DID YOU KNOW?
Black Lemurs are sexually dimorphic. The males are black and the females have a brown back, white belly, gray head and white ear tufts.

HABITAT
Primary and Secondary humid forest, timber,
coffee and cashew plantations. Northwest Corner of Madagascar and the islands of Nosy Be and Nosy Komba.

LIFE HISTORY
Black lemurs reach sexual maturity at 2 years of age and will have their first offspring at age three. They will give birth to either single or twin babies after a gestation period of 4-5 months. They will experience an average birth interval of 1-2 years and will live to be 27-30 years of age.

SOCIAL STRUCTURE
Multimale-multifemale.
The groups generally have more males than females and different groups may join together at night to sleep. Group sizes vary from 7 – 15 individuals.

BEHAVIOR
Cathermeral and Arboreal.
This species is less active during the day than at night especially when the Parkia tree’s night flowers are in bloom.

ASSOCIATION
No known associations.

MATING
During the breeding season the males become very aggressive, it is common for males to leave their group and try their luck with females of another group. Black lemurs can have a lot of stamina during breeding, one male was observed to mate 6 times in 30 minutes.

TERRITORIAL MARKING
Black Lemurs mark their territory mainly through vocalizations at dusk but scent marking has also been observed.

SCENT MARKING
Black lemurs occasionally rub the palms of their hands over branches and sticks apparently in an attempt to mark their territory.

VOCALIZATIONS
1. Contented purring during grooming.
2. Cohesion or contact calls
3. Recognition grunts
4. Territorial Calls are made by the entire group at dusk
5. Alarm Calls for both ground and aerial predators.
6. Alarm Hack – made when startled and sometimes educes a mobbing.

THREATS TO THE SPECIES
Black lemurs have been severally affected by the destructions of their habitat. The protected areas were the Black lemurs are housed in Madagascar leave a bit to be desired. There are approximately 275 individuals in sanctuaries and zoo’s worldwide and are reported to be fairly good breeders. Unfortunately the efforts being made to protect this species are fairly unsuccessful because the hunting of these animals still persists.