Lemurs Bushbabies and Aye-Ayes

This species is found in tall primary and heavily degraded evergreen and semi-evergreen forest. In northeastern Viet Nam and northern Lao PDR, the animals live in the lowland, in a subtropical climate with a short and not very cold winter without frost, at elevations of 200?600 m (Dao Van Tien 1983). In Yunnan province, China, the species was observed at altitudes of 700?1,000 m (Hu et al. 1989). In Lao PDR, gibbons are found from the Mekong plains up to at least 1,650 m in Phou Louey National Biodiversity Conservation Area (Duckworth et al. 1999).

Gibbons are strictly arboreal and mainly frugivorous (Geissmann et al. 2000), but there is very little field data on the behavioral ecology of N. leucogenys. Dao Van Tien (1983) studied the content of the stomach of six wild-shot crested gibbons (genus Nomascus) from Viet Nam, including three N. leucogenys, and found 90?100% fruits, associated with some leaves and insects. This data cannot be directly compared to field observations, which usually measure the time spent eating various food items (Geissmann et al. 2000). Food composition in Xishuangbanna (southern Yunnan) included fruits (39%), leaves (36%), and flowers (5%) (Hu et al. 1989). During the rainy season (May?October), when many fruits are available, gibbons travel less, whereas in the dry season (November?April), the gibbons eat more leaves and travel for longer distances (Hu et al. 1989). Average group size in Yunnan province, China, was 3.78 (range 3-5, n = 9) (Hu et al. 1989). In anecdotal reports, group sizes of three gibbon groups from Thanh Hoa and Nghe An provinces (southern part of north Viet Nam) were specified as 3, 3, and 4 individuals, respectively (Nguyen Manh Ha et al.2005).

No, lemurs would make bad pets for many reasons:

• Lemurs, like other exotic animals kept as pets, are not domesticated, so aggression can be hard to predict and control. (Bites can easily become infected and life-threatening.)

• Controlling where they defecate and urinate would also be a big challenge, especially if kept indoors.

• Many lemur species are highly social, and having a solitary lemur would be traumatic, while keeping more than one could result in fighting (depending on their social structure in the wild). In the case of ring-tails, specifically, unrelated females might fight frequently, and all females would occasionally bully a male companion. Its difficult to predict how males would interact.

• Lemurs require specialized diets, which pet stores and most veterinarians will know nothing about.

• Most veterinarians will not accept lemurs as patients due to a lack of familiarity with exotic species. And even if the vet was willing to see the lemur, there's no guarantee that he/she will know enough about their specialized biology to make proper decisions about their care.

• Since lemurs are primates, they can catch and spread some human diseases.

• If you were to have a lemur you wanted to get rid of, animal shelters would not take them.

• It is illegal in most states in the US to keep a lemur as a pet. It is very difficult to tell where a lemur came from, and could have been illegally smuggled out of Madagascar, regardless of what the "breeder" may claim. Nearly all lemurs are endangered, so smuggling lemurs is not only highly illegal, but also threatens wild populations with extinction by fueling demand for pet lemurs and by removing individuals from dwindling populations.

A lemur's fur helps keep it warm when it is cold. Social lemurs, like the Ring-tailed Lemur, will also cuddle with other troop members, forming a "lemur ball" or "lemur train," to conserve heat.

Lemurs have low metabolisms, which allow them to conserve energy. But as a result, they need help warming up after a cold night. Some lemurs, such as the Ring-tailed Lemur, will sit in the sun in what is often called a "sun-worshiping" position (a lot like the Buddhist lotus position, but without folding the legs). By facing their thin, white belly fur and the dark black skin underneath towards the sun, they warm up. The fur on their back is thicker and helps trap heat in.

Lemmings will migrate when their food supply is used up. The cycle averages about 3.8 years. Lemmings will change their location twice a year in spring when the snow is melting. Lemmings will migrate in autumn when there is population density.

• Area: Only in the Arctic tundra. During the summer collared lemmings live on the high, dry areas of the tundra. They hideaway under the rocks. During the winter they migrate. The collared lemmings move to lower meadows where there is more snow.

• Diet: In summer their main foods are tender shoots of grasses, shrubs and trees. During the winter they eat bark of a tress and twigs off willow and dwarf birch another way of saying it is (Betula pumila).

Due to its home being in snow and ice, it sports some very enlarged claws in the centre nails of its front feet. In the winter there fur turns white but in the summer it turns in to the a regional colour in mating season, as u can see: