Mammals

The lemurs with the orange crown of fur on their heads may be the smallest of the true lemurs, but they compensate for this with curiosity and adaptability: Crowned Lemurs (Eulemur coronatus). They will not weigh more than one and a half to two kilograms and are only 35 cm tall. The gentlemen of these lemurs wear a black fur …

Most animals that only occur in Madagascar are very special. Also the streaked tenrec has its peculiarities and is considered to be the most highly specialized of all 31 tenrec species. They belong to the hedgehog tencres – they have spines like hedgehogs, but are actually not even related to the hedgehogs. Also the spines are not completely genuine: It …

One does not often meet red-bellied lemurs (Eulemur rubriventer) in Madagascar, but they play an important role in the rainforest’s fragile ecosystem. Only male wear the eponymic red belly, females are white or cream colored on chest and belly. Males also have white fur below their eyes which lacks in females. At average, red-bellied lemurs weigh one and a half …

In red-fronted lemurs, colour has been distributed inequally: Only males bear the eponymic red forehead. In females, this area is grey coloured. Both genders weigh between two and three kilograms and become only half a meter in size, measured without tail. Until 2008, scientists thought the red-fronted lemur to be a subspecies of the similar looking rufous brown lemur or …

They are the unofficial mascots of Madagascar and probably the most famous Malagasy lemurs: The ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta). Their portraits grace the logo of Madagascar National Parks (MNP), countless t-shirts and company emblems. A full grown ring-tailed lemur weighs maximally 3.5 kg. The ringed tail is with 60 cm longer than the whole body which is only 40-45 cm. …

Many people know them from zoos and animal parks: Black-and-white ruffed lemurs (Varecia variegata). Besides Red Ruffed Lemurs and the Indri, they belong to the largest lemurs with a head-torso length of 40 to 60 cm, an additional 60 cm added for the tail. Weights of 3 to 4 kg are the average. Black-and-white ruffed lemurs exclusively live in the …

Their songs belong to the most impressive that animal kingdom has: You can hear the Indris’ (Indri indri) voices in the forest kilometers away, and the sound a little sad. The parent couple of a family always starts the songs, thus marking its territory, communicating with other families and warning their own family members of potential hazards such as birds …

With their typical teddy bear-like appearance, they wrap many travellers around their fingers: Coquerel’s Sifakas (Propithecus coquereli) wear a plush, snow-white fur, whereby the upper sides of the arms and thighs as well as the chest are deeply chocolate brown colored. With up to a half meter head-torso-length – in addition, another half meter tail – as well as approximately …

The Silky Sifaka (Propithecus candidus) is one of the most beautiful and special lemurs of Madagascar, but also one of the rarest. There are only about 250 sexually mature silk sifakas left in Madagascar, otherwise they do not occur anywhere else in the world. For comparison: In Asia alone there are still around 3000 to 5000 full-grown specimens of tigers …

Practically the counterpart to the white Silky Sifaka is the closely related Black Sifaka or Perrier’s Sifaka (Propithecus perrieri). With a height of 85 to 92 cm and a weight of three to six kilograms, it belongs to the larger lemurs, with the tail accounting for up to 46 cm of its total length. Suitably to the name these animals …