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Ring-tailed lemur - LEMUR CATTA
Endangered
Class: Animals with Milk Glands (Mammalia)
The word "Lemur": "Lemur" is Latin for "ghostlike," coined by Linneaus (the man who started naming animals in Latin), because it has a ghostlike face and it is active at night.
Description: This is a cat-sized animal with a fairly agile, sleek body and pointed snout. The soft, relatively long coat is gray with reddish coloring on top, and very pale on the underside. It has clearly marked black and white rings on its long tail - and thus its name. On its forearms there are glands which secrete a strong-smelling substance. Length of head and body about 17 in, tail about 20 in; weight 5 to 8 lbs.
Location: Madagascar.
Habitat: Terrestrial. Rocky mountains with sparse vegetation.
Behavior: Mainly active by day, this lemur lives principally on the ground. It feeds on wild fruit, leaves, and flowers. It holds fruit with its front feet and bites into it with its molars, holding its head in such a way that the juice falls directly into its mouth. The ring-tailed lemur lives in large groups, with approximately equal numbers of each sex. When the weather is cold these animals draw close to each other to generate warmth, and they also sun themselves in the treetops. The territory is marked by using the secretion of the glands on the forearm and in the anal region. It spends a great deal of time preening and cleaning its coat, combing it with its lower incisor teeth and its claws.
Reproduction: During the mating season, aggression increases in the otherwise social males, involving loud vocalizations and "stink fights" involving their tail and forearm glands. The female usually gives birth to a single young in March or April, after a gestation period of 120 to 136 days. The young are suckled for about six months.
Go to the Primates Page to learn more about the other man-like animals.
Go to the Index to compare the various lemurs found in America Zoo.
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