The ring-tailed lemur is a large strepsirrhine primate and the most recognized lemur due to its long, black and white ringed tail. It belongs to Lemuridae, one of five lemur families, and is the only member of the Lemur genus. Known locally in Malagasy as maky or hira, it inhabits gallery forests to spiny scrub in the southern regions of the island. The population in the wild is believed to have crashed as low as 2,000 individuals due to habitat loss, poaching and hunting.
About Ring-tailed lemur in brief
The ring-tailed lemur is a large strepsirrhine primate and the most recognized lemur due to its long, black and white ringed tail. It belongs to Lemuridae, one of five lemur families, and is the only member of the Lemur genus. Known locally in Malagasy as maky or hira, it inhabits gallery forests to spiny scrub in the southern regions of the island. Despite reproducing readily in captivity and being the most populous lemur in zoos worldwide, it is listed as endangered by the IUCN Red List. As of early 2017, the population in the wild is believed to have crashed as low as 2,000 individuals due to habitat loss, poaching and hunting, making them far more critically endangered. The name derives from the Latin term lemures, which refers to specters or ghosts that were exorcised during the Lemuria festival of ancient Rome. It is thought that a small ancestral population came to Madagascar between 50 and 80 years ago via a single rafting event. Subsequent evolutionary speciation has created the diversity of Malagasi primates seen today. The species name, catta, refers to the ring-tails lemur’s cat-like appearance. Its purring vocalization is similar to that of the domestic cat. The ruffed ruffed lemurs are the first genus to split away in the first place, and are the only lemur family that is not in the lemur genus. They are also the most terrestrial of extant lemur species, being active exclusively in daylight hours.
The ring- tails are highly social, living in groups of up to 30 individuals. The males perform a unique scent marking behavior called spur marking and will participate in stink fights by marking their tail with their scent and wafting it at opponents. They also sunbathe, sitting upright facing its underside, with its thinner white fur towards the sun. Despite the lack of a large brain, can organize sequences, understand basic arithmetic operations and preferentially select tools based on functional qualities. The animal is diurnal and relies strongly on its sense of smell and marks its territory with scent glands. It has been commonly and falsely assumed that Linnaeus was referring to the ghost-like appearances, reflective eyes, and ghostly cries of leMurs. However, the name was selected because of the nocturnal activity and slow movements of the slender loris. It was soon limited to the endemic Malagatic primates, which have been known as ‘lemurs’ ever since. All mammalian fossils from Madagascar come from recent times. Thus, little is known about the evolution of the ring. tails, let alone the rest of the lemmur clade, which comprises the entire endemic primate population of the Island. However evidence suggest that lemurgs are more closely related to each other than other to other primates. The most recent lemur split took place at 24 ±3, chromosomal and chromosomal sequences of mtDNA.
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This page is based on the article Ring-tailed lemur published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 01, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
