Marina, our SAVA Conservation Project Coordinator and DLC researcher, just came back from the forest and sent us these images to post! Here’s what she writes:
“The other night, while doing fieldwork at Tsihomanaomby, a subhumid forest in northern Madagascar, we came across a fat-tailed dwarf lemur, a few meters away from us, carrying a ‘bouquet’ of green leaves in the mouth. After a few seconds of hesitation, the dwarf lemur slowly moved and got — with some difficulty — inside a very small and inconspicuous tree hole nearby. In fact, hind limbs were sticking out of the hole for a few seconds before the entire body disappeared in the dark! One of the leaves stood hanging from the outside of the hole, as it couldn’t fit into the crowded space. Curious about this ‘nesting’ behavior, we returned the following night to the spot, and waited in silence as the night fell down. A few minutes later, a first dwarf lemur left home for the night (photo), followed by a second individual (photo)…followed by a third! It seems the little tree hole was not that tiny after all!”
To learn more about Marina’s work studying dwarf lemurs in Madagascar, check out her Notes from the Field series of blog posts. More information about the DLC’s conservation work in the SAVA region of Madagascar is available here.
