Red-tailed Sportive Lemur
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The red-tailed sportive lemur (''Lepilemur ruficaudatus''), or red-tailed weasel lemur, is native to
Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...
like all
lemur Lemurs ( ; from Latin ) are Strepsirrhini, wet-nosed primates of the Superfamily (biology), superfamily Lemuroidea ( ), divided into 8 Family (biology), families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 existing species. They are Endemism, ...
s. It is a
nocturnal Nocturnality is a ethology, behavior in some non-human animals characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnality, diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatur ...
species feeding largely on leaves, though they also eat some fruit. Individuals weigh around , and there is little
sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different Morphology (biology), morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecy, di ...
. In general they live in mated pairs, with a home range of about 10,000 square metres. Both members of the pair use the same home range, and there is little overlap between the home ranges of neighbouring pairs. Travel distances each night are between and 1 km (0.6 mi), making this a relatively inactive species. This species can be found in the
Madagascar dry deciduous forests The Madagascar dry deciduous forests represent a tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests, tropical dry forest ecoregion situated in the western and northern part of Madagascar. The area has high numbers of Endemism, endemic plant and anima ...
. Red-tailed sportive lemurs travel in these pairs because it can be difficult for a male to produce roaming strategies and move further away from the homeland. Therefore, they typically pair up with only one female for reproduction, hence their “partner”. Additionally, these Lemurs don't typically have a strong
early warning system An early warning system is a warning system that can be implemented as a chain of information communication systems and comprises sensors, event detection and decision subsystems for early identification of hazards. They work together to fore ...
, making it difficult for them to warn others or send a signal. Instead, they have grown to develop strong escape mechanisms for them to flee danger. Many studies and experiments have been conducted to produce this information.


References

Sportive lemurs Mammals described in 1867 Taxa named by Alfred Grandidier {{lemur-stub