Social Behavior
A curious Coquerel's dwarf lemur investigates a visitor. Click image for larger version.
Coquerel's dwarf lemurs are usually solitary and always nocturnal. They spend the days sleeping in spherical nests constructed from interwoven lianas, twigs and leaves, and usually located in the fork of a tree about 2-10 meters off the ground and about 1-2 meters below the top of the tree. Nests are generally occupied by solitary adults, or females with infants. Each individual has up to twelve nests in its home range, although up to half of them might be in a state of disrepair. At dusk, the lemurs leave their nests to begin foraging. In cold weather, animals will leave their nests later in the evening and return earlier in the morning.
These nocturnal lemurs spend the first half of the night engaged in solitary activities such as feeding, devoting the last half of the night to more social activities such as vocalizations and encounters with conspecifics which may lead to mutual resting, grooming and even play.
Females occupy stable, overlapping home ranges of three to four hectares. The size of the male's range varies considerably throughout the year depending on whether it is breeding season. Most of the year, home territory of a male is the same size as that of females-- three or four hectares, but during the mating season, males range over a much wider area, up to 25 hectares, and at this time a male's range might overlap with the range of up to fifteen females.