Selection of food and ranging behaviour in a sexually monomorphic folivorous lemur: Lepilemur ruficaudatus

Abstract

Monomorphic lemurs of Madagascar allow us to investigate whether there are behavioural mechanisms that compensate for sex-specific differences in the costs of maintenance and reproduction in arboreal primates. Food selection of the pair-living Lepilemur ruficaudatus was studied in relation to food chemistry, and travel distances were measured as possible indications of differential investment in ranging activities (possibly related to the defence of territories and/or mating opportunities). Fourteen females and 14 males were radio-tracked for a total of 365 half-nights (from dusk to midnight or from midnight to dawn) at different times of the year (birth, lactation and weaning, pre-mating, post-mating). When based on monthly means, the two sexes did not differ in nightly travel distances. Food selection of females and males did not differ in relation to the chemical composition of leaves, but fruits consumed by females had lower fibre contents than fruits consumed by males. Even though other behavioural data are fragmentary, little evidence exists for behavioural mechanisms in L. ruficaudatus to compensate for the different energetic costs of females and males.

Terrestriality and bacterial transfer: A comparative study of gut microbiomes in sympatric Malagasy mammals

“…Caecotrophy—re-ingestion of feces—has been observed in one sportive lemur species ( L. mustelinus) and may be an adaptation to increase nitrogen utilization (82). However, caecotrophy has not been observed in our study species ( L. ruficaudatus ) or other sportive lemurs (86,90,91). Instead, they may manage their folivorous diet and small body size by conserving energy; they have one of the lowest basal metabolic rates among folivorous mammals (92) and long nighttime resting periods (82,90).…”

Terrestriality and bacterial transfer: a comparative study of gut microbiomes in sympatric Malagasy mammals

“…Caecotrophy-reingestion of feces-has been observed in one sportive lemur species (L. mustelinus) and may be an adaptation to increase nitrogen utilization [81]. However, caecotrophy has not been observed in our study species (L. ruficaudatus) or other sportive lemurs [84,88,89]. Instead, they may manage their folivorous diet and small body size by conserving energy; they have one of the lowest basal metabolic rates among folivorous mammals [90] and long nighttime resting periods [81,88].…”

Food for folivores: nutritional explanations linking diets to population density

“…We deliberately included bamboo, which Hapalemur species eat extensively in Madagascar, to demonstrate the similarity of AvailN and AvailNpeg (available N with polyethylene glycol) when tannins are absent and thus the eYcacy of the AvailN method, while acknowledging that bamboo diVers from the other samples in many ways other than tannins. Also from Madagascar we used 23 samples of leaves from a rainforest (Ranomafana National Park) (Arrigo-Nelson 2006) and from a dry deciduous forest (Ganzhorn et al 2004) that make up part of the diet of lemurs. The 16 Ugandan samples were leaves, leaf buds and pith from a variety of plant species used in a study on chimpanzees.…”