Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Sportive lemurs, Lep­ile­mur musteli­nus, live in the de­cid­u­ous forests of the East and West coasts of Mada­gas­car (Mac­don­ald, 1984; Grz­imek, 1990). (Grz­imek, 1990; Mac­don­ald, 1984)

• Biogeographic Regions
• ethiopian
  • native

• Other Geographic Terms
• island endemic

Habi­tat

Sportive lemurs live in the de­cid­u­ous, humid, and gallery forests of Mada­gas­car. They sleep dur­ing the day in tree hol­lows or oc­ca­sion­ally in nests in the open when there is lit­tle threat from preda­tors (Mac­don­ald, 1984; Richard, 1987). (Mac­don­ald, 1984; Richard, 1987)

• Habitat Regions
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• forest

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Sportive lemurs mea­sure about 24 to 30 cm for head and body length, with a tail of about 22 to 29 cm. Typ­i­cally, mem­bers of the genus weigh be­tween 500 and 900 g. The tail is al­ways shorter than the body, and the legs are al­ways much longer than the arms. There are six rec­og­nized sub­species and fur col­oration dif­fers be­tween pop­u­la­tions. How­ever, in gen­eral sportive lemurs are brown to grey on their backs and tails with a light to white un­der­belly. They have dense, woolly fur, and promi­nent ears. Their den­tal for­mula is 0/2, 1/1, 3/3, 3/3 = 32 (Mac­don­ald, 1984). (Mac­don­ald, 1984)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Range mass

  500 to 900 g

  17.62 to 31.72 oz

• Range length

  24 to 30 cm

  9.45 to 11.81 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Males oc­cupy ter­ri­to­ries by them­selves which tend to over­lap with the ter­ri­to­ries of two to three fe­males with which they will mate (Mac­don­ald, 1984; Richard, 1987). (Mac­don­ald, 1984; Richard, 1987)

• Mating System
• polygynous

Sportive lemurs reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity at about 18 months of age. Sex­ual re­cep­tiv­ity in fe­males, es­trous, is marked by a dis­tinct swelling of the gen­i­talia. Mat­ing oc­curs from May through Au­gust. Fe­males give birth to sin­gle young be­tween Sep­tem­ber and No­vem­ber with a ges­ta­tion pe­riod of about 135 days. The young are weaned around 4 months of age, but are not in­de­pen­dent until they are about one year old. (Nowak, 1999; Mac­don­ald, 1984; Richard, 1987).

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• fertilization
• viviparous

• Breeding interval

  Breeding occurs annually.

• Breeding season

  Mating occurs from May through August.

• Average number of offspring

  1

• Average number of offspring

  1

  AnAge

• Average gestation period

  135 days

• Average gestation period

  135 days

  AnAge

• Average weaning age

  4 months

• Average time to independence

  1 years

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  18 months

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
  Sex: female

  592 days

  AnAge

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  18 months

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
  Sex: male

  546 days

  AnAge

Not much is known about the parental be­hav­ior of these an­i­mals. Fe­males some­times carry their young, and some­times "park" them on a branch while they for­age. The young are weaned at about 4 months of age. Young fol­low their mother until they are around one year of age. The role of males in parental care has not been de­scribed. (Nowak, 1999)

• Parental Investment
• altricial
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-independence
  • protecting
    • female
• extended period of juvenile learning

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Mem­bers of the genus Lep­ile­mur are re­ported to have lived as long as 12 years in cap­tiv­ity. Lep­ile­mur musteli­nus is prob­a­bly sim­i­lar. (Nowak, 1999)

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  12 years

Be­hav­ior

Lep­ile­mur musteli­nus is both ar­bo­real and noc­tur­nal. These lemurs move from tree to tree by leap­ing ver­ti­cally be­ween tree trunks or ver­ti­cal branches. They leap an av­er­age of five me­ters. When trav­el­ling on the ground, sportive lemurs can walk on all four feet or can leap on their hind legs. Al­though most of their ac­tiv­i­ties are soli­tary, sportive lemurs some­times gather in large groups be­fore going out to feed alone. Oc­ca­sion­ally a male-fe­male pair will meet to feed, rest, or groom to­gether but they rarely stay to­gether for more than an hour at a time (Richard, 1987). (Richard, 1987)

• Key Behaviors
• arboreal
• nocturnal
• motile
• sedentary
• solitary

Home Range

In Lep­ile­mur leu­co­pus, an­other mem­ber of the genus, home ranges of fe­males mea­sure 0.18 hectares, and those of males mea­sure 0.30 hectares. Home ranges of L. musteli­nus are prob­a­bly com­pa­ra­ble. (Nowak, 1999)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Vi­sual dis­plays, vo­cal­iza­tions, chases, and se­vere fight­ing have all been re­ported for this genus. Al­though not re­ported for these an­i­mals, prosimi­ans usu­ally scent mark their ter­ri­to­ries, and it is rea­son­able to sup­pose that L. musteli­nus en­gages in some scent mark­ing and chem­i­cal com­mu­ni­ca­tion. (Nowak, 1999)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

• Other Communication Modes
• scent marks

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

The diet of L. musteli­nus is pri­mar­ily leaves. How­ever, these an­i­mals also eat fruit, flow­ers, and bark. Sportive lemurs may not be ca­pa­ble of com­pletely di­gest­ing this fo­liv­o­rous diet and they have been known to eat their own feces, per­haps in order to ex­tract more nu­tri­ents from the food on its sec­ond jour­ney through their di­ges­tive tract. Sportive lemurs do not pick leaves or fruit from branches when feed­ing, but in­stead they bring branches to their mouths and feed di­rectly from them (Grz­imek, 1990; Richard, 1987). (Grz­imek, 1990; Richard, 1987; Grz­imek, 1990; Richard, 1987)

• Primary Diet
• herbivore
  • folivore

• Plant Foods
• leaves
• wood, bark, or stems
• fruit
• flowers

• Other Foods
• dung

Pre­da­tion

These small noc­tur­nal pri­mates prob­a­bly fall prey to rap­tors, snakes, fos­sas, and any other car­niv­o­rous an­i­mal large enough to sub­due them. Hu­mans are re­ported to hunt mem­bers of this genus for meat. (Nowak, 1999)

• Known Predators

  • Homo sapiens

Ecosys­tem Roles

As fru­gi­vores, these pri­mates prob­a­bly help to dis­perse seeds. To the ex­tent that they serve as prey for other an­i­mals, they may im­pact local food webs.

• Ecosystem Impact
• disperses seeds

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Sportive lemurs are some­times hunted for their meat (Grz­imek, 1990). (Grz­imek, 1990)

• Positive Impacts
• food

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known neg­a­tive ef­fects of sportive lemurs on hu­mans.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Lep­ile­mur musteli­nus is con­sid­ered threat­ened due to habi­tat de­struc­tion and the break­down of anti-hunt­ing rules (Richard, 1987).

• IUCN Red List

  Data Deficient
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Data Deficient
  More information

• US Federal List

  Endangered

• CITES

  Appendix I

Other Com­ments

Due to human in­tro­duc­tion of farm­ing and do­mes­ti­cated an­i­mals on Mada­gas­car, many species of lemurs have be­come ex­tinct. There­fore, it is im­por­tant to re­mem­ber that no an­i­mals of Mada­gas­car, in­clud­ing sportive lemurs, are mem­bers of in­tact eco­log­i­cal com­mu­ni­ties (Richard, 1987).

Con­trib­u­tors

Nancy Shef­ferly (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Christina Schref­fler (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Phil Myers (ed­i­tor), Mu­seum of Zo­ol­ogy, Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

Grz­imek, 1990. Grz­imek's En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Mam­mals. Mc­Graw-Hill, Inc..

Mac­don­ald, D. 1984. En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Mam­mals. Ox­ford: Equinox.

Nowak, R. 1999. Walker's Mam­mals of the World, Sixth Edi­tion. Bal­ti­more and Lon­don: The Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.

Richard, A. 1987. Mala­gasy Prosimi­ans: Fe­male Dom­i­nance. Pp. 25-33 in D Ch­eney, R Sey­farth, B Smuts, T Struh­saker, R Wrang­ham, eds. Pri­mate So­ci­eties. Chicago: Uni­ver­sity of Chicago Press.