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people from captivity but are also wide- spread in deciduous forests on Madagascar. Like other lemurs, they are mostly arboreal, but groups, typically of five to 30 animals, often move across the ground holding their striped tails aloft. Like other true lemurs, ring-tailed lemurs are essentially vegetar- ians, feeding on leaves, fruit, and flowers. There is surprisingly little geographi- cal or habitat overlap among the different lemur species. The most common species— the red- fronted lemur—is widely distrib- uted in west coast forests, while the ruffed lemur is found only in east coast rain for- ests and the brown lemur occurs mainly on

From Lemurs to Bush Babies Perhaps the best-known members of the lower primates are the lemurs, unusual- looking primates with dog-like faces. Together with the closely related dwarf and mouse lemurs, the sifakas, the indri, and the aye-aye, lemurs occur only on the island of Madagascar, off the east coast of southern Africa. How they arrived here in the absence of any other primate species is something of a mystery. However, arrive they did, and over the last 30 million years or so, they evolved into an array of adaptive forms of which, sadly, only 10 remain today. Ring-tailed lemurs are familiar to many

Taxonomists disagree as to whether the red ruffed lemur is a race of the ruffed lemur or a separate species. Whichever is the case, it is very rare, found only in small areas in the northern part of eastern Madagascar’s coastal rain forest.

The long, banded tail of the ring-tailed lemur is its most distinctive feature. The animal is diurnal, and the tail is used to signal mood and intention to other members of the family group.

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