Beschreibung
This book is a truly international collaboration, with editors based on four con- nents and first authors from Canada, France, Japan, Madagascar, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Clearly, there is something attractive about studying Lemur catta, the ringtailed lemur. Perhaps it is the lemurs themselves! Why study ringtailed lemurs? Because lemurs are a separate radiation of p- mates from the monkeys, apes, and humans. Because ringtails live in the largest social groups of any known lemur and therefore offer the closest comparison with other social primates, including ourselves. And also because ringtails have become the flagship species of Madagascar. Some 70 species or subspecies of lemurs inhabit Madagascar. Each kind has its own fascinating story, but ringtails are the ones that everyone thinks they know. That black-and-white tail adorns tourist brochures and school notebooks and banknotes. All the same, after 40 years of field study, we dont know nearly enough. In this book, we make a first estimate on how many might be alive today, but we do not know how many ri- tailed lemurs and how many southern forests will survive. This book explores part of what we do know. Its four sections are (I) Distribution: Ringtailed Lemurs in Madagascar, (II) Ringtails and Their Forests: Feeding and Ranging Behavior, (III) Social Behavior Within and Between Troops, and finally (IV) Health and Disease. Of course, all these issues are int- related.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
The distribution and biogeography of the ring-tailed lemur in Madagascar.- A preliminary estimate of Lemur catta population density using satellite imagery.- Berenty Reserve: A research site in southern Madagascar.- Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve: A research site in southwestern Madagascar.- Plant species fed on by Lemur catta in gallery forests of the southern domain of Madagascar.- Tamarind recruitment and long-term stability in the gallery forest at Berenty, Madagascar.- Home ranges of ring-tailed lemur troops and the density of large trees at Berenty Reserve, madagascar.- The influence of tamarind tree quality and quantity on Lemur catta behavior.- Feeding competition between introduced Eulemur fulvus and native Lemur catta during the birth season at Berenty Reserve, southern Madagascar.- Tradition and novelty: Lemur catta feeding strategy on introduced tree species at Berenty Reserve.- Diet quality and taste perception of plant secondary metabolites by Lemur catta.- Territory as bet-hedging: Lemur catta in a rich forest and an erratic climate.- Resource defense in Lemur catta: The importance of group size.- Social changes in a wild population of ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) at Berenty, Madagascar.- Obsession with agonistic power.- Male and female ringtailed lemurs¿ energetic strategy does not explain female dominance.- Male sociality and integration during the dispersal process in Lemur catta: a case study.- Patterns of health, disease and behavior among wild ring-tailed lemurs, Lemur catta: Effects of habitat and sex.- Bald lemur syndrome and the miracle tree: Alopecia associated with Leucaena leucocephala at Berenty Reserve, Madagascar.- Temporal change in tooth size Among ring-tailed Lemurs (Lemur catta) at the Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve, Madagascar: Effects of an environmental fluctuation.
