Ring Tailed Lemur

The only place ring-tailed lemurs are found in the wild is Madagascar, specifically the southwestern regions. They live in arid, open areas and forests. Ring-tailed lemurs live in groups of three to twenty five. These lemur groups have territories that range from 15 to 57 acres. Lemur groups can be hostile to each other at the borders of their territories.

Both females and males live together in the groups. Females will generally stay in their birth group, while males will find a different one when they grow up. Like gibbons, female ring-tailed lemurs are the dominant ones in a group, which is unusual with primates.

A unique thing that ring-tailed lemurs do on a regular basis is sunbathing. The forest can get cold at night, so groups of lemurs will sit with their bellies facing the sun to warm up before they forage.

Ring-tailed lemurs mainly eat insects, flowers, and leaves; though they can also eat fruit, herbs, and small animals.

The gestation period for ring-tailed lemurs is four and a half months. Usually, only one baby is born, but when food is plentiful twins can come. Baby ring-tails eat solid food after a week. They are completely weaned at about five or six months.


The photo was taken by me at the Syracuse Zoo. More zoo animals a-coming!
Info source: http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/Primates/Facts/FactSheets/Lemurs/RingtailedLemur/default.cfm