Lemurs of Madagascar

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Lemurs of Madagascar

• Harlen Vitoff
• Ryan Evans
• Erin Moffett
• Pat Joyce

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Current Lemur Distribution
Lemurs are endemic to Madagascar and the Comoro
Islands Madagascar is located off the
southeastern coast of the Africa in the
southwestern end of the Indian Ocean and the
Comoro Islands are just northeast of
Madagascar The island is made up of two
different regions, Western which is the dryer
side and Eastern the more tropical side. This
determines what type of flora lives where and so
also determines different lemurs distributions.

http//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb
/Comoros_rel91.jpg
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• Distributions range from just a few sightings to
  ranges that cover most of a coast line
• None of the ranges go that far up into the higher
  reaches of the island
• Many over lapping home ranges for the different
  types of lemurs

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Biogeographic History

• Fossil Record
• Prosimians first appeared in the geologic record
  in the last part of Paleocene Epoch and the
  beginning of the Eocence Epoch
• Earliest fossils found in Africa dated around
  60,000,000 years old
• To scarce to draw conclusions about where they
  first evolved

Duke University Lemur Center. Retrieved March 3
2009 From http//www.fossils.duke.edu/research/ma
dImg.html
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Biogeograhic History

• Evolution
• Lemurs are prosimians and are therefore
  considered older, and some would say more
  primitive members of the primate order.
• Lemurs evolved very much on there own and do not
  really have any true evolutionary ancestors.
  Lemurs migrated by rafting on floating
  vegetation early in primate evolution and became
  reproductively isolated from Africa.

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Range Affected by Plate Tectonics or Ice Age?

• Not at all!
• Plate Tectonics
• Madagascar was already separated from Africa by
  hundreds of kilometers before lemurs evolved.
• Ice Ages
• were a non-factor for the lemur.
• Lemurs were not present during any of the major
  ice ages
• Climates were generally warm or mild worldwide
  during later stage of Paleocene and the beginning
  of the Eocene epochs.

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Life History

• Life span up to 20 years
• Live in troops up to 20 strong
• Female dominant society
• Control everything from breeding to grooming
• Arboreal with minimal time spent on ground
• Most lemurs are diurnal but some will become
  nocturnal during different seasons and food
  availability

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Reproduction

• Maturity around 2 years
• Mating season is from April June
• Gestation period is approximately 4-5 months
• Newborns born around monsoon season when food
  availability increases
• 2-6 babies per litter

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Diet

• Primarily herbivores
• Flowers
• Nectar
• Fruits
• Leaves
• Seeds
• A few lemurs will supplement their diet with
  insects, small vertebrates, and birds eggs

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Predators

• Natural
• Fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox)
• Related to mongoose
• Madagascar Harrier-hawk (Polyboroides radiatus)
• Madagascar Buzzard (Buteo Brachypterus)
• Madagascar Ground Boa (Acrantophis
  madagascarienisis)
• Introduced
• Small Indian Civet (Viverricula indica)
• Humans (Homo sapian)
• Domesticated Cats and Dogs

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Current Status

• 32 Species currently living on Madagascar.
• It is believed that there were as many as 49
  species on the Island originally.
• Most lemur species are endangered or vulnerable
• One Hectare of forest lost in Madagascar affects
  global biodiversity more than anywhere else in
  the world.

A Young Ring Tailed Lemur latimesblogs.latimes.com
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Human Impacts

• Deforestation
• 80 of Madagascar forests are set aside for
  logging practices
• From the year 1950-1985 111,000 hectares which is
  roughly 274,286.97 acres of forest land were lost
  
• Agriculture
• Slash and burn farming techniques kill all
  vegetation and topsoil erodes away into the
  rivers
• Hunting
• Not very popular, however is an issue in some
  areas

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Lemur Conservation

• Many reserves and national parks help the
  conservation of Lemurs.
• Protected areas were first established in 1927
• Currently 1,000,000 Ha Set aside as protected
  areas, reserves and parks
• 4,000,000 ha set aside for exploitation, managed
  by the Department of forests and waters.

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Reserves/Resouces

• Although there appear to be many reserves and
  parks, Lemurs are still greatly at risk if
  current policies remain unchanged in Madagascar
• www.ideawild.org- Has funded many explorations
  and field studies of Lemurs.
• Duke University Lemur Center. Focuses on
  understanding of the species, and conservation

www.wildmadagascar.org
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Bibliography

• ONeil, Dennis. The First Primates. 21 March
  2004 lthttp//anthro.palomar.edu/earlyprimates/fi
  rst_primates.htmgt 27 February 2009
• Winkler, Sarah.  "Why do lemurs live only in
  Madagascar?."  08 December 2008. 
  HowStuffWorks.com. lthttp//animals.howstuffworks.c
  om/mammals/lemurs-live-in-madagascar.htmgt  27
  February 2009.
• Culotta, Elizabeth. Many suspects to blame in
  Madagascar Extinctions. 16 June 1995 American
  Association for the Advancement of Science. Vol.
  268. Pp.1568-1569. www.jstor.org/stable/2888616
• Mittermeier, R., I. Tattersall, W.R. Konstant,
  D.M. Meyers and R.B. Mast. 1994. Conservation
  International Tropical Field Guide Series.
  Lemurs of Madagascar Washinton D.C.
  Conservation International
• www.wildmadagascar.org