Titre |
Aspects of social life in the fat-tailed dwarf lemur (Cheirogaleus médius): inferences from body weights and trapping data. |
Descripteur matière |
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Titre de la série |
American Journal of Primatology. |
Résumé |
Body weight is an important attribute of any animal and influences its biology in many ways. In the case of the fat-tailed dwarf lemur (Cheirogaleus medius), this is of special interest because animals of this species store fat to survive extended torpor phases during the austral winter and, as a result, show extreme seasonal variation in body weight. In this paper, I present field data from a 20-month study at the Forestry Station of Ampijoroa in northwestern Madagascar on body weights of repeatedly trapped individuals combined with trapping results to investigate the general biology and notably the social life of C.?medius. The most remarkable physical characteristic of wild C.?medius is a dramatic weight-loss in males in September following emergence from torpor. |