As its name suggests, the red ruffed lemur has a rust coloured ruff and body fur.
There are just two types of ruffed lemur – the red and the black and white. We have both at Folly Farm.
The red ruffed lemur makes its home high up in the rainforest ‘canopy’, the top of trees, on Madagascar. In the wild they can live for between 15 and 20 years.
Our group of red ruffed lemurs live next our black and white ruffed lemurs near our pride of lions and mob of meerkats.
The red ruffed lemur is critically endangered. This is why we’re part of a breeding programme.
The biggest threat to red ruffed lemurs, and all lemur species, is hunting for their meat and their habitat being destroyed, through the illegal logging of trees. The forests of Madagascar have been reduced by 85% due to people cutting down trees for fuel, for building materials and for farmland.
Latin name
Varecia Rubra
Class
Mammalia
Order
Primates
Family
Lemuridae
Conservation status
Critically endangered
Impress your friends with everything you know about the red ruffed lemur!
All types of lemur live on Madagascar which is an island off the East coast of Africa. They live in the rainforest. They’re good climbers and spend most of their time high in the trees, avoiding predators.
Red ruffed lemurs mostly eat fruit, although they will eat shoots and leaves too. We feed our red ruffed lemurs all kinds of fruit and when it’s really hot we make them fruit lollies to cool them down.
Usually we simply call a group of lemurs a ‘group’ but there are all kinds of wonderful names you can use. We’ve heard of a ‘conspiracy of lemurs’, a ‘troop of lemurs’ and even a ‘plot of lemurs’.
Ruffed lemurs are known for being very loud. They make loud, screeching calls to warn each other of any danger.
There are nearly 100 different types of lemur – too many to list! From the smallest ‘Mouse’ lemur at just ten centimetres to the ‘Indri’ which is about 68 centimetres in length, they are all different sizes and colours. The most common species, or type, of lemur includes the ringtail, the woolly, the black and white ruffed lemur and the aye aye.
This is a common question we’re asked. Lemurs and monkeys are both primates but is a lemur is not a monkey. The primate order is split into ‘prosimians’, ‘monkeys’ and ‘apes’. Lemurs are prosimians and this word means ‘before monkeys.
Red ruffed lemurs can have a litter of up to six babies. Twins or triplets are more common and we have had sets of twins born at Folly Farm. In the wild up to 60% of babies don’t survive due to falling from the nests which the mother builds high up in the trees.
