As in all primates, communication is complex and varied. Scent marking and chemical communication are important in marking territories. They are also likely to play some role in reproductive behavior, as this is common in prosimians. These animals are highly vocal and use many different calls in communicating with conspecifics. Tactile communication is important between mothers and their offspring, as well as between mates. This communication includes grooming. Visual signals, such as body postures, have not been reported for these animals, but are probably used to some extent.
Communication Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
Other Communication Modes: scent marks
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
The main threat to P. furcifere (and lemurs in general) is habitat destruction. The clearing of forest land to produce pasture land and room for crops threatens lemur habitats across Madigascar. Measures have been taken to create a National Park on Madagascar's Masoala peninsula to ensure that fork-marked lemurs have preserved habitat. CITES Appendix I.
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: appendix i
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: least concern
Phaner furcifer has no known negative economic impact on humans.
This species has no known economic importance for humans.
These animals play a unique role in the ecosystem through their consumption of plant saps and gums. They may have some role in controlling insect populations, and to the extent that they serve as food for predators, they may impact predator populations.
Fork-tailed lemurs subsist on a diet consisting mainly of the gum of trees in temperate deciduous forests. They have become specialized for harvesting this substance. They have evolved a "dental comb," which is used to scrape the gum that oozes from insect holes in a tree's surface). This structure consists of a row of lower teeth that are long and forward pointing. These lemurs also consume some insects.
Animal Foods: insects
Plant Foods: sap or other plant fluids
Primary Diet: herbivore (Eats sap or other plant foods)
Phaner furcifer has a wide but discontinuous distribution on the island of Madagascar. The majority of the population is found in the coastal forests of northern and western Madagascar.
Biogeographic Regions: ethiopian (Native )
Other Geographic Terms: island endemic
These lemurs are typically found within the humid forests of eastern Madagascar and in the dry temperate forests of the west. They are limited to the areas in which gum producing trees are common and dense. Typically, they are found 3 to 4 meters above the ground, but they have been observed moving on the ground and as high as 10 meters.
Habitat Regions: tropical ; terrestrial
Terrestrial Biomes: forest ; rainforest
The typical life expectancy in captivity is about 12 years. Lifespan for wild individuals has not been reported, but is likely to be less, due to risk of mortality from predation and disease.
Average lifespan
Status: captivity: 12 years.
Average lifespan
Status: captivity: 12 years.
Average lifespan
Status: captivity: 12.0 years.
The head and body length ranges from 227 to 285 mm, with the tail adding an additional 285 to 370 mm to the total lenth. Weights are typically between 300 and 500 g. Pelage is reddish gray to brownish gray, with the brightest pelage on the neck and head. Forked-marked lemurs take their name from the charateristic dorsal stripe that splits on top of the head and continues on each side down to the eyes.
Range mass: 300 to 500 g.
Range length: 227 to 285 mm.
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; bilateral symmetry
Predation on these animals undoubtedly occurs. Among potential mammalian predators are carnivorous tenrecs, fossas, and herpestids native to Madagascar. These lemurs are also likely to fall victim to snakes and birds of prey.
Known Predators:
Fork-marked lemurs mate in monogomous pairs. Once a bond has been formed between them, the male and female share a tree hole and are found together at any given time after that. Bachelor males and male bigamists have been found but are extremely rare.
Mating System: monogamous ; polygynous
Details on the reproduction of these animals are limited. The female experiences estrous for only 3 to 4 days of the entire year, typically in June. She gives birth to a single offspring in November or December. The offspring initially lives in the tree hole of the parents, then is carried by the mother, first ventrally, then dorsally.
Breeding interval: These animals appear to breed only once per year.
Breeding season: Breeding occurs in June.
Average number of offspring: 1.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; fertilization ; viviparous
Average number of offspring: 1.
As in all primates, the basic care for the young is the responsibility of females. However, because this species tends toward monogamy, males may play some role in protection and grooming of offspring.
Parental Investment: altricial ; pre-fertilization (Provisioning, Protecting: Female); pre-hatching/birth (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Male, Female); pre-weaning/fledging (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Male, Female); pre-independence (Protecting: Male, Female)
The Masoala fork-marked lemur (Phaner furcifer), also known as the eastern fork-marked lemur or Masoala fork-crowned lemur, is a species of lemur found in the coastal forests of northeastern Madagascar. It is a small nocturnal animal with large eyes, greyish fur and a long tail.
P. furcifer is a specialist feeder on the gum that exudes from insect holes on the surface of certain trees, but it supplements its gum diet with insect prey. This primate is monogamous and a single offspring is born in November or December. It is declining in numbers due to habitat destruction, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being endangered.
The Masoala fork-marked lemur is so-called because the black stripe along its spine divides on the crown, the two forks continuing on either side of the head to the eye and along either side of the muzzle.[4] The rest of the pelage is some shade of reddish or brownish grey. The head-and-body length is in the range 227 to 285 mm (9 to 11 in), with a tail of 285 to 370 mm (11 to 15 in). This lemur typically weighs between 300 and 500 g (11 and 18 oz).[5]
This lemur is endemic to northeastern Madagascar. Its range extends from the Masoala Peninsula southwards to Toamasina and it is present at altitudes up to about 1,000 m (3,300 ft). It occurs in moist lowland forests.[1]
The social system of the Masoala fork-marked lemur has been described as pre-gregarious. Some adults live as monogamous couples, sharing the same nest hole by day but moving about independently for at least part of the night (the male often follows a few metres behind the female), but a few live as solitary bachelors or have ranges overlapping more than one female. The average size of a female territory is 4 hectares (9.9 acres) with a male territory averaging 3.8 hectares (9.4 acres). The lemurs sometimes gather at the places where the territories overlap; there is no aggression on these occasions, but much vocalisation for a period of ten or twenty minutes. The animal moves on all fours, running rapidly along branches, climbing and jumping, mostly at a few metres above the ground, but descending to the forest floor on occasion.[6]
The diet consists mainly of the natural gum of trees in temperate deciduous forests. The Masoala fork-marked lemur has become specialized for harvesting this substance. Like most lemuriform primates, it has a toothcomb; in Phaner species, the toothcomb has evolved to be more robust and is used to scrape the gum that exudes from holes on a tree made by insects. This structure consists of a row of lower incisors that are long and forward pointing.[7] The favoured food sources are trees in the genus Terminalia, but certain other tree species also provide gum, including Adansonia spp., and the buds of Zanthoxylum tsihanimposa. Certain beetle larvae burrow just under the bark of Terminalia and leave characteristic galleries that ooze gum. This lemur has also been observed licking the flowers of Crateva greveana, and feeding on a "syrup" produced by insect larvae on thin branches of Rhopalocarpus lucidus trees.[4]
This species is nocturnal and has a territory containing about three exclusive Terminalia trees and access to about nine more in overlapping territories. The animal emerges at dusk from its sleeping hole in a large tree such as a baobab, or the abandoned nest of a Coquerel's giant mouse lemur (Mirza coquereli), moving directly to each Terminalia tree in turn, feeding on the gum and moving on to the next tree. It has a complex itinerary which it regularly follows, and later in the night it visits other less-favoured gum-sources and returns to the previously visited trees and gleans any gum it has missed. The same Terminalia trees are exploited by day by a bird, the crested coua (Coua cristata), which also feeds on gum.[4]
Gum is low in nitrogen content, and the Masoala fork-marked lemur needs to supplement its diet with animal prey, which it stalks on the tree bark and among the foliage, catching it with its hands and stuffing it into its mouth. Hunting takes place late in the night when the main gum-gathering activities are over. The animal's faeces are invariably found to contain fragments of insect chitin. In captivity this lemur was found to be very selective about what it ate, rejecting grasshoppers, beetle larvae and small lizards, but feeding avidly on a large moth and a praying mantis.[8]
The male and female are in frequent vocal communication throughout the night, but this species in unusual among nocturnal lemurs in not communicating through olfactory signals, and the urine and faeces are allowed to drop to the forest floor. A large cutaneous gland on the throat of the male is used during social grooming when males, females and juveniles groom each other, and the male may rub the gland on the female.[4] The female comes into estrus for three to four days in June, giving birth to a single offspring in November or December. This remains in the nesting hole of the parents at first, but as it gets older it is carried by the mother, clinging to her underside, and when it gets larger, to her back.[7]
The P. furcifer population is suspected of being in decline as its forest habitat is being destroyed by timber harvesting and slash-and-burn agriculture. It is listed on Appendix I of CITES, and receives some protection from being present in several national parks, but the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being endangered.[2]
The Masoala fork-marked lemur (Phaner furcifer), also known as the eastern fork-marked lemur or Masoala fork-crowned lemur, is a species of lemur found in the coastal forests of northeastern Madagascar. It is a small nocturnal animal with large eyes, greyish fur and a long tail.
P. furcifer is a specialist feeder on the gum that exudes from insect holes on the surface of certain trees, but it supplements its gum diet with insect prey. This primate is monogamous and a single offspring is born in November or December. It is declining in numbers due to habitat destruction, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being endangered.
