Why are ruffed lemurs endangered

We have both at Folly Farm. In the wild they can live for between 15 and 20 years. Our group of red ruffed lemurs live next our black and white ruffed lemurs near our pride of lions and mob of meerkats. The red ruffed lemur is critically endangered. The biggest threat to red ruffed lemurs, and all lemur species, is hunting for their meat and their habitat being destroyed, through the illegal logging of trees. Where do red ruffed lemurs live?

Red Ruffed Lemur Varecia rubra. Overview Threats Survival Blueprint Fellows. About The red ruffed lemur is one of the largest species of lemur. ED Score: Loading species distribution map Version The tooth comb is comprised of the six bottom, front teeth, which are long and thin and set close together, resembling the teeth of a comb. Red ruffed lemurs are frugivorous; they eat mainly fruit, as well as leaves, flowers, and nectar. All lemurs are social and vocal. They use at least 12 different known calls to define territory, communicate with neighboring groups, and alert each other to predators.

Some of their calls can be very loud and echo through the rainforest or the Zoo, as the case may be! Red ruffed lemurs only have a handful of predators to worry about, but these few are significant. They include fossas large, weasel-like carnivores endemic to Madagascar , raptors, and humans. Red ruffed lemurs give birth to litters of usually offspring after about days in the womb. Females build nests out of twigs in the treetops and this is where the tiny babies stay for their first few weeks of life.

After that, they are carried by mouth from site to site and protected by males. In sum, for these lemurs the effects of forest loss will outpace climate change. In a study published in November , my colleagues and I showed that ruffed lemurs depend on habitat cover to survive. We investigated natural and human-caused impediments that prevent the lemurs from spreading across their range, and tracked the movement of their genes as they ranged between habitats and reproduced.

This movement, known as gene flow, is important for maintaining genetic variability within populations, allowing lemurs to adapt to their ever-changing environments. Based on this analysis, we parsed out which landscape variables — including rivers, elevation, roads, habitat quality and human population density — best explained gene flow in ruffed lemurs.

Deforestation alongside human communities was the most significant barrier. Taken together, these and other lines of evidence show that deforestation poses an imminent threat to conservation on Madagascar. Based on our projections, habitat loss is a more immediate threat to lemurs than climate change, at least in the immediate future.