Organize students into groups of three so that one member of each group has notes on the different categories outlined in the Before Watching activity 3.
Provide copies of the student handout and other materials to each group. Discuss with students the concept of a food web. They are probably familiar with a simple food chain e. A food web is a more complex model of feeding relationships that includes many interconnected food chains.
After watching, have students in each group identify all the plants and animals on the student handout and draw arrows from each plant or animal to the animal that eats it. Then, using their program notes and student handout, have students draw a food web for the plants and animals of northern Madagascar. Note to students that these plants and animals are only a small part of the food web in this region of Madagascar. Ask students to draw arrows from an animal or plant to the animal that eats it to illustrate how energy flows through the food web.
Ask students to choose one food chain from their food web to draw an energy pyramid. An energy pyramid shows how energy flows through the food chain. The thumbs on the upper appendages are not opposable as the joint is fixed. The first toe on the lower appendage is opposable, is used while climbing trees in the mid and upper level canopy. Cawthon lang, ; Gould, et al. Ring-tailed lemurs begin mating in April, with a gestation period of to days, giving birth beginning in August and finishing in September.
Females are not reproductively active until 2. Females typically give birth to one or two offspring, more commonly females will only have one. Females typically mate with more than one male during estrous. Males will compete amongst themselves for the right to mate with the females. Offspring are completely cared for by the mother. Newborns spend their first two weeks of life riding on the underbellies of their mothers.
After the first two weeks the young ride on the backs of their mothers and begin to explore their surroundings. The males in the troops do very little for the young. The young are weaned starting at eight weeks of age, until they are fully weaned at five months, all nutrition is obtained from the mother. This mortality rate decreases if the mother is older in age, or has previously given birth.
Cawthon lang, ; Sauther, ; Wilson and Hanlon, Care of the young lies solely with the mother, with males in the group have little to no impact on raising young. Females are responsible for grooming, feeding, weaning, and teaching their young. Females in the troop have been frequently observed caring for other female's offspring as well as babysitting, feeding and grooming. Ring-tailed lemurs typically live to be 16 years old, with the oldest known ring-tailed lemur living to be 33 years old in captivity.
Limits to lifespan in the wild include habitat loss and limited resources. Ring-tailed lemurs live in groups of 15 to 20 individuals called troops. Females stay with the same troop they were born into, while the males will typically move between troops every 2 to 5 years. These troops are highly social with complex interactions. Hierarchy is typically established in their youth through rough and tumble play. All females are dominant over all males.
The lowest ranking female is still higher in the social hierarchy than the highest ranking male. Ring-tailed lemurs have a daily home range of meters from where they woke up. The troop will slowly meander from just before dawn until dusk looking for food. Ring-tailed lemurs are easily recognized by the black rings on their white, fluffy tails.
Blue-eyed black lemurs Eulemur flavifrons are striking, as they are the only primates other than humans to have blue eyes, according to the San Diego Zoo.
Aye-ayes have perhaps the strangest appearance of all lemurs and primates in general, with tiny, bulging eyes, enormous ears and fluffy, long tails. These nocturnal lemurs also have long, skinny fingers that they tap on branches to locate and collect grubs for food. Related: 'Cursed' primate weirdos have extra thumbs. Scientists didn't know about them until now. All lemurs are found on Madagascar, an island country off the west coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. Populations of mongoose lemurs Eulemur mongoz and brown lemurs Eulemur fulvus also live on the nearby Comoros Islands, between Madagascar and Mozambique, but they were almost certainly introduced to these islands by humans, according to the IUCN.
Related: Species hitched ride to Madagascar on floating islands. Lemurs occupy many different habitats on Madagascar, including rainforests , dry deciduous forests, spiny forests, wetlands and mountains.
For example, Sibree's dwarf lemurs Cheirogaleus sibreei live in rainforests at altitudes above 4, feet 1, meters , and white-collared lemurs Eulemur cinereiceps , also known as gray-headed lemurs, live in a thin strip of tropical, moist lowland forest from sea level up to 2, feet m.
Lemur habitat is disappearing due to deforestation and their ranges are often highly restrictive. Some animals, such as Sunda flying lemurs Galeopterus variegatus from Southeast Asia, have lemur in their name but are not actually lemurs.
True lemurs are only found on Madagascar and nearby islands. Many lemurs are herbivores and feed on fruit, flowers, tree bark and sap. Lemurs can be very picky about what they eat, with most of their diet coming from a few tree species, according to the American Museum of Natural History AMNH.
For example, greater bamboo lemurs Prolemur simus are highly specialized to eat bamboo, making them Madagascar's equivalent of China's giant pandas Ailuropoda melanoleuca. A study published in the journal Current Biology found that greater bamboo lemurs living in Madagascar's Ranomafana National Park get almost all of their food from a single species of woody bamboo called Cathariostachys madagascariensis.
Lemurs are key seed dispersers on Madagascar, which means they help plants reproduce by carrying seeds in their stomach after eating fruit and depositing the seeds into a new area through their feces. Certain plants can be dependent on a single lemur species to disperse their seeds.
For example, a study published in the Journal of Tropical Ecology noted that brown lemurs in a tropical dry forest in northwestern Madagascar are the only disperser for plants with seeds that are more than 0. These characteristics make lemurs important for maintaining healthy forests, just as healthy forests are important for providing lemurs with food.
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