Masoala Fork-crowned Lemur

Taxobox
name = Eastern Fork-crowned LemurMSW3 Groves | pages = 114]


image_width = 299px
image_caption = A lithograph from "Brehms Tierleben" (1860)
status = LC
status_system = iucn3.1
status_ref = IUCN2006 | assessors = Ganzhorn, J. & Members of the Primate Specialist Group | year = 2000 | title = Phaner furcifer ssp. furcifer | id = 16872 | downloaded = 2007-02-14]
image_width = 200px
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Primates
familia = Cheirogaleidae
genus = "Phaner"
species = "P. furcifer"
binomial = "Phaner furcifer"
binomial_authority = Blainville, 1839

The Masoala Fork-crowned Lemur ("Phaner furcifer"), also known as the Eastern Fork-marked Lemur, is found in the coastal forests of northern and western Madagascar.

"Phaner furcifer" subsists on a diet consisting mainly of the gum of trees in temperate deciduous forests. It has become specialized for harvesting this substance. Like most prosimians, it has a "dental comb," which is used to scrape the gum that oozes from insect holes in a tree's surface. This structure consists of a row of lower teeth that are long and forward pointing.cite book | author = Nowak, R. | year = 1999 | title = Walker's Mammals of the World | edition = 6th edition | location = Baltimore and London | publisher = The Johns Hopkins University Press]

The female experiences estrous for only 3 to 4 days of the entire year, typically in June. She gives birth to a single offspring in November or December. The offspring initially lives in the tree hole of the parents, then is carried by the mother, first ventrally, then dorsally.

References