Science Diary: Looking for Lemurs – Limited Fruit

music; ambience lemurs, Madagascar dawn

If you want to understand an animal and the role it plays in its local ecosystem, you have to know that creature’s behavior intimately. And if the animal is a lemurone of Madagascar’s tree dwelling primatesthat means a lot of data gathering and looking upwards. Welcome to Pulse of the Planet’s Science Diaries, a glimpse of the world of science from the inside. And now, a look back, and an update on Madagascar’s lemurs.

SAN: “There are several different types of data that we collect. The first is called focal animal data, and what that means is that every day we select one animal within the group that we’re studying, and we follow that animal from dawn to dusk.

Summer Arrigo-Nelson is a research scientist with the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences at California University of Pennsylvania.

SAN: “Throughout the day what we collect is at five-minute intervals we record the activity of the animal. So whether she’s resting or grooming or feeding, and if it’s feeding we’ll also record what the plant species and the plant part, whether it be fruits or leaves or flowers, that they’re feeding on. We also record the animal’s height within the tree, his or her location in the trail system, because that allows us to track the ranging of the group over time.”

By keeping such detailed observations, researchers notice trends in animal behavior which may be affected by ecological changes, such as logging. Logged forests yield less fruit, forcing lemurs to consume more leaves. New evidence shows that lemurs in these forests don’t move around as much, exhausting food resources more quickly. Body weight is down, too. And in female lemurs that’s particularly concerning, as maternal body weight plays a crucial role in infant survival. Pulse of the Planet’s Science Diaries are made possible by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.

Science Diary: Looking for Lemurs - Limited Fruit

Logging of fruit-bearing trees in Madagascar has led to a leaner lemur population, and for the females, that might not be such a good thing.
Air Date:07/28/2009
Scientist:
Transcript:


music; ambience lemurs, Madagascar dawn

If you want to understand an animal and the role it plays in its local ecosystem, you have to know that creature’s behavior intimately. And if the animal is a lemurone of Madagascar’s tree dwelling primatesthat means a lot of data gathering and looking upwards. Welcome to Pulse of the Planet’s Science Diaries, a glimpse of the world of science from the inside. And now, a look back, and an update on Madagascar’s lemurs.

SAN: “There are several different types of data that we collect. The first is called focal animal data, and what that means is that every day we select one animal within the group that we're studying, and we follow that animal from dawn to dusk.

Summer Arrigo-Nelson is a research scientist with the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences at California University of Pennsylvania.

SAN: “Throughout the day what we collect is at five-minute intervals we record the activity of the animal. So whether she's resting or grooming or feeding, and if it's feeding we'll also record what the plant species and the plant part, whether it be fruits or leaves or flowers, that they're feeding on. We also record the animal's height within the tree, his or her location in the trail system, because that allows us to track the ranging of the group over time.”

By keeping such detailed observations, researchers notice trends in animal behavior which may be affected by ecological changes, such as logging. Logged forests yield less fruit, forcing lemurs to consume more leaves. New evidence shows that lemurs in these forests don’t move around as much, exhausting food resources more quickly. Body weight is down, too. And in female lemurs that’s particularly concerning, as maternal body weight plays a crucial role in infant survival. Pulse of the Planet’s Science Diaries are made possible by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.