Animal Encounters VII

Hello folks. Welcome to another posting of animal encounters.
This time, we’ve got the

Ring-tailed Lemur

Ring-tailed Lemurs live in social groups in the southern forest of Madagascar. They use their tail as a signal to others in the group whilst foraging for food on the forest floor. The stripey tail is used as a flag when they are walking on the ground, held aloft where others can see. The tail is also used in "stink fights" where the animals rub their tails against scent glands on their arms and wave them over their heads at the opponent. Lemurs have longer and more sensitive noses than other primates. This suggests that smell is an important way of communicating for them. They also chatter among themselves with series of barks and alarm screams when frightened.

There are over 1000 ring-tailed lemurs in zoos worldwide, but only 10,000 - 100,000 in the wild. The dry, scrubby forest in which they live is being destroyed by slash and burn agriculture, charcoal production and mining for gemstones and minerals.

Did you know that Ring-tails in the wild occasionally pick up toxic millipedes and rub themselves all over with the foul smelling juices from the millipede. The juices may act as an insect repellent - the lemur equivalent of flea-spray!

Like most lemurs, you can often see them sun bathing in the early morning sun. Well that's about it for this encounter. Look out for the next one!

On a side note, I’ve been pretty busy recently, with many things on my mind and many things to do (exam revision, studies, housing), hence the absence of updates and postings. I’ll do my best to update this site.