Ring-tailed Lemur (Lemur catta) Fact Sheet: Diet & Feeding

Vegetarians

• Fruit, leaves, and flowers most commonly
• Also consume seeds, bark, and sap
• Kily tree (Tamarindus indica) pods
• Especially favored food item
• May dedicate c. 50% of forage time to securing fruit and leaves, in regions where the plant is present (Mittermeier et al. 2010)
• Individuals lick the slightly fermented pulp of fallen pods and quarrel for possession of them
• Diversity of diet
• Consume products of up to 50 plant species
• E.g. figs, bananas, fig thistles, grasses, and ground plants
• Eat a wider variety of plants than other lemurs
• Raid melon and sweet potato crops
• Also seen consuming earth, invertebrates, dead wood

Feeding & Drinking

• Hands and mouth secure food
• Do not "pluck" food with the hands
• Hands pull plant toward the mouth
• Other feeding behavior
• In trees
• Occupy the small twig areas of trees
• On the ground
• Often sit on their haunches, like a squirrel
• Obtaining water
• Dew or rain on leaves or in tree hollows provide water
• Descend to drink from the ground if unavailable in trees
• Remain under cover when possible

Ring-tailed lemurs are herbivores, eating principally fruit, leaves, and flowers.

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

Mittermeier et al. 2010)
Sauther (2002)
Sauther et al. (1999)
Sussman (1999)
Taterssall and Sussman (1975)