Collared Brown Lemur

Eulemur collaris

 

Conservation status

Endangered (IUCN Red List, 2016)

 

What they look like

These medium-sized lemurs, also called red-collared brown lemurs, weigh in at 2.25 to 2.5 kilograms (5 to 5.5 pounds). Their “balancing tails” are longer than their bodies. Males and females exhibit different coloring except in the eyes, which are orange-red.  Males have more gray in their rufous brown coats, darker tails, and a dark stripe along the spine, and their thick and bushy reddish-brown cheeks and beards contrast with their dark gray or black muzzles, faces, and crowns. Females have gray heads.

 

Where they live

Collared lemurs inhabit tropical moist lowland and montane forests on the southeastern tip of Madagascar.

 

What they eat

Collared lemurs eat mostly fruit, with some flowers and young leaves. Because their diet contains so much fruit, they are critical seed dispersers for the large trees in their range.

 

How they behave

Collared lemurs are understudied but appear to live in mixed-sex social groups ranging in size from 3 to more than a dozen individuals, with troops as large as 29. These social animals forage together high in the rainforest canopy and rarely come to the ground.  When groups overlap, noisy, hostile encounters may ensue. Collared lemurs appear active day and night (cathemeral), mostly at dawn and dusk. Unlike the many female-dominated lemur species, collared lemurs show no clear gender hierarchy within groups.

 

How they reproduce

In Madagascar, collared lemurs reach sexual maturity after a year.  They breed between May and July, and females give birth, usually to a single infant, about 120 days later.

 

What threats they face

Collared brown lemurs are threatened by habitat loss due to agricultural activities, charcoal production, timber extraction and other forms of forest clearance.

 

Collared lemurs at the Myakka City Reserve:

At LCF, collared lemur infants are born between March and June.