goodman, S.M., O' Connor, S., and Langrand, O. (1993). "A review of predation on lemurs: implications for the evolution of social behavior in small, nocturnal primates." Lemur Social Systems and Their Ecological Basis. Plenum Press: New York.
- Harcourt, C. and Thornback, J. (1990). Lemurs of Madagascar and the Comoros. The IUCN Red Data Book. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, U.K.
- Hladik, C.M., Charles-Dominique, and Petter, J.J. (1980). "Feeding strategies of five nocturnal prosimians in the dry forest of the west coast of Madagascar." Nocturnal Malagasy Primates: Ecology, Physiology, and Behavior. Academic Press: New York.
- Petter, J.J. 1978. "Ecolgical and physiological adaptations of five sympatric nocturnal lemurs to seasonal variations in food production." Recent Advances in Primatology, Vol. 1 Academic Press: London.
- Walker, A. 1979. "Prosimian locomotor behavior." The Study of Prosimian Behavior. Academic Press: New York.
