Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Crowned lemurs, Eu­le­mur coro­na­tus, are found ex­clu­sively in the north of Mada­gas­car. More specif­i­cally, their range stretches from the north­ern most point of Cap d'Ambre to the Fanam­bana River in the south of this re­gion. This species ex­tends west­ward as far as the town of Am­bilobe on the Sam­bi­rano River, and its range hugs the coast­line on the east.

• Biogeographic Regions
• ethiopian
  • native

• Other Geographic Terms
• island endemic

Habi­tat

Crowned lemurs are found in the dry forests of of Cap d'Ambre and Sakalava. They are also found on the slopes of Mt. d'Ambre but their den­si­ties de­crease at higher el­e­va­tions. This is pos­si­bly due to the in­crease in hu­mid­ity at these el­e­va­tions. In the forests of Ankarana, these lemurs are found more fre­quently in the canopy for­est as op­posed to the edges or de­graded for­est areas.

• Habitat Regions
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• forest
• scrub forest

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Crowned lemurs av­er­age about the size of a small house cat. The head and body length is ap­prox­i­mately 34 cm; tail length is 45 cm; cra­nial length is 8 cm; and ear length is 4 cm. This species is named be­cause of the char­ac­ter­is­tic crown shaped hair col­oration on the top of heads. This patch of hair is usu­ally or­ange. Other color pat­terns in the pelage re­flect slight sex­ual di­mor­phism, with males hav­ing brown gray bod­ies, dark tails, gray faces, and black noses, and fe­males hav­ing a dis­tinctly lighter col­oration with white bel­lies.

The lower 6 in­cisors and ca­nines form a den­tal comb, which is typ­i­cal for all lemurs.

Also typ­i­cal of all lemurs is the long tail, which is used for bal­ance. This tail is not pre­hen­sile. In both males and fe­males, the tail dark­ens dis­tally.

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes colored or patterned differently
• male more colorful

• Range mass

  0 to 0 kg

  0.00 to 0.00 lb

• Average mass

  2 kg

  4.41 lb

• Average length

  34 cm

  13.39 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Crowned lemurs are polyg­y­nous, but with lit­tle in­tra­sex­ual se­lec­tion among males. It has been sug­gested that this, along with the ab­sence of a male size ad­van­tage, has fa­cil­i­tated the evo­lu­tion of the pat­tern of fe­male dom­i­nance that is ob­served in these lemurs.

• Mating System
• polygynous

Ges­ta­tion length is roughly 125 days. Mat­ings occur in late May and June, re­sult­ing in births be­tween mid Sep­tem­ber and Oc­to­ber. Ear­lier births co­in­cide with the first rain­falls. Early births also tend to occur in nu­tri­tion­ally richer, wet­ter areas. Con­versely, later births seem to occur in drier forests where fruit avail­abil­ity is low. Sin­gle in­fants and twins ap­pear to be equally com­mon.

Nurs­ing con­tin­ues until 5 to 6 months of age. Sex­ual ma­tu­rity in crowned lemurs is reached at ap­prox­i­mately 20 months.

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• viviparous

• Breeding interval

  These lemurs are capable of breeding annually.

• Breeding season

  Matings occur in late May and June.

• Range number of offspring

  1 to 2

• Average number of offspring

  1.5

  AnAge

• Average gestation period

  125 days

• Average gestation period

  126 days

  AnAge

• Range weaning age

  5 to 6 months

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  20 months

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
  Sex: female

  608 days

  AnAge

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  20 months

In­fants ride on their moth­ers' bel­lies for the first 3 weeks, shift­ing to nurse and some­times mov­ing to the back later on. Fe­males nurse their young until they are 5 to 6 months old. The role of males in parental care has not been doc­u­mented.

• Parental Investment
• altricial
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-independence
  • protecting
    • female
• extended period of juvenile learning

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Mem­bers of this genus are re­pored to reach up to 36 years of age in cap­tiv­ity. Lifes­pan in the wild is likely to be lower. Eu­le­mur coro­na­tus is prob­a­bly like other mem­bers in the genus in re­gard to lifes­pan.

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  27 years

  AnAge

Be­hav­ior

These mostly di­ur­nal pri­mates tend to be so­cial, liv­ing in groups ran­ing in size from 5 to 15 in­di­vid­u­als, with an av­er­age group size is 5 or 6. These groups usu­ally con­tain sev­eral adults of both sexes. It has been sug­gested that group size de­creases in more humid en­vi­ron­ments, such as Mt. d'Ambre at the upper north­ern tip of Mada­gas­car.

For­ag­ing often takes place within sub­groups of the larger group, and spe­cial vo­cal­iza­tions may be used to main­tain con­tact be­tween dif­fer­ent sub­groups. In­ter­ac­tions be­tween larger groups are rare.

Fe­males in the group are dom­i­nant over males, giv­ing them ad­van­tages in food se­lec­tion and choice of mates. Groom­ing other group mem­bers is im­por­tant in the de­vel­op­ment and main­te­nance of so­cial bonds. This is true for all prosimi­ans.

Crowned lemurs are ac­tive from sun­rise to sun­set, but they will often take a noon break that can last up to four hours. Groups travel after night­fall.

• Key Behaviors
• arboreal
• terricolous
• diurnal
• motile
• sedentary
• territorial
• social
• dominance hierarchies

Home Range

Home range size for this species has not been re­ported.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

As in other pri­mates, com­mu­ni­ca­tion in this species is com­plex. It in­v­oles chem­i­cal el­e­ments, in the form of scent mark­ing, as well as vi­sual el­e­ments, in the form of body pos­tures and fa­cial ex­pres­sions. In ad­di­ton to these forms of com­mu­ni­ca­tion, this species uses groom­ing (a tac­tile form of com­mu­ni­ca­tion) to main­tain and es­tab­lish so­cial bonds. like other lemurs, these an­i­mals also use vo­cal­iza­tions to com­mu­ni­cate with one an­other.

• Communication Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

• Other Communication Modes
• scent marks

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

The major com­po­nent of the diet of crowned lemurs diet seems to be fruits. Al­though these an­i­mals spend most of their time in lev­els of the for­est above the ground, they do de­scend to pick up fallen fruit. Dur­ing the wet sea­son, crowned lemurs oc­ca­tion­ally eat leaves as well.

Dur­ing the dry sea­son, crowned lemurs search out wa­ter­holes, often found deep in­side caves, for water. Oc­ca­sion­ally, flow­ers, pollen, and in­sects are also eaten.

• Primary Diet
• herbivore
  • frugivore

• Animal Foods
• insects

• Plant Foods
• leaves
• seeds, grains, and nuts
• fruit
• pollen
• flowers

Pre­da­tion

Preda­tors of these lemurs have not been re­ported. How­ever, it seems likely that avian preda­tors such as rap­tors, and ter­res­trial preda­tors like fos­sas, are the prin­ci­ple preda­tors on these an­i­mals.

Ecosys­tem Roles

The role of these am­i­nals within their ecosys­tem has not been stud­ied in depth. As fru­gi­vores, Eu­le­mur coro­na­tus may be im­por­tant in seed dis­per­sal. As nec­ti­vores, these pri­mates may aid in plant pol­li­na­tion. To the ex­tent that these an­i­mals fall prey to other mam­mals and birds, E. coro­na­tus may in­flu­ence local food webs.

• Ecosystem Impact
• disperses seeds
• pollinates

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

On Mada­gas­car, crowned lemurs are often taken in as house pets. They may also be hunted for meat. Be­yond this, eco­tourism with the in­tent of vei­wing such charis­matic crea­tures may help the human econ­omy of Mada­gas­car.

• Positive Impacts
• pet trade
• food
• ecotourism

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Be­cause of their rel­a­tively small pop­u­la­tion sizes and their gen­eral lack of con­tact with hu­mans, crowned lemurs have very lit­tle neg­a­tive im­pact on peo­ple, eco­nom­i­cally or oth­er­wise.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Habi­tat dis­truc­tion is the major threat fac­ing crowned lemurs. These lemurs tend to stay within the bound­ries of four re­serves: the For­est d'Ambre, the Mon­tagne d'Ambre Na­tional Park, and the Analam­era and Ankarana spe­cial re­serves. These areas, which at one time formed a sta­ble band of for­est within which crowned lemur pop­u­la­tions could travel, have be­come iso­lated patches due to log­ging, burn­ing, and graz­ing. Also, poach­ing of these lemurs for food is in­creas­ing. They are listed as a pri­or­ity in terms of IUCN's con­ser­va­tion con­cern taxa. Today, con­ser­va­tion mea­sures aim to­ward bet­ter man­age­ment of these four re­serves and ed­u­cat­ing local com­mu­nites.

• IUCN Red List

  Vulnerable
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Vulnerable
  More information

• US Federal List

  Endangered

• CITES

  Appendix I

Other Com­ments

The fos­sil record of lemurs dates back to the Eocene. Until re­cently, crowned lemurs were con­sid­ered a sub­species of Lemur mon­goz (now known as Eu­leum mon­goz) but today, they are rec­og­nized as dis­tinct species liv­ing in dis­tinct, un­shared re­gions.

It is im­por­tant to re­mem­ber that crowned lemurs, like all other lemurs, are found only on Mada­gas­car, and there­fore offer us a unique op­por­tu­nity to in­ves­ti­gate the role of a spe­cific and iso­lated en­vi­ron­ment on the evo­lu­tion­ary and bi­o­log­i­cal traits of a group of an­i­mals.

Con­trib­u­tors

Nancy Shef­ferly (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Mau­reen Suter (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Phil Myers (ed­i­tor), Mu­seum of Zo­ol­ogy, Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

un­known. "Crowned Lemurs" (On-line). Duke Uni­ver­sity Pri­mate Cen­ter. Ac­cessed Sat­ur­day, Oc­to­ber 9, 1999 at http://​primatecenter.​duke.​edu/​animals/​crowned/​.

Har­court, C., J. Thorn­back. 1990. Lemurs of Mada­gas­car and the Co­moros. Gland, Switzer­land and Cam­bridge, UK: IUCN-The World Con­ser­va­tion Union.

Kap­peler, P., J. Ganzhorn. 1993. Lemur So­cial Sys­tems and Their Eco­log­i­cal Basis. New York: Plenum Press.

Mit­ter­meier, R., W. Kon­stant, M. Nicoll, O. Lan­grand. 1992. Lemurs of Mada­gas­car: An Ac­tion Plan for their Con­ser­va­tion 1993-1999. Gland, Switzer­land: IUCN.

Nowak, R. 1999. Walker's Mam­mals of the World, Sixth Edi­tion. Bal­ti­more and Lon­don: The Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.