The word lemur comes from Latin and means "spirits of the ancestors" or "ghosts" [1] These animals that correspond to a group of primates, usually of small sizes, although some can be medium, they have various types of colors and patterns. Lemurs are endemic animals of Madagascar, they are usually arboreal, and they are a group with a controversial taxonomy, about which new species have been suggested over time. In this article on our site, we want to specifically present you with information on what do lemurs eat, so we invite you to continue reading so you can learn about the diet of these peculiar animals.
Type of feeding of the lemur
Just as there is a wide diversity of species of these primates, the type of diet of the lemur is also varied. In this sense, depending on the species there is a tendency to follow an omnivorous or herbivorous diet, and on the latter, it can be of the folivorous or frugivorous type.
In this way, lemurs come to consume a wide variety of foods, mainly various types of plants or parts of plants, particularly. However, since their habitat is characterized by seasonality, the availability or abundance of some species, they respond to periods of rain or drought.
On the other hand, the diet of the lemur, specifically of some species, can also include a little soil, which implies that it contributes with the contribution of certain minerals and s alts.
We also present omnivorous animals and herbivorous animals in these other articles that may interest you.
What foods do lemurs eat?
As we have mentioned, depending on the species, a lemur can consume insects or other animals, leaves, fruits, seeds, shoots, bark, nectar, plant exudates and soil. Below are specific examples of foods that some of these animals eat:
- Madame Berthe's mouse lemur (Microcebus berthae): lives mainly in dry deciduous forests, and its diet is based on fruits, gums of certain plants and sugary excretions of insect larvae. When the dry season occurs, and plant abundance decreases, it includes animal remains.
- Grey-headed lemur (Eulemur cinereiceps): its habitat is evergreen forests, where it feeds mainly on fruits, In fact, it is one of the most frugivorous lemurs in existence. It also consumes flowers, leaves, eventually insects and fungi.
- Greater Bamboo Lemur (Prolemur simus): Found in rainforests dominated by the bamboo species Cathariostachys madagascariensis, which represents 95% of the diet of this lemur. Depending on the season, it consumes the shoots, the new or mature leaves and the pith, which it extracts by breaking the hard outer shell, for which it is provided with specialized teeth. A peculiarity is the cyanide that is present in the shoots of this plant, which does not cause any harm to the species. However, the mechanism for inhibiting this effect, which could kill a human being, is unknown.
- Red ruffed lemur (Varecia rubra): lives in primary or some secondary forests of trees with high crowns in humid areas, in the which has a mostly frugivorous diet of 60%. This lemur feeding makes the species a seed disperser. Also, include leaves and flower nectar in your diet. By consuming the latter, it becomes an important tree pollinator in the area.
- Red-tailed Sporting Lemur (Lepilemur ruficaudatus): This lemur lives in deciduous, gallery or shrubby forests, being mainly folivorous. Among the species that stand out for their food we find Tamarindus indica and Euphorbia tiruculli. When the leaves are scarce, it consumes some fruits and flowers.
Other examples that we can mention are:
- Masoala's fork-marked lemur (Phaner furcifer): who consumes the gum produced by certain trees.
- Brown lemur (Eulemur fulvus): although it mainly consumes flowers, leaves and fruits, it includes bark, exudates from trees, soil, eggs and certain animals such as small birds, insects, frogs, chameleons, and millipedes.
If you want to know more about frogs, don't hesitate to take a look at these other articles on Characteristics of frogs or Types of chameleons.
How much does a lemur eat?
A lemur's amount of food varies depending on the type of feeding and the availability of food. Thus, for example, the reddish-brown lemur (Eulemur rufus) spends about three hours a day feeding, time that is divided into several moments.
A particular aspect of these animals is that they generally have a quite low metabolic rate, a function that is very useful for conserving energy in the dry season, when both food and water become scarce. Thus, for example, the sporting red-tailed lemur (Lepilemur ruficaudatus) has one of the lowest resting-state metabolic rates for a mammal, while point that, when they cut down the trees where it lives, it ends up dying because it does not have enough energy to move to another tree.
This peculiarity is associated with other aspects that they also use to minimize energy consumption, for example, staying in groups to reduce heat loss, exposing themselves to the sun and even sharing shelter. But additionally, some go to hibernate for long periods of time, such as:
- Sibree's dwarf lemur (Cheirogaleus sibreei): hibernates for about 7 months.
- Fat-tailed dwarf lemur (Cheirogaleus medius): which goes dormant for about 6 months.
To survive during this time without activity, these animals, in the rainy season and with an abundance of food, store fat reserves in their tails, which they then use during the mentioned time.
