Aug
25
Greater Bamboo Lemur
August 25, 2002 | Leave a Comment
Hapalemur simus: This species, also called the Broad-nosed gentle lemur, is easy to recognize by its Yoda-like ear tufts. It had been believed to be extinct for about 50 years, until Dr. Patricia Wright rediscovered it in 1986. Wright pushed to create Ranomafana National Park to help save this species, and in fact about 1,000 individuals are believed to live in the park.
Simus live in groups of 7 to 11 individuals (sometimes as many as 25), and tend to be active around dawn and dusk. Once widespread throughout the rainforests in Madagascar, simus was “lost” to science for years, then rediscovered in living in two tiny, isolated populations in the southeastern rainforest.This species is not female dominant.
Photo op: We were lucky enough to have a group come crashing into our campsite one afternoon, settling in to eat the bamboo there for several hours. This group is habituated to humans, and came right down to eye-level to watch us — without much interest — as we watched them — with great interest.
Food and range: Simus feed almost exclusively on bamboo, chewing into live stalks and stripping the outer layers to get to the pith. The other 2 kinds of bamboo lemurs (Hapalemur aureus and griseus) eat other parts of the bamboo plant, so do not, technically, compete with Hapalemur simus for food.
As you can imagine, a group of greater bamboo lemurs can quickly do a great deal of damage to a bamboo forest. They need a large range in order to have enough bamboo to eat. In fact, the range for a small group can be 100-150 ha. (Compare that to rubriventer, with a range of 10-20 herctares.)
Conservation status: High Priority Endangered
Range: 150 hectares
(These photos are from my trip to Madagascar in 2000.)