sczlogover.gif (3787 bytes)

© Sedgwick County Zoo, credit: Unknown

Ring-Tailed Lemur

Lemur catta

Physical Characteristics

  • These primates have a long, bushy tail, ringed with black and white and a fox-like muzzle. Their upper parts are brownish gray, and the underparts whitish. The palms are long, smooth and leather-like.
  • Size of average adult
    • weight: 7 - 12 pounds
    • length: 15 - 18 inches (head and body)

Diet

  • Wild: mostly fruits, some leaves and other plant parts, rarely insects

Behavior

  • Primarily diurnal (active in the day)
  • Mostly arboreal (tree dwelling)
  • Found in groups of 12 - 24
  • Sexes have their own hierarchies
  • Males travel between groups
  • Well defined, non-overlapping territories
  • 15 vocalizations
  • Fatty secretions are rubbed on tails by males to disperse a scent during confrontations
  • Reproduction
    • sexual maturity: male = 2.5 years, female = 19.5 months
    • breeding season: April - June
    • gestation: 146 days
    • litter size: 1 - 2
    • Young start eating solids at 2 months and are weaned at 5 months
    • weaned at 5 months

Environmental/Global

  • Habitat: forest dwellers, sometimes found in thinly wooded country
  • Distribution: Madagascar, ranges further into the interior highlands than any other lemur
  • Status: Endangered, CITES Appendix I
    • habitat destruction: industry, plantations, timber, slash and burn agriculture
    • can only survive in primary vegetation
  • Numbers: 160 in SSP (12/90)

Exhibited in: Boat Ride Islands
  Click here to visit the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA). Click here to visit Sedgwick County, Kansas. COPYRIGHT 2004 Sedgwick County Zoo all rights reserved. No part of this website may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any electrical, mechanical, photocopying, recording means or otherwise without prior written permission of the photographer or author. Unless marked otherwise, materials are from the Sedgwick County Zoo. Sedgwick County Zoo is accredited by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA).