Fun Red-bellied Lemur Facts For Kids
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We know that primates are usually smart creatures and love to play and relax with their family members and friends and similar is the case with red-bellied lemurs. These lemurs are fascinating creatures and seem to be really friendly around humans too, rather than being aggressive like many other types of primates out there.
These beautiful creatures are sexually dimorphic and you would easily be able to tell the difference between a male and female lemur.
Like many other species of primates, these red-bellied lemurs too have become a victim of heavy deforestation. They also have scent glands which they use to track the strong scent of predators.
The lemur pair bonds for life as these animals are monogamous by nature.
This has caused the population of these lemurs to plummet significantly and now these animals are considered to be an endangered species. However, IUCN has currently listed the population of this species of endemic lemurs from Madagascar as Vulnerable.
To know more about primates like these, be sure to check out howler monkey facts or white-bellied spider monkey facts!
Red-Bellied Lemur Interesting Facts
What type of animal is a red-bellied lemur?
Red-bellied lemurs are actually primates similar to animals like monkeys, apes, or even humans for that matter!
What class of animal does a red-bellied lemur belong to?
This species of lemurs belong to the class Mammalia.
How many red-bellied lemurs are there in the world?
As of now, there aren't a lot of these red-bellied lemurs found across the world.
As these are endemic creatures, their population range isn't that high. Also over the last few years, mainly due to deforestation and the hunting activities of humans, the number of these chestnut brown lemurs has significantly decreased.
There isn't a solid number available regarding how many of these animals can be found in the wild, however, scientists estimate that there can be around 10,000-100,000 of these lemurs, though that number is decreasing day by day!
Where does a red-bellied lemur live?
These groups of lemurs are endemic creatures and their population has been restricted to the island of Madagascar, mainly eastern Madagascar. However, scientists have found that these red-bellied lemurs originated from Ethiopia.
What is a red-bellied lemur's habitat?
Even though red-bellied lemurs are almost as small as house cats, these groups of lemurs love eating food and their diet includes multiple meals throughout the day. To do justice to their intense diet requirements, these red-bellied lemurs live in medium or high-altitude rainforests that have high availability of nutritional food.
Who does the red-bellied lemur live with?
These wild animals can usually be seen living in groups of about 6-30 red-bellied lemurs.
How long does a red-bellied lemur live?
Red-bellied lemurs can be seen living for around 20 years in captivity, however, in the wild, this species of lemur can easily live around 25 years.
How do they reproduce?
The reproduction cycle of this lemur species happens to be quite an interesting thing. These young Eastern Madagascar lemurs form monogamous breeding bonds when the male, female lemurs reach sexual maturity which is usually when both the male and female are around two years old.
The pair of male and females lemurs are seen breeding usually around the month of May and June which happens to be their mating period. After mating, the gestation period of the females lasts around three to four months.
Eventually, the females give birth to an infant lemur. Usually, this lemur species only have a single offspring but there have been instances when females give birth to twins of offspring or even three young baby infant lemurs!
The males along with the mommy lemurs take care of their baby. Weaning usually starts when these lemurs become around five months old.
What is their conservation status?
These lemurs are listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN.
Red-Bellied Lemur Fun Facts
What does the red-bellied lemur look like?
These creatures happen to be extremely unique and look quite good as well. The red-bellied lemurs are sexually dimorphic meaning the males look quite different than the females of this group of animals.
These creatures have chestnut brown fur all across their brown bodies. They are also seen having white patches around their eyes, which make their orange eyes look brighter and more intimidating. They are also known for having a scent gland.
This scent gland can usually be seen on the top of their forehead. Both the males and females have black tails. However, the males are usually quite distinctive because the males are seen having very prominent red bellies.
This makes the males often come off as threatening at times. This may be why these animals are often hunted and this has resulted in a decline in their conservation regulations.
How cute are they?
These lemurs are quite cute as compared to many other species of animals, mainly because of their distinctive colors. However, seeing groups of these lemurs in the wild can often come off as quite threatening rather than cute because of their intimidating body. But worry not, these animal groups are quite docile and are of no threat to humans.
How do they communicate?
Like in many other species of primates, these creatures use the scent glands on their body to produce chemicals in order to mark their territory. Hence, chemical emission is one of the ways this group of animals communicates.
This species can also be seen using their voice to signal like many other species of lemurs. This species also uses their body to create non-verbal gestures such as hand signs or various other signs to signal for the availability of food, playing, warning, and more.
How big is a red-bellied lemur?
These lemurs are medium-sized. Medium-sized animals usually have a body length that can range between 10-20 in (25-50 cm). These animals can usually grow anywhere between 14-16.5 in (36-42 cm). Their body length is mainly dependent on their habitat and their diet. However, the infants or offsprings are, obviously, a lot smaller.
How fast can a red-bellied lemur move?
Lemurs happen to be quite agile when they aren't been lazy. It is said that the speed of these lemurs usually happens to be around 12 mph (19 kph).
How much does a red-bellied lemur weigh?
Depending on their food intake and diet, the range of weight of these animals may vary. However, usually, they weigh around 4.4-6.6 lb (2-3 kg).
What are the male and female names of the species?
A male lemur is often referred to as a prince while the female lemur is often referred to as a princess.
What would you call a baby red-bellied lemur?
Generally, the infant or the offspring of a lemur is referred to as a pup.
What do they eat?
These creatures love to eat flowers and leaves. Their primary diet consists of flowers from over 67 species of plants.
However, these animals can also be seen eating bugs or invertebrates. They can eat small cockroaches and often at times can also be seen eating earthworms and millipedes or centipedes. red-bellied lemur teeth happen to be quite sharp as these creatures are often seen chewing on branches as well.
Are they dangerous?
These animals love to play and stay in their habitat, and the possibility of getting these creatures out of their own habitat is quite unlikely to happen. Hence on a scale range of 1-10, these animals may range somewhere around two to three when it comes to them being dangerous to humans.
Would they make a good pet?
It's not nice to get these rainforest-loving animals out of their original rainforest habitats. Hence, it is advised to not keep them as pets, especially infants.
Did you know...
The red-bellied lemur superfamily is called Eulemur and it also includes white-headed lemur, grey-headed lemur, ring-tailed lemur, and many more.
There aren't many of these species of animals in Masola national park, but you will find quite a few of them in Ranomafana national park.
Are red-bellied lemurs nocturnal?
These animals are cathemeral, meaning they are active sporadically from midnight to midnight, like lions or coyotes.
Why are lemurs important?
These lemurs help with seed dispersal and pollination activities which is great for the ecosystem.
Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly animal facts for everyone to discover! For more relatable content, check out these giant armadillo facts and hoary bat facts for kids.
You can even occupy yourself at home by coloring in one of our free printable Mexican Lemur coloring pages.
Main image by Bernard DuPont.
Second image by Francesco Veronesi.
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