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Using research material I have accumulated while doing a project for the Lemur Conservation Foundation, I have spent the last 18 hours heavily revising the Ring-tailed Lemur article. Debatable information without sources was replaced with verifiable content and references. Several sections were re-organized and/or re-written. A picture of a "lemur eating fruit" was removed and replaced with a picture of a "Ring-tailed Lemur eating tamarind" (a native fruit to Madagascar). An entirely new section with sample audio clips of Ring-tailed Lemur vocalizations was added. (I hope to further update that section in the near future, adding more text and in-line audio clips that weren't appropriate for the table.) Audio clips and journal article details were used with permission (GDFL) from the author. If I can obtain them (and the rights), better Ring-tailed Lemur pictures will be offered soon.
Hopefully the article merits more than "Start-class" quality now. I intend to someday make this a feature article, so feedback is strongly encouraged.
I'm going to bed now. I need sleep.
Visionholder ( talk) 11:48, 20 June 2008 (UTC)
I think there are some issues with the list of sympatric species. For example, I do not believe any ruffed lemur is sympatric with the ring-tailed lemur. Also, I believe that the sympatric brown lemur species is the red-fronted brown lemur, not the common brown lemur. I checked page 248 of the "Lemurs of Madagascar" book as referenced and the listed species were not on that page. Perhaps additional pages need to be added to the reference. I changed the brown lemur reference in the article, but I have not touched the ruffed lemur reference, in case I missed something in the reference.
By the way, I am not sure how best to do this, but the article would probably read better if the list of audio files (or at least most of them) was moved to the end so the list doesn't impede reading the article. Rlendog ( talk) 15:52, 20 June 2008 (UTC)
I respectfully disagree with the revision of the "Natural History" section to "Behaviour." According to use on page 21 of "Lemurs of Madagascar" (and doubtless many other sources, as well as my personal college-level education in ecology, ethology, & evolution), "Natural History" summarizes the ecology & behaviour of a species. As the page stands now, the new "Behaviour" section includes not just behaviour, but also the basic ecology of the species. Hence my reason for naming the section "Natural History."
Rather than fight back and forth with our revisions, I was wondering how everyone would feel about the following revision:
I feel that this would appropriately categorize all ecology and behaviour facts under a more general "natural history" heading. I also hope this is an acceptible compromise. Comments? Visionholder ( talk) 20:55, 20 June 2008 (UTC)
Several months back, an unregistered user changed my mention of the toilet-claw to "grooming claw". Until then, I had personally never heard of this anatomical feature being called that. After checking several sources, I reverted it back to "toilet-claw" right before I started work on the major revision of the Lemur catta article. When I noticed that it was changed back in less than 24 hours, I did some research to determine the most common name for this anatomical feature. Sources that use the term "toilet-claw" include:
Sources that use the term "grooming claw" (that I found) include:
Furthermore, I'm pretty sure that most of the scientific journal articles that I've seen mention this feature have only called it a "toilet-claw." Again, rather than getting into a revision war, can we come to a consensus on this, first? Visionholder ( talk) 20:55, 20 June 2008 (UTC)
Alternative terms should be included in the article. One function of an encyclopedia is to provide vocabulary. Because the literature sometimes uses the term grooming claw, that term should be included in this article, in parentheses. Instead of "vs", think "also".
Anyway, this issue is quite separate from the GA review. I reviewed the article and listed the issues needed to bring the article up to GA criteria; those are the only issues you have to fix to achieve GA. A Good Article has to be good, not perfect. Stand by while I deal with the GAN. -- Una Smith ( talk) 01:32, 15 September 2008 (UTC)
The article is very nearly GA. I made some edits myself. Just a few items remain to be fixed:
Once these are done, please ping my talk page. -- Una Smith ( talk) 13:58, 14 September 2008 (UTC)
Is good. PASS Congratulations. -- Una Smith ( talk) 02:03, 15 September 2008 (UTC)
(Adding header between transclusion and new text on this page. -- Una Smith ( talk) 17:57, 15 September 2008 (UTC))
Visionholder, thanks for your offer. I reviewed this article because reviewing helps to improve content. I think Wikipedia should be about its content, not about trading personal favors, so you might return the favor to Wikipedia (not to me) by reviewing an article nominated for GAN. -- Una Smith ( talk) 17:57, 15 September 2008 (UTC)
Regarding how to get to FA, read Wikipedia:Featured article criteria and also watch some other FACs. I would not bother with class A. The problems I see most often in science FACs involve quality of prose (criterion 1a) and appropriate structure (2b). Problems re those two criteria often go hand in hand. This article's lead, for example, has problems re both 1a and 2b. It has three main themes, commingled: (1) differential diagnosis of this species (what is most unique about it); (2) this species compared and contrasted with closely related species; and (3) habitat loss and species conservation. Try this: imagine you are a reader, not an editor; read the entire article, and for each paragraph write a topic sentence. That will help you find places in the article where prose and/or structure need work. -- Una Smith ( talk) 17:57, 15 September 2008 (UTC)
While doing some clean up, I found this statement:<quote>As for the Ring-tailed Lemur, it is currently thought that it may share closer affinities to the bamboo lemurs of the genus Hapalemur.</quote> Um... closer to Hapalemur than what? Closer to it than something is is closer to Hapalemu? Or closer to Hapalemur than to Eulemur? This needs to be resolved. - UtherSRG (talk) 22:09, 18 September 2008 (UTC)
I understand and respect the desire to move refs out of the taxobox template, however, the edits by AnomieBOT broke some refs, one of which is only used in the taxobox and no where else in the article (the Lemur catta page link). Consequently, I fixed the refs by essentially undoing the edit. Anyway, I suspect someday we'll need to re-do all the refs anyway, possibly using the style involving both Notes and References sections. Thoughts? - Visionholder ( talk) 05:53, 19 September 2008 (UTC)
Back later. Cheers, Casliber ( talk · contribs) 22:12, 19 September 2008 (UTC)
I have finally written up the one remaining section that I know has been missing from this page -- Cognitive abilities and tool use. If someone has time, please read it over and ensure that it contains a NPOV (neutral point of view). (This topic overlaps with some of my personal research, so I have an axe to grind... but I've tried to keep it out of the article.)
Although far from perfect, I feel this is some of my better writing. I'm hoping it's more up-to-par with the FA status I'm trying to push for. Regardless, copyediting is encouraged.
I'm going to be very busy for the next couple of days. After things clear up, I will work on the red links and references as requested. (Sorry for the delays.) - Visionholder ( talk) 08:37, 21 September 2008 (UTC)
An understandable attempt was made to delete the Cultural references section from the article. However, during the process of promoting it to Feature Article, the consensus was that a Cultural References section was acceptable if kept short and focused on very well-known examples from film. (I'm sorry, but I tried to provide a redirect to an archival copy of that discussion, but was unable to locate it.) For example, the animated film series, Madagascar, would be mentioned since a Ring-tailed Lemur play a key role and helped popularize this well-known film, whereas the brief appearance in Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium would not be mentioned.
In general, there are not many films or documentaries covering the Ring-tailed lemur, so the section should remain short and manageable. I am monitoring the page daily and will not allow the section to get out-of-hand. However, I encourage discussion about what is and is not worth mentioning on this page. Admittedly, some of what is mentioned in that section might be worth deleting. However, I would prefer to discuss this here on the talk page before major deletions are attempted--particularly those that involve the deletion of the entire section. – Visionholder ( talk) 16:44, 28 June 2009 (UTC)
I will be the first to admit that the FA standards have greatly improved since this article passed its FAC. For that reason, I am planning a revamp of this article within the coming months. I have obtained many new articles and an entire book on Ring-tailed Lemur biology, which will hopefully provide new details and replace less-than-reliable sources currently used as references. As with all my re-writes, please be patient. It is coming. – VisionHolder « talk » 22:18, 30 June 2010 (UTC)
The re-vamp is officially in progress, and the first three sections of the article have been nearly finished. I just need to finish the remaining sections and review a few more sources, and then I will submit it for a Featured Article Review. If you see some broken references for a couple hours at a time, then you know a major edit is in progress. I will post back when the re-vamp is complete. – VisionHolder « talk » 20:31, 30 December 2010 (UTC)
There is an odd type of vandalism in the Evolutionary History section. In the second sentence there is a short phrase that appears when viewing the article that doesn't appear while editing it that says "except the fact that this little *$^*&W named Ricecake had his way with a colony of lemurs in his mansion in Shangai, China, Asia" I'm unsure how to delete this entry, and just created this account to point this out. Jvbridge ( talk) 08:32, 13 May 2011 (UTC)
Don't know if this photo of Ring-tailed lemurs in a lemur ball is of any use in the article. Stronach ( talk) 11:34, 19 May 2011 (UTC)
First of all "Moskito" is not a misspelling. Richard Branson has brought 9 Lemurs To the British VI. Moskito island to be exact . You smart asses can jazz it up my input and enter it. http://www.bvibeacon.com/1/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=266:branson-lemurs-are-coming —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.51.127.188 ( talk) 01:30, 20 May 2011 (UTC)
The Wikipedia entry on the Ring-tailed lemur is a very well organized article with a variety of information on the species and seems to be complete as it is recognized as a “Featured Article.” This includes geographic information, anatomy, and evolution. There is also some information about the species’ behavior including social systems and communication. While the behavior section includes information about social ranks and fighting, more should be included about kin recognition and altruistic and spiteful behaviors which is the focus of chapter 11. For example, are the “sleeping parties” that stay together organized by kin relationships? My group could contribute to this section. The sections on communication and reproduction appear to be very complete. Looking at the talk sections, it seems as though the last major revisions to the article were done in 2008. Relating to our area of interest, there seems to be some conflict as to whether the “Behavior” section should be instead renamed to “Natural History.” Before the article was moved into the Featured Article category, there were some issues with the pictures that illustrate the article which were revised. Additionally all the links had to be changed to blue and the books that were cited needed page references. E.middlebrook ( talk) 19:42, 25 September 2012 (UTC)
The ring-tailed lemur is highly recognized for its long, pied tail. This article mentions briefly that ring-tailed lemurs are vocal creatures and issue alarm calls to one another. However, the article doesn’t identify these alarm calls as being cooperative, which is something that I would have done. Similarly, the author mentions alloparenting but fails to elaborate on how this advantages the giver and not just the recipient. The cooperative value of alarm calls and alloparenting needs to be further explained. Moreover, ring-tailed lemurs exhibit high cognition and tool usage, which creates more potential areas for identifying cooperation. Perhaps a specialized toolmaker might make tools for other members in his troop? Are the lemurs, because of their high cognition, able to ascertain the relatedness between themselves and another lemur? Marklxb ( talk) 19:56, 25 September 2012 (UTC)
Female Philopatry
Male ring-tailed lemurs leave the troop upon sexual maturation in search of a new group. Females, on the other hand, remain in the troop or home range for life and welcome in new, unrelated adult males periodically. Known as female philopatry, this means that in any observed group of ring-tailed lemurs, all the females are kin and all the mature males are outsiders who have been naturalized into the group. This explains the strong alliances that closely-related females share with each other. While male ring-tailed lemurs do enjoy the benefits of occasional partnership, fully fledged alliances are only found in females. In addition to females remaining in their natal group, females are also dominant amongst ring-tailed lemurs. They enjoy feeding priority and do not receive any aggression from males, who in turn maintain a spatial distance from female members.
Alarm Calls
Ring-tailed lemurs are highly prized for their vocal ability and they use it in cooperation. Alarm calls, issued at the sight of predators, can be accompanied by or substituted for silent body signals. The type of predator will determine the kind of alarm call issued. For example, avian predators will warrant a different range of vocalizations than those emitted in response to terrestrial predators. Because ring-tailed lemurs are semi-arboreal and spend an equal amount of time in the trees and on the ground, specialized alarm calls may have evolved to accommodate for environmental variability. Because alarm calls are issued more often when infants are present, they may have evolved as a method to reduce infant mortality.
Optimal Group Size
A constant cost of group membership across almost all species is competition for food resources. Because ring-tailed lemurs live in troops (except for the occasional roaming adult male) its members must constantly evaluate the net benefits and costs from remaining in that group. In lemurs, when food was scarce, cortisol levels rise in the brain causing group members to be more susceptible to disease through immuno-suppression, poor growth and weight gain, and reduced reproductive success. For ring-tailed lemurs, optimal group size is directly proportional to the stores of food available at the time. The optimal troop size for a group of lemurs will be one that minimizes the cortisol levels that have been observed to increase when food becomes scarce, which is a membership of 9-19 animal (a range centered around the average for ring-tailed lemurs). Groups outside of this range consistently have females with higher cortisol levels, which is indicative of undue stress.
Alloparental Care
Alloparenting (caring for offspring other than one's own), which is seen in many communal species, is universally exhibited by ring-tailed lemurs, regardless of sex or rank. Whereas most animals become alloparents through manipulation or kin selection, some male ring-tailed lemurs have been found to groom and play with infants with whom they share no blood relation. Yet it has been found that the male alloparent will have had previous copulations with the infant’s mother, and even sired the infant’s half-sibling. Infanticide in ring-tailed lemurs is rare, and a birth in one year does not affect reproductive success in subsequent years. Marklxb ( talk) 05:01, 26 September 2012 (UTC)
@ BDD: The reason we placed the two genera categories on this article is because this article acts as both the page for the species and genus. (It is monotypic.) This has also been done for the FA False potto and Potto. – Maky « talk » 18:09, 20 March 2014 (UTC)
Hi, Maky ... just a couple of queries while I'm here ...
Not big issues, just sample queries. Bst, SandyGeorgia ( Talk) 12:49, 22 April 2015 (UTC)
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Stop thus article needs some fat sources Lexein ( talk) 18:06, 18 October 2020 (UTC)
Hello! This is to let editors know that the featured picture File:Ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta).jpg, which is used in this article, has been selected as the English Wikipedia's picture of the day (POTD) for June 26, 2021. A preview of the POTD is displayed below and can be edited at Template:POTD/2021-06-26. For the greater benefit of readers, any potential improvements or maintenance that could benefit the quality of this article should be done before its scheduled appearance on the Main Page. If you have any concerns, please place a message at Wikipedia talk:Picture of the day. Thank you! Cwmhiraeth ( talk) 10:51, 6 June 2021 (UTC)
The ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) is a large strepsirrhine primate endemic to Madagascar, and the most-recognized lemur due to its long black-and-white ringed tail. The species is social, living in groups of up to thirty individuals, with females being dominant. It is considered to be an endangered species, with only about 2,000 ring-tailed lemurs left in the wild as of 2017; its main threat is habitat destruction, but droughts and harvesting for bushmeat or pets also take their toll. It breeds readily in captivity, and a similar number of animals are kept in zoos around the world. This ring-tailed lemur was photographed near Andasibe-Mantadia National Park in eastern Madagascar. Photograph credit: Charles James Sharp
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Using research material I have accumulated while doing a project for the Lemur Conservation Foundation, I have spent the last 18 hours heavily revising the Ring-tailed Lemur article. Debatable information without sources was replaced with verifiable content and references. Several sections were re-organized and/or re-written. A picture of a "lemur eating fruit" was removed and replaced with a picture of a "Ring-tailed Lemur eating tamarind" (a native fruit to Madagascar). An entirely new section with sample audio clips of Ring-tailed Lemur vocalizations was added. (I hope to further update that section in the near future, adding more text and in-line audio clips that weren't appropriate for the table.) Audio clips and journal article details were used with permission (GDFL) from the author. If I can obtain them (and the rights), better Ring-tailed Lemur pictures will be offered soon.
Hopefully the article merits more than "Start-class" quality now. I intend to someday make this a feature article, so feedback is strongly encouraged.
I'm going to bed now. I need sleep.
Visionholder ( talk) 11:48, 20 June 2008 (UTC)
I think there are some issues with the list of sympatric species. For example, I do not believe any ruffed lemur is sympatric with the ring-tailed lemur. Also, I believe that the sympatric brown lemur species is the red-fronted brown lemur, not the common brown lemur. I checked page 248 of the "Lemurs of Madagascar" book as referenced and the listed species were not on that page. Perhaps additional pages need to be added to the reference. I changed the brown lemur reference in the article, but I have not touched the ruffed lemur reference, in case I missed something in the reference.
By the way, I am not sure how best to do this, but the article would probably read better if the list of audio files (or at least most of them) was moved to the end so the list doesn't impede reading the article. Rlendog ( talk) 15:52, 20 June 2008 (UTC)
I respectfully disagree with the revision of the "Natural History" section to "Behaviour." According to use on page 21 of "Lemurs of Madagascar" (and doubtless many other sources, as well as my personal college-level education in ecology, ethology, & evolution), "Natural History" summarizes the ecology & behaviour of a species. As the page stands now, the new "Behaviour" section includes not just behaviour, but also the basic ecology of the species. Hence my reason for naming the section "Natural History."
Rather than fight back and forth with our revisions, I was wondering how everyone would feel about the following revision:
I feel that this would appropriately categorize all ecology and behaviour facts under a more general "natural history" heading. I also hope this is an acceptible compromise. Comments? Visionholder ( talk) 20:55, 20 June 2008 (UTC)
Several months back, an unregistered user changed my mention of the toilet-claw to "grooming claw". Until then, I had personally never heard of this anatomical feature being called that. After checking several sources, I reverted it back to "toilet-claw" right before I started work on the major revision of the Lemur catta article. When I noticed that it was changed back in less than 24 hours, I did some research to determine the most common name for this anatomical feature. Sources that use the term "toilet-claw" include:
Sources that use the term "grooming claw" (that I found) include:
Furthermore, I'm pretty sure that most of the scientific journal articles that I've seen mention this feature have only called it a "toilet-claw." Again, rather than getting into a revision war, can we come to a consensus on this, first? Visionholder ( talk) 20:55, 20 June 2008 (UTC)
Alternative terms should be included in the article. One function of an encyclopedia is to provide vocabulary. Because the literature sometimes uses the term grooming claw, that term should be included in this article, in parentheses. Instead of "vs", think "also".
Anyway, this issue is quite separate from the GA review. I reviewed the article and listed the issues needed to bring the article up to GA criteria; those are the only issues you have to fix to achieve GA. A Good Article has to be good, not perfect. Stand by while I deal with the GAN. -- Una Smith ( talk) 01:32, 15 September 2008 (UTC)
The article is very nearly GA. I made some edits myself. Just a few items remain to be fixed:
Once these are done, please ping my talk page. -- Una Smith ( talk) 13:58, 14 September 2008 (UTC)
Is good. PASS Congratulations. -- Una Smith ( talk) 02:03, 15 September 2008 (UTC)
(Adding header between transclusion and new text on this page. -- Una Smith ( talk) 17:57, 15 September 2008 (UTC))
Visionholder, thanks for your offer. I reviewed this article because reviewing helps to improve content. I think Wikipedia should be about its content, not about trading personal favors, so you might return the favor to Wikipedia (not to me) by reviewing an article nominated for GAN. -- Una Smith ( talk) 17:57, 15 September 2008 (UTC)
Regarding how to get to FA, read Wikipedia:Featured article criteria and also watch some other FACs. I would not bother with class A. The problems I see most often in science FACs involve quality of prose (criterion 1a) and appropriate structure (2b). Problems re those two criteria often go hand in hand. This article's lead, for example, has problems re both 1a and 2b. It has three main themes, commingled: (1) differential diagnosis of this species (what is most unique about it); (2) this species compared and contrasted with closely related species; and (3) habitat loss and species conservation. Try this: imagine you are a reader, not an editor; read the entire article, and for each paragraph write a topic sentence. That will help you find places in the article where prose and/or structure need work. -- Una Smith ( talk) 17:57, 15 September 2008 (UTC)
While doing some clean up, I found this statement:<quote>As for the Ring-tailed Lemur, it is currently thought that it may share closer affinities to the bamboo lemurs of the genus Hapalemur.</quote> Um... closer to Hapalemur than what? Closer to it than something is is closer to Hapalemu? Or closer to Hapalemur than to Eulemur? This needs to be resolved. - UtherSRG (talk) 22:09, 18 September 2008 (UTC)
I understand and respect the desire to move refs out of the taxobox template, however, the edits by AnomieBOT broke some refs, one of which is only used in the taxobox and no where else in the article (the Lemur catta page link). Consequently, I fixed the refs by essentially undoing the edit. Anyway, I suspect someday we'll need to re-do all the refs anyway, possibly using the style involving both Notes and References sections. Thoughts? - Visionholder ( talk) 05:53, 19 September 2008 (UTC)
Back later. Cheers, Casliber ( talk · contribs) 22:12, 19 September 2008 (UTC)
I have finally written up the one remaining section that I know has been missing from this page -- Cognitive abilities and tool use. If someone has time, please read it over and ensure that it contains a NPOV (neutral point of view). (This topic overlaps with some of my personal research, so I have an axe to grind... but I've tried to keep it out of the article.)
Although far from perfect, I feel this is some of my better writing. I'm hoping it's more up-to-par with the FA status I'm trying to push for. Regardless, copyediting is encouraged.
I'm going to be very busy for the next couple of days. After things clear up, I will work on the red links and references as requested. (Sorry for the delays.) - Visionholder ( talk) 08:37, 21 September 2008 (UTC)
An understandable attempt was made to delete the Cultural references section from the article. However, during the process of promoting it to Feature Article, the consensus was that a Cultural References section was acceptable if kept short and focused on very well-known examples from film. (I'm sorry, but I tried to provide a redirect to an archival copy of that discussion, but was unable to locate it.) For example, the animated film series, Madagascar, would be mentioned since a Ring-tailed Lemur play a key role and helped popularize this well-known film, whereas the brief appearance in Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium would not be mentioned.
In general, there are not many films or documentaries covering the Ring-tailed lemur, so the section should remain short and manageable. I am monitoring the page daily and will not allow the section to get out-of-hand. However, I encourage discussion about what is and is not worth mentioning on this page. Admittedly, some of what is mentioned in that section might be worth deleting. However, I would prefer to discuss this here on the talk page before major deletions are attempted--particularly those that involve the deletion of the entire section. – Visionholder ( talk) 16:44, 28 June 2009 (UTC)
I will be the first to admit that the FA standards have greatly improved since this article passed its FAC. For that reason, I am planning a revamp of this article within the coming months. I have obtained many new articles and an entire book on Ring-tailed Lemur biology, which will hopefully provide new details and replace less-than-reliable sources currently used as references. As with all my re-writes, please be patient. It is coming. – VisionHolder « talk » 22:18, 30 June 2010 (UTC)
The re-vamp is officially in progress, and the first three sections of the article have been nearly finished. I just need to finish the remaining sections and review a few more sources, and then I will submit it for a Featured Article Review. If you see some broken references for a couple hours at a time, then you know a major edit is in progress. I will post back when the re-vamp is complete. – VisionHolder « talk » 20:31, 30 December 2010 (UTC)
There is an odd type of vandalism in the Evolutionary History section. In the second sentence there is a short phrase that appears when viewing the article that doesn't appear while editing it that says "except the fact that this little *$^*&W named Ricecake had his way with a colony of lemurs in his mansion in Shangai, China, Asia" I'm unsure how to delete this entry, and just created this account to point this out. Jvbridge ( talk) 08:32, 13 May 2011 (UTC)
Don't know if this photo of Ring-tailed lemurs in a lemur ball is of any use in the article. Stronach ( talk) 11:34, 19 May 2011 (UTC)
First of all "Moskito" is not a misspelling. Richard Branson has brought 9 Lemurs To the British VI. Moskito island to be exact . You smart asses can jazz it up my input and enter it. http://www.bvibeacon.com/1/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=266:branson-lemurs-are-coming —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.51.127.188 ( talk) 01:30, 20 May 2011 (UTC)
The Wikipedia entry on the Ring-tailed lemur is a very well organized article with a variety of information on the species and seems to be complete as it is recognized as a “Featured Article.” This includes geographic information, anatomy, and evolution. There is also some information about the species’ behavior including social systems and communication. While the behavior section includes information about social ranks and fighting, more should be included about kin recognition and altruistic and spiteful behaviors which is the focus of chapter 11. For example, are the “sleeping parties” that stay together organized by kin relationships? My group could contribute to this section. The sections on communication and reproduction appear to be very complete. Looking at the talk sections, it seems as though the last major revisions to the article were done in 2008. Relating to our area of interest, there seems to be some conflict as to whether the “Behavior” section should be instead renamed to “Natural History.” Before the article was moved into the Featured Article category, there were some issues with the pictures that illustrate the article which were revised. Additionally all the links had to be changed to blue and the books that were cited needed page references. E.middlebrook ( talk) 19:42, 25 September 2012 (UTC)
The ring-tailed lemur is highly recognized for its long, pied tail. This article mentions briefly that ring-tailed lemurs are vocal creatures and issue alarm calls to one another. However, the article doesn’t identify these alarm calls as being cooperative, which is something that I would have done. Similarly, the author mentions alloparenting but fails to elaborate on how this advantages the giver and not just the recipient. The cooperative value of alarm calls and alloparenting needs to be further explained. Moreover, ring-tailed lemurs exhibit high cognition and tool usage, which creates more potential areas for identifying cooperation. Perhaps a specialized toolmaker might make tools for other members in his troop? Are the lemurs, because of their high cognition, able to ascertain the relatedness between themselves and another lemur? Marklxb ( talk) 19:56, 25 September 2012 (UTC)
Female Philopatry
Male ring-tailed lemurs leave the troop upon sexual maturation in search of a new group. Females, on the other hand, remain in the troop or home range for life and welcome in new, unrelated adult males periodically. Known as female philopatry, this means that in any observed group of ring-tailed lemurs, all the females are kin and all the mature males are outsiders who have been naturalized into the group. This explains the strong alliances that closely-related females share with each other. While male ring-tailed lemurs do enjoy the benefits of occasional partnership, fully fledged alliances are only found in females. In addition to females remaining in their natal group, females are also dominant amongst ring-tailed lemurs. They enjoy feeding priority and do not receive any aggression from males, who in turn maintain a spatial distance from female members.
Alarm Calls
Ring-tailed lemurs are highly prized for their vocal ability and they use it in cooperation. Alarm calls, issued at the sight of predators, can be accompanied by or substituted for silent body signals. The type of predator will determine the kind of alarm call issued. For example, avian predators will warrant a different range of vocalizations than those emitted in response to terrestrial predators. Because ring-tailed lemurs are semi-arboreal and spend an equal amount of time in the trees and on the ground, specialized alarm calls may have evolved to accommodate for environmental variability. Because alarm calls are issued more often when infants are present, they may have evolved as a method to reduce infant mortality.
Optimal Group Size
A constant cost of group membership across almost all species is competition for food resources. Because ring-tailed lemurs live in troops (except for the occasional roaming adult male) its members must constantly evaluate the net benefits and costs from remaining in that group. In lemurs, when food was scarce, cortisol levels rise in the brain causing group members to be more susceptible to disease through immuno-suppression, poor growth and weight gain, and reduced reproductive success. For ring-tailed lemurs, optimal group size is directly proportional to the stores of food available at the time. The optimal troop size for a group of lemurs will be one that minimizes the cortisol levels that have been observed to increase when food becomes scarce, which is a membership of 9-19 animal (a range centered around the average for ring-tailed lemurs). Groups outside of this range consistently have females with higher cortisol levels, which is indicative of undue stress.
Alloparental Care
Alloparenting (caring for offspring other than one's own), which is seen in many communal species, is universally exhibited by ring-tailed lemurs, regardless of sex or rank. Whereas most animals become alloparents through manipulation or kin selection, some male ring-tailed lemurs have been found to groom and play with infants with whom they share no blood relation. Yet it has been found that the male alloparent will have had previous copulations with the infant’s mother, and even sired the infant’s half-sibling. Infanticide in ring-tailed lemurs is rare, and a birth in one year does not affect reproductive success in subsequent years. Marklxb ( talk) 05:01, 26 September 2012 (UTC)
@ BDD: The reason we placed the two genera categories on this article is because this article acts as both the page for the species and genus. (It is monotypic.) This has also been done for the FA False potto and Potto. – Maky « talk » 18:09, 20 March 2014 (UTC)
Hi, Maky ... just a couple of queries while I'm here ...
Not big issues, just sample queries. Bst, SandyGeorgia ( Talk) 12:49, 22 April 2015 (UTC)
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Stop thus article needs some fat sources Lexein ( talk) 18:06, 18 October 2020 (UTC)
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The ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) is a large strepsirrhine primate endemic to Madagascar, and the most-recognized lemur due to its long black-and-white ringed tail. The species is social, living in groups of up to thirty individuals, with females being dominant. It is considered to be an endangered species, with only about 2,000 ring-tailed lemurs left in the wild as of 2017; its main threat is habitat destruction, but droughts and harvesting for bushmeat or pets also take their toll. It breeds readily in captivity, and a similar number of animals are kept in zoos around the world. This ring-tailed lemur was photographed near Andasibe-Mantadia National Park in eastern Madagascar. Photograph credit: Charles James Sharp
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