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>Home >Travel Destinations >Library Articles >Leaping Lemurs! |
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Leaping Lemurs! |
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All of Madagascar's mammals, 225 of its 257 species of reptiles, and nearly 80% of its plants are found nowhere else in the world, making this truly a naturalist's treasure trove. The jewels in the crown of Madagascar's endemic, richly diverse wildlife are its lemurs. Furry, monkey-like animals with foxy faces, many are vividly patterned. Like humans, they are primates. More precisely, they are prosimians - lower primates - a group which also includes the bushbabies and lorises of mainland Africa. When Gondwanaland split apart and Madagascar drifted away from its mother continent, Africa, lemurs were among the few groups of mammals that managed to cross the ever-widening body of water known as the Mozambique Channel. Soon, geologically speaking, Madagascar became so isolated that she served as an evolutionary refuge for designs that nature had long since abandoned in other places. Due to a paucity of predators and absence of monkeys, the less competitive prosimians were able to branch out into a profusion of conspicuous, troop-forming, mostly diurnal species. There are three to five families of lemurs (depending on one's preference for splitting these things) with 12-13 living genera and six extinct genera, about 26 living species and 12 extinct. Living species vary from the size of mice to that of chimpanzees. An extinct species, Megaladapis, was the biggest of all and may have weighed about 440 pounds! The most bizarre of all the lemur species living today is certainly the Aye-aye which became the model for the film creation "E.T." The size of a fox, the Aye-aye has a bushy tail, huge bat-like ears, rabbit-like teeth and an elongated skeletal finger. Among the many reserves which our Madagascar expeditions visit, one of our favorites is Berenty. Set aside by the Monsieur de Heaulme family as a reserve and study site for both researchers and visitors, six species of lemurs thrive here. They have grown accustomed to humans and even the females carrying babies are easily approachable. In fact, while being researched lemurs get so used to "their" scientist that when the observer gets up to leave they meow - the same contact call made when the troop itself splits up. The most striking of the Berenty lemurs is the ring-tailed, with its raised black-and-white striped tail and its characteristic swaying motion. The ring-tailed lemur has a peculiar sitting habit when resting or warming up: resting on its posterior with its tail used to balance itself, arms either outstretched or balanced on its knees, it looks more like a reflective Buddha than a prosimian. Although unusual for primates, it is the female that is dominant in all lemur species. The males show their prowess, particularly before mating season, by performing "stink fights." The females do not appear impressed by this "show" and make their own choice of mates, sometimes even choosing a male that does not belong to their pack. In contrast to ring-tailed lemurs, which spend three-quarters of their time on the ground, the sifaka are tree dwellers and fantastic jumpers. They have a remarkable ability to bound from tree to tree, bouncing off limbs like big, fuzzy billiard balls. Should they venture onto the ground to pick up some fallen kily fruit or to cross a large open space in the forest, their habit of jumping is quite spectacular. The sifaka gracefully sways along the ground from side to side on his hind legs while keeping both arms outspread horizontally as if walking a tight-rope in a circus. Many visitors to this amazing country become enchanted by their experiences and understand more fully the Malagasy proverb, "The soul makes the man." Madag |
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Zegrahm & Eco Expeditions — Your Adventure Travel Experts Call us toll-free at 1-800-628-8747 / 206-285-4000, e-mail us at zoe@zeco.com, or see your professional travel agent. Zeco Travel Talk — A Community Blog for Zegrahm & Eco Expeditions Travelers Zegrahm & Eco Expeditions — Giving You The World |