Ring-tailed Lemur (Lemur catta) Fact Sheet: Behavior & Ecology

Diurnal

• Active in trees and on the ground in daylight
• When compared to more energetic Old or New World monkeys, L. catta are not considered to be an active primate
• Most often in trees though much time is spent on the ground
• The most terrestrial of the lemurs (Mittermeier et al. 2010)
• 15-30% of their time on the ground
• When on the ground, remain near trees or saplings for escape; avoid bushes as they offer little protection
• Use of home range
• Troop follows daily pattern in one area for up to several days, then moves to another area in home range
• Length between moves varies; season and local weather may impact movements
• Travel up to 200 m at a time, up to 500-600 m a day

Typical Daily Pattern

• Troop wakes at dawn
• Becomes active (move, sun, feed) between 5:30 and 8:30 a.m.
• Timing varies with the weather
• Travel, forage and feed through the morning
• Group often breaks into subgroups during daily activity
• When traveling, troop may spread over several trees and heights, spanning 20-30 m (66-98 ft)
• Rest near mid-day
• Around noon, troop moves to siesta spot (to sleep and allo- or self groom)
• Siestas may last up to 4 hours in hot weather
• Mid-afternoon, troop travels to feeding site
• Between 3:00 and 5:00 p.m.
• Afternoon feeding is an active period 
• Return to sleeping site, arriving after sunset
• No feeding occurs during this movement
• Arrive c. 6:30-7:30 p.m.
• Sleep in trees at night
• Troop usually sleeps in 2 or 3 neighboring trees
• Choose different trees nearly every night
• May be active at night, though troop does not move to different treet
• Leap, feed, groom, and fight at sleeping sites

 General

• Social animals
• Form multi-male, multi-female groups
• Sex ratio approximately 1:1
• Related females form the cores of the group
• Remaining members are their infant and juvenile offspring and immigrant males
• Orphaned juveniles from neighboring troops may be adopted
• Social group and behavior have been likened to the baboons and macaques
• Group size
• 3 to 27 (13-18 average)

Dominance hierarchy

• Female-dominated groups
• Troop males have a separate dominance hierarchy among themselves
• Females stay in the troop of their birth; mature males migrate to other troops (up to 1/3 of the males move between troops each year)
• Individual's status easily identified by behavior
• Females will only act aggressively toward individuals of lesser status
• Dominant males "swagger"
• Subordinates exhibit lowered heads and tails, lag behind troop
• Males appear to be more "status conscious"
• Challenges often occur to reaffirm position
• Dominant individual(s) select rest and feeding sites
• Peripheral males follow and must wait to access food, etc.
• No clear leader during travel
• Leader changes throughout the move
• Females often forage alone during the breeding season in order to obtain more nutritious food

Social interactions

• Affiliative behavior
• Huddle in groups
• Possibly for warmth or to promote social contact (mutual grooming and purring often occur)
• Mutual grooming is common
• Tongue, dental comb, and specialized claw of the second toe clean the hair
• Hands not used
• Occurs throughout the day but most prevalent during quiet periods
• Aggression
• Determines position within dominance hierarchy
• Often occur prior to feeding
• More aggression expressed toward more distantly related individuals
• Females are more aggressive towards males and other females during breeding season
• Male mate competition
• Aggression towards other males and interaction with females dependent on number of males and stability of the group

Territorial boundaries well defined

• Home range may be shared with other troops
• Typically not in the same place at the same time
• Scent marking defines territorial boundaries
• Urine and scent glands
• Territory features
• Size largely dependent on presence of water and large trees
• Size range
• 5.7-34.6 ha (0.02-0.13 mi²)
• Smaller ranges associated with riparian forests; 6-8 ha (0.02-0.03 mi²)
• Larger ranges in less productive habitat

Territorial defence

• Females typically defend against intruders when encountered
• Males may join in defense
• Inter-troop aggression common
• Includes intense chasing, cuffing, scent-marking, spat-calling
• When troops meet, there does not appear to be an organized response
• Individuals exhibiting aggressive behaviors approach one another

Scent Marking

• Mark branches and objects
• Captive Lemur catta appear to mark everything within their enclosures
• Individuals rub perianal and brachial glands on objects
• Males violently jerk hands around vertical branches during palmar marking

Displays

• Tail-Waving
• Male sits, marking his tail with secretions from his brachial and antebrachial glands
• He then stands, arches tail over back and shakes or waves tail in the direction of another male, spreading his scent
• Teeth may be bared
• Stink Fight
• Highly ritualized exchange between two or more males
• Occurs most often during mating
• Helps determine male hierarchy within the troop, also occur between troop males at territory boundaries
• Involves concurrent tail-marking, tail-waving and palmar marking
• Lasts from 10 minutes to 1 hour
• Handstands
• Performed by both males and females
• Posterior (hind-end) pressed against a tree trunk
• Bringing the perianal gland into contact with the tree
• In zoos, individuals often press against the walls of an enclosure
• Other visual signals
  • Facial expressions
  • Similar to other primates
  • Hand and body gestures
  • Similar to other primates; main differences are gestures associated with scent-marking

 Vocalization

• Wide variety of vocalizations
• Up to 15 types of calls
• Barks, clicks, howls, meows, mews, purrs, shrieks, spat-calls, squeals, twitters, yips
• Most calls are voiced simultaneously by all troop members
• Auditory characteristics
• Barks, howls, and screams audible to humans at 750-1000 m
• Purr audible to humans at c. 1 m distance
• Calls
  
• Click
• Chirping sound used in a variety of circumstances either singly or serially
• E.g. noting the passage of a ground predator, staring at a new object, troop preparing for movement
• Howl
• Consists of 2 syllables with change in pitch
• Uttered either predominantly or exclusively by males
• Heard throughout the night during the breeding season
• Used to space group members as well as one group from another
• Mostly occurs prior to sleep or siesta
• Meow
• Contact call
• Uttered in a variety of circumstances
• E.g. when 1 or more troop member lost, prior to a group move
• Intensity variable
• Mew
• Very similar to the mew of a cat
• Purr
• Nearly identical to purr of a cat
• Uttered in similar instances
• During mutual grooming, scent-marking and when petted
• Different types of alarm calls for different types of predators.

Quadrupedal most often

Walk, gallop, and run

• Along branches and on the ground
• On the ground, travel routes are visible as faint paths in the leaf litter
• 65-70% of travel time is on ground; other lemurs travel through trees
• Move bipedally for short distances
• Tail provides balance
• In trees, tail usually held down
• On ground, tail usually carried up and curled at the tip

Climb

• Scale most sizes, types, and angles of branches
  
• Quickly move up the trunks of trees
• Prefer saplings or small trees which can be grasped on opposite sides

Leap

• Between branches in the forest canopy
• Push off with hind legs
• Land on either hind legs or all four limbs

Rarely swing by the hands

Predators

• Terrestrial predators (from Mittermeier et al. 2010)
• Fossa
• Civet - non-native, introduced animal
• Madagascar Ground Boa
• Domestic cats and dogs
• Canopy predators (from Mittermeier et al. 2010)
• Madagascar Harrier-hawk
• Magadascar Buzzard
• Anti-predatory behavior
• Actively watch for predators and give alarm calls
• Troops may mob potential predators

Competitors

• Frugivorous bats and birds
• Lemur typically avoid bats which are active at night
• Lemur pay little interest in most birds

Associates

• Found in association with sifaka
• Possibly provides added protection from predators

Running and leaping from branch to branch are easy activities for the agile and speedy ring-tailed lemur.

Image credit: © San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. All rights reserved.

Jolly (1966)
Mittermeier et al. (2010)
Sauther et al. (1999)
Sussman (1999)