{"id":1512,"date":"2022-02-08T23:53:48","date_gmt":"2022-02-08T23:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interestinganimalfacts.com\/?p=1512"},"modified":"2022-02-08T23:54:01","modified_gmt":"2022-02-08T23:54:01","slug":"interesting-animal-facts-about-lemurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interestinganimalfacts.com\/interesting-animal-facts-about-lemurs\/","title":{"rendered":"Interesting Animal Facts About Lemurs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Lemurs come in many shapes and sizes. These primates, native to Madagascar, are well-known for their long tails, big eyes, and rambunctious attitudes.
But with more than 100 species and isolated to a single island, there are plenty of things about lemurs that you might not know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From the curious ring-tailed lemur to the eerie aye-aye, lemurs are a wildly varied bunch. However, there are some absolutely fascinating things that these animals share that truly make lemurs stand out against the crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To help you learn a bit more about these amazing creatures, we\u2019ve collected 15 fun, interesting, and some downright strange facts about lemurs!
So let\u2019s get right into it, shall we?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The only place lemurs are found in the wild is in Madagascar. Without threats from major predators, lemurs have been able to flourish.
They also don\u2019t have much competition for food, and their diets primarily consist of fruit, leaves, and tree sap.
If your mind jumps to King Julien from the movie Madagascar when someone mentions the word lemur, now you know where the association comes from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lemurs have fairly short lifespans for primates. Larger primates such as chimpanzees and orangutans can live for much longer due to their size, but the smaller lemurs only have an average lifespan of 15-20 years in the wild.
That said, lemurs in captivity are able to live up to 30 years old!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like many other primates, lemurs are very intelligent. Studies have shown that lemurs are capable of communicating with each other, can solve simple puzzles, and are even able to understand simple math!
Although their cognitive skills haven\u2019t been studied as much as other primates, it\u2019s clear that lemurs can be just as intelligent as our other distant relatives.
Smarter lemurs are also shown to be more popular and respected amongst other lemurs.
Lemurs that were able to complete puzzles and challenges in studies were shown to receive more attention and better treatment from their peers, including an increase in being groomed without being expected to reciprocate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not many animals naturally have blue eyes. Blue eyes are caused by a lower amount of melanin, the pigment that determines the color of eyes, skin, and even hair.
Many animals don\u2019t have blue eyes due to the disadvantages they cause in terms of light sensitivity and stealth, among other factors.
Lemurs are one of only two non-human primates that can have blue eyes; the other species is the blue-eyed spotted cuscus, which is native to Indonesia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The name \u2018lemur\u2019 comes from the Latin word \u2018Lemures\u2019. In ancient Rome, lemures referred to wandering spirits that were typically malevolent.
While lemurs definitely aren\u2019t evil, their small frames, nocturnal habits, and large eyes shed a bit of light on how they might have gotten their name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
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With around 112 species of lemur in the world, lemurs come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Because of how many species and subspecies there are, lemurs show a range of different behaviors depending on their species.
They are also the world\u2019s oldest living species of primate, with estimates placing them around 65 million years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While most lemurs are fairly small, the Madame Berthe\u2019s mouse lemur really takes the cake.
These tiny animals weigh just over an ounce, and at their full size, they grow to a maximum size of 7.5 inches long (with at least two-thirds of that body length made up by their tail).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other species of lemur can be much larger. The indri is the largest species of lemur, weighing over 20 pounds and with a head and body length of over two feet.
Their tails, on the other hand, are much smaller than other species of lemur and only reach lengths of around 2 inches.
In the past, there were much larger species of lemur. Evidence shows that around 500 years ago there were lemurs the size of gorillas on Madagascar.
However, these have since gone extinct, likely due to a loss of habitat or hunting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n