Golden-Crowned Sifaka
Conservation Film Award!
A recently released conservation oriented film by the BBC, which features DLC’s own Dr. Erik Patel, has just won accolades at the International Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula, Montana! http://wildlifefilms.wordpress.com/ In addition to Erik’s research on silky sifakas, “Madagascar, Lemurs, and Spies” also features undercover work by Sascha Von Bismarck of the Environmental Investigation...
Overview
The golden-crowned sifaka is the third species of sifaka, and also the smallest. It is the only sifaka with ear tufts. It is also one of most recently discovered species of diurnal lemurs. They were first photographed in 1982 by Ian Tattersall, and originally identified as a subspecies of Propithecus diadema. In 1988, then-Lemur Center...
Feeding
The golden-crowned sifaka feeds on a wide variety of mostly unripe fruit, seeds, nuts, shoots, young and mature leaves and flowers. During the dry season when food is scarce the sifakas might feed on...
Fact Sheet
Order: Primates; Suborder: Prosimii Family: Indriidae; Genus: Propithecus Species: tattersali Related Species See Diademed sifaka (LINK) Key Facts Adult Size : 6.6 – 8.8 pounds Social life : Sociable, groups of 3 – 10 animals, average is 5 Habitat : northwestern moist forest Diet : Seeds, unripe fruit, young and mature leaves and flowers Lifespan...
Reproduction
In Madagascar these sifakas breed in January, and births occur in July after a gestation of 165 to 170 days. Like all sifakas, the young will hold on to the mother’s belly fur for the first few weeks of life, and will then switch to a jockey position on her back when they get older....
Social Behavior
Like all sifakas, the golden-crowned are strictly diurnal, becoming active after dawn and retiring for the evening well before the sun has set. Group size ranges from three to ten animals, although an average group will number five or six. Although groups often contain more than one adult animal of each sex, groups with more...
Habitat/Conservation
Golden-crowned sifakas have an extremely limited distribution, and are found only in dry forest in northeastern Madagascar between the Loky and Manambato Rivers near the town of Daraina. The total range of P. tattersalli encompasses an area only 30 to 35 km across at its widest point. In fact, it has one of the smallest...
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