ANIMAL RESEARCH: PART 1 - ECOLOGY AND GENERAL FACTS

Common name of animal: Ring-Tailed Lemur

Answer questions 1 through 8 and at least one additional question (9 or 10):

1. List the classification of your animal, from phylum to species.1;2;3;4

phylum: Chordata class: Mammalia

order: Primates family: Lemuridae
genus: Lemur species: L. catta

2. Provide a detailed description of the characteristics of your animal’s body.

(your description should be detailed enough so that a person can fully imagine the animal without seeing a picture.)
The ring-tailed lemur is easily noticeable with a bushy, long, black-and white tail. This makes it hard to confuse with
other lemurs, due to other lemurs tending to be more solid colors. The ring-tailed lemur gets its name from the look
of its ringed tail. The neck is dark grey. This animal has a white face with big, dark triangular patches around the
nose, eyes, and large, white , furry ears. If you were to look at its nose, eyelids, feet and lips, you could see its black
skin. It has thick fur that is greyish-brown on the back, while grey on the limbs and behind. Its underside is cream or
off-white. The ring-tailed lemur has a very long tail, which is longer than the length of its body. The ring-tailed lemur
slightly resembles a raccoon, just with more cat like features. The male and female are similar in looks and size.5
Unlike other lemurs, they don’t have the ability to use their tail to grab or hold onto things. Despite this, they
can still move easily through trees, but prefer staying on the ground.6
3. State the geographic distribution of your animal. (that’s where it lives on a map)
Ring-tailed lemurs only live on the island of Madagascar and tiny neighboring islands. They mainly live
in the southern part of Madagascar. The places in which they live in are known as gallery forests, spiny
forests, dry scrubs, and dry deciduous forests. Even though they only live in Madagascar, they are able to
adapt to different places in that area.7;8

4. Provide a detailed description of the characteristics of your animal’s habitat.

(your description should be detailed enough so that a person can fully imagine the habitat without seeing a picture.)
Ring-tailed lemurs live in many different types of environment in Madagascar. One of them is the gallery
forests. Gallery forests are forests that revolve around a river or stream. They generally occur in places that would
usually be dry or treeless, like an oasis. They are the way the greenery around gets water.9
Spiny forests are also another home of the ring-tailed lemur. The spiny forest, or spiny desert, is a dry land
with thick, spiky brush. The dominant plant family there is the Didiereaceae. It contains a group of spiky, flowering
plants with a close resemblance of the cactus.10
Another habitat of the Ring-tailed lemur is the dry scrubs. This place is very simple, with it consisting mainly
of small brush. Trees there are relatively small, staying around less than 8 m. Parts of this land are thought to be
shruby due to the frequent burning and destroying for farming.11
Dry deciduous forests are also home to the lemur. Trees here shed leaves in the dry winter season (May to
September) to limit evapotranspiration. There is very little shrubbage here, except for occasional orchids. Very little
succulents are found here, unlike the spiny forest. The trees range from 10 to 15 meter tall.12

5. Give a detailed description of your animal’s natural diet in the wild.

Ring-tailed lemurs diet includes fruit, bark and sap, flowers, leaves, along with small vertebrates
like chameleons or large insects. There diet isn’t very restricted, with them being omnivores. They
have even been seen eating soil, supposedly to increase it’s sodium intake.13

1
"Primate Factsheets: Ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) Taxonomy ...." http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/entry/ring-tailed_lemur. Accessed 28 Jan. 2018.
2
"Ring-Tailed Lemur - SeaWorld.org." https://seaworld.org/en/animal-info/animal-bytes/mammals/ring-tailed-lemur. Accessed 21 Feb. 2018.
3
"Lemur catta (Ring-tailed Lemur) - IUCN Red List." http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/11496/0. Accessed 28 Jan. 2018.
4
"ITIS Standard Report Page: Lemur catta." https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=572872. Accessed 28 Jan. 2018.
5
"Ring-tailed lemur videos, photos and facts - Lemur catta | Arkive." http://www.arkive.org/ring-tailed-lemur/lemur-catta/. Accessed 28 Jan. 2018.
6
"Ring-Tailed Lemur | National Geographic." https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/r/ring-tailed-lemur/. Accessed 30 Jan. 2018.
7
"Ring-tailed Lemur Facts for Kids - Animal Fact Guide." http://www.animalfactguide.com/animal-facts/ring-tailed-lemur/. Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.
8
"Ring-tailed lemur videos, photos and facts - Lemur catta | Arkive." http://www.arkive.org/ring-tailed-lemur/lemur-catta/. Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.
9
"Gallery Forest | Definition of Gallery Forest by Merriam-Webster." https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gallery%20forest. Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.
10
"Ecosystems in Madagascar ...." http://www.wildmadagascar.org/overview/ecosystems.html. Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.
11
"Shrubland : Mission: Biomes - NASA Earth Observatory." https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Experiments/Biome/bioshrubland.php. Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.
12
"Southern Africa: Northwestern Madagascar - World Wildlife Fund." https://www.worldwildlife.org/ecoregions/at0202. Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.
13
"Ring-tailed lemur videos, photos and facts - Lemur catta | Arkive." http://www.arkive.org/ring-tailed-lemur/lemur-catta/. Accessed 30 Jan. 2018.
 A food that ring-tailed lemurs really like are the leaves of the tamarind tree. If available, they will
make this more than half of their diet. The ring-tailed lemurs diet is very different compared to other
lemurs, due to the fact that they really don’t live in the trees, preferring to stay closer to the ground
and forage for food.14

6. Describe a food web in which your animal participates in the wild. Your food web must include
the following minimum requirements:

a) at least four trophic levels

b) producers, consumers and decomposers
c) at least ten organisms
My drawing is on my account’s drive.

7. Describe how biotic and abiotic factors play a role in your animal's survival.
A few biotic factors that affect the ring-tailed lemurs survival are the fossa. It is its main
predator, and the lemur is more than half of its diet.15
Other than the fossa, humans are also another very important biotic factor. Deforestation is a
very serious problem. With populations growing, humans take up more and more land. They burn
down forests than the lemurs live in, along with hunting them for either fun or for ritual. 16
An abiotic factor is that water can be a problem for ring-tailed lemurs, with them sometimes living
in dry areas. Another abiotic factor would be sunlight. This is more of a personal thing for lemurs,
with them just wanting to warm themselves up. They sit with their underside up, heating there body
up after a cold night.17
8. List the organisms (excluding humans) which provide the main competition for your
animal in the wild and describe this competition in detail.
The main competitor for the lemur is the fossa. The Fossa and humans are really the main
causes of death for lemurs. We both pose the threat to make Lemurs go extinct. Different types of
lemurs are really one of the only animals that might be a competitor to the Ring-tailed lemur for food.
They wouldn’t really have problems over land, with other lemurs staying in the trees, while the ring-
tailed lemur prefers area closer to the ground.18;19

9. Describe the evolutionary history of your animal over geologic time and draw a
branching diagram to represent this.
(begin your animal’s evolutionary history at an appropriate taxonomic level, such as order, family or genus)
Lemurs are primates belonging to the Strepsirrhini suborder, which branched off from primates less than 63 mya. A
common ancestor of the lemur are lorises, pottos, and galagos (lorises). They all look very alike. Lemurs arrived on
madagascar most likely via flotation rafts made of plants around 45 mya.20
Due to not having any predators at the time, this allowed lemurs to thrive in madagascar and grow. Currently,
we don’t really know how lemurs and other primates connect. Due to being isolated on a island, we believe that is
how the lemur and other primates became so different. There have been lemur fossils that have been found,
suggesting that there was once a lemur weighing up to 350 pounds. That is almost the same as an adult gorilla.

14
"Ring Tailed Lemur - Fun Facts & Information For Kids - Folly Farm." https://www.folly-farm.co.uk/zoo/meet-the-zoo-animals/ring-tailed-lemur. Accessed 31 Jan.
2018.
15
"Fossa Facts - SoftSchools." http://www.softschools.com/facts/animals/fossa_facts/63/. Accessed 31 Jan. 2018.
16
"Lemurs - Threats To Lemur Survival - Madagascar, Species, Primates ...." http://science.jrank.org/pages/3906/Lemurs-Threats-lemur-survival.html. Accessed
31 Jan. 2018.
17
"Zutrition Ring-tailed Lemur Nutrition Guide." 6 Aug. 2013, http://www.zutrition.com/ring-tailed-lemur-nutrition-guide/. Accessed 31 Jan. 2018.
18
"Fossa Facts - SoftSchools." http://www.softschools.com/facts/animals/fossa_facts/63/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2018.
19
"Ring Tailed Lemur - Fun Facts & Information For Kids - Folly Farm." https://www.folly-farm.co.uk/zoo/meet-the-zoo-animals/ring-tailed-lemur. Accessed 2 Feb.
2018.
20
"Evolution of lemurs - Wikipedia." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_lemurs. Accessed 2 Feb. 2018.
Lemurs may have become smaller due to being difficult to live in trees. It might have been dangerous to live on the
ground at the time, so being to big for trees might have been a problem. Lemurs are believed to be the most
diverse primate species. They have the ability to adapt to their current environment well. Really, the only reason
lemurs are endangered is because of humans. In order to find find out more about lemurs past, scientists still need
to uncover fossils of lemurs to learn their full history.21

10. Describe what your animal’s environment was like when it first appeared in the fossil record.
Include biotic and abiotic elements in your description.
(reference your animal’s fossil record at an appropriate taxonomic level, such as family or genus)

21
"Lemur Evolution - Lemur Facts and Information." http://www.lemurworld.com/lemur-evolution/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2018.