Meet the Animal Park's Ring-Tailed Lemurs

NATIVE RANGE

Only found on the African island of Madagascar.

DIET

The diet of the ring-tailed lemur consists mainly of fruit, leaves, flowers, bark, and sap, as well as insects.

BEHAVIOR

Diurnal. A dominant female presides over all the lemurs of the troop (the name for a group of lemurs, averaging around 17), which means they have preferential access to food and choice of mate.

FASCINATING FACTS

• There are more than 100 different species of lemurs, making up one of the most threatened mammal groups on earth. The ring-tailed lemur is classified as endangered. The forests these lemurs prefer are vanishing due to conversion to livestock pasture or being harvested for charcoal.
• The average weight for adults is about 6 pounds. Their bodies are up to around 18 inches long, and their tails—which usually feature 13 alternating black-and-white bands—can be 2 feet long.
• Ring-tailed lemurs are primitive primates, or prosimians (meaning “pre-apes/ monkeys”). They have thumbs but their hands aren’t as dextrous as monkeys’, and their tail is not prehensile. Prosimian primates like lemurs have been around longer than anthropoid primates like monkeys or humans. The first prosimians likely evolved around 55 million years ago, the first anthropoids around 45 million ago.