Eulemur coronatuscrowned lemur

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.

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.

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.

  • 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.

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.

  • 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.

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.

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.

  • 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.

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.

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.

Glossary

Ethiopian

living in sub-Saharan Africa (south of 30 degrees north) and Madagascar.

World Map

acoustic

uses sound to communicate

altricial

young are born in a relatively underdeveloped state; they are unable to feed or care for themselves or locomote independently for a period of time after birth/hatching. In birds, naked and helpless after hatching.

arboreal

Referring to an animal that lives in trees; tree-climbing.

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

diurnal
  1. active during the day, 2. lasting for one day.
dominance hierarchies

ranking system or pecking order among members of a long-term social group, where dominance status affects access to resources or mates

ecotourism

humans benefit economically by promoting tourism that focuses on the appreciation of natural areas or animals. Ecotourism implies that there are existing programs that profit from the appreciation of natural areas or animals.

endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

food

A substance that provides both nutrients and energy to a living thing.

forest

forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.

frugivore

an animal that mainly eats fruit

herbivore

An animal that eats mainly plants or parts of plants.

island endemic

animals that live only on an island or set of islands.

iteroparous

offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

pet trade

the business of buying and selling animals for people to keep in their homes as pets.

polygynous

having more than one female as a mate at one time

scent marks

communicates by producing scents from special gland(s) and placing them on a surface whether others can smell or taste them

scrub forest

scrub forests develop in areas that experience dry seasons.

seasonal breeding

breeding is confined to a particular season

sedentary

remains in the same area

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

social

associates with others of its species; forms social groups.

tactile

uses touch to communicate

terrestrial

Living on the ground.

territorial

defends an area within the home range, occupied by a single animals or group of animals of the same species and held through overt defense, display, or advertisement

tropical

the region of the earth that surrounds the equator, from 23.5 degrees north to 23.5 degrees south.

visual

uses sight to communicate

viviparous

reproduction in which fertilization and development take place within the female body and the developing embryo derives nourishment from the female.

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.