Primates: Lemurs and Chimpanzees

The sifaka lemur is one of the most unique and rarest primates; only living in the western dry forests of Madagascar. The sifaka is most notable for their rich dark chocolate and silky white fur. Matching with their chocolate fur, sifakas have a dark black tone on areas of bare skin such as the rounded face, hands and feet. Contrasting their monotone colors, their eyes are a sharp and piercing yellow or orange. The sifaka ranges from 10 to 14 pounds, making it one of the smaller primates.

Unlike the other lemurs, sifakas maintain an upright position that allows them to move in bipedal motions. Although they are bipedal like humans, they do not walk upright on land. Instead, they lemurs have powerful hind legs that are used to hop side to side in a bipedal motion. Their powerful legs are also used in the trees. Their motions in trees include, clinging, climbing, and most notably, leaping. Resembling an acrobat, they are able to gracefully leap astonishing distances up to 30 feet while their young cling to their backs. These seemingly specialized abilities allow them to live in the trees, making them arboreal lemurs.

Living in the trees provides the sifakas with many advantages such as gathering food with ease and protection from predators. The sifakas are strictly vegetarian, feeding on leaves, flowers, berries and fruits. Being arboreal allows them to gather their food with ease, but they also forage food on land in groups. They are protected from predators including eagles, hawks, and fossas. While eagles and hawks aren’t as common, the fossa is their primary predator. The fossa also has the ability to climb trees and is remains undetected by the lemurs. The lemurs are forced to take certain precautions in the trees. Often they will attach themselves to delicate end branches, a strategy that provides warning, through vibrations, if a predator approaches (Tennesen).

In addition to predators, the sifaka lemur population is critically endangered due to human actions such as logging and hunting. Madagascar’s forests have fallen victim to logging by the local population. The forests are destroyed and converted into agricultural land which are used to help support the impoverished population. Trees are also logged to produce charcoal (Iverson). While coping with the loss of habitat, lemurs are also being targeted by humans for their meat and religious purposes. The domesticated meats are more expensive, and many poorer households rely primarily or exclusively on bushmeat as their meat source, often turning to illegal and unsustainable hunting to acquire it (Shen). Originally, hunting the sifaka lemurs was made taboo by the Malagasy elders who told the story of a boy falling to his death from a tree, only to be caught and saved by a lemur. According to legends, some locals believe that the lemur is an ancestor to human beings. Since then, the lemurs have been protected by taboo laws set by elders. It is believed that if one were to harm or eat a lemur, they shall experiences various hardships such as sickness and misfortune. Despite these traditional views, many members of the younger generation began to disregard the taboo and began eating and killing the lemurs. Biologists and sociologists believe that foreign influence and the recent influx of immigrants to the island have diluted the power of the lemur taboos (Smith).

Various long-term and short-term studies have been conducted on the lemurs to observe their communication methods, social behavior, and dietary habits. It is revealed that the lemurs communicated with scent and sound to communicate. A gland inside the throat produces a scent that is rubbed and used to mark territory. Other than establishing territorial, the other uses of the scent remain unknown. They also produce clicking sounds, growls in situations varying from creating threats to signals to finding lost sifakas. The matriarchal system is prominent within sifaka groups. It is also revealed that the prosimians engage in polyandrous relationships.