Should Zoo Foods be Chopped or Should We ‘Lemur’ them Whole
It remains common practice to chop the food of zoo-housed animals, even when the animals themselves are capable of processing larger food items. Zoo husbandry practices should be based on evidence, so there is a need to identify whether chopped food diets have any benefits for animals as opposed to whole items. Research was undertaken […]
Assessing Allostatic Load in Ring-Tailed Lemurs (Lemur catta)
Responses to stress are unavoidable, adaptive mechanisms in humans and non-human animals. However, in humans, chronic stress has been linked to poor health outcomes and early mortality. Allostatic load, the physiologic dysregulation that occurs when an organism is exposed to chronic stressors, has been used to assess stress in humans; less work has been done […]
Inter-specific interactions involving Lemur catta housed in mixed-species exhibits in UK zoos
Ring-tailed lemur Lemur catta are a popular Madagascan species kept in zoos due to their appeal to visitors. As a flagship endangered species, they are often used to highlight conservation messages and are frequently kept in mixed-species and walk-through exhibits providing an immersive experience for the public. However, agonistic events may be more frequent in […]
Are “visitor effects” overestimated? Behaviour in captive lemurs is mainly driven by co-variation with time and weather
The concept that visitors affect behaviour of captive animals has interested zookeepers since the 1960s. However, to date no studies on “visitor effects” have allowed for time of day and weather, which can affect behaviour directly and frequently co-vary with visitor numbers. Here, we examine visitor effects on captive ring-tailed lemurs Lemur catta in a […]
Effects of Three Food Enrichment Items on the Behavior of Black Lemurs (Eulemur macaco macaco) and Ringtail Lemurs (Lemur catta) at the Henson Robinson Zoo, Springfield, Illinois
This study tested 3 food enrichment items mentioned in a laboratory primate newsletter with 6 adult Eulemur macaco and 3 adult Lemur catta to examine whether the items would affect the behavior of the lemurs. The results suggest that Food Enrichment Item 3 (a wire box filled with whole grapes, apples, or both hidden in […]
Female age-specific reproductive rates, birth seasonality, and infant mortality of ring-tailed Lemurs on St. Catherines Island: 17-year reproductive history of a free-ranging colony
Abstract 10.1002/zoo.20062.abs To compare reproductive parameters of a managed population of free-ranging provisioned ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) to wild L. catta populations, we analyzed birth and mortality records collected over the 17-year history of the St. Catherines Island ring-tailed lemur colony. The majority of births in this colony (approximately 80%) occurred in March, which indicates […]
Adult play fighting and potential role of tail signals in ringtailed lemurs (Lemur catta)
Adult strepsirrhines have been completely neglected in the study of animal play. I focused on adult play fighting and the role of tail-play as a signal in ringtailed lemurs (Lemur catta). Tail-play is performed during play fighting, when lemurs anoint or, more rarely, wave their tails toward the playmate. During the prereproductive period, male and […]
A scoring system for coat and tail condition in ringtailed lemurs, Lemur catta
Coat condition can be influenced by a wide variety of disorders and thus provides a useful tool for noninvasive health and welfare assessments in wild and captive animals. Using Lemur catta as an exemplar, we offer a 6-step scoring system for coat and tail condition, ranging from perfectly fluffy to half or more of body […]
Evidence that displacement activities facilitate behavioural transitions in ring-tailed lemurs
Displacement activities are behavioural patterns defined by their apparent irrelevance to an animal’s ongoing actions. Despite being identified in diverse taxa, their function remains poorly understood. One hypothesis posits that displacement activities facilitate transitions between different behaviours by mediating changes in animals’ motivational state. Under this hypothesis, it is predicted that displace-ment activities will occur […]
Dispersal among male ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) on St. Catherines Island
Male dispersal patterns were analyzed across a nine-year period in a population of ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) on St. Catherines Island (SCI), USA, to evaluate two ultimate explanations for male dispersal: inbreeding avoidance and intrasexual mating competition. As part of this analysis, we also compared patterns of dispersal at this site with data from wild […]