Edited by Berthe Rakotosamimanana Hanta Rasamimanana Antananarivo University Antananarivo, Madagascar Jorg U. Ganzhorn University of Hamburg Hamburg, Germany and Steven M. Goodman Field Museum of Natural History Chicago, Illinois 1999 PREFACE Over the course of the past decade, there has been an enormous augmentation in the amount of information available on the lemurs of Madagascar. These advances are closely coupled with an increase in the number of national and international researchers working on these animals. As a result, Madagascar has emerged as one of the principal sites of primatological studies in the world. Furthermore, the conservation community has a massive interest in the preservation of the natural habitats of the island, and femurs serve as one of the symbols of this cause. Between 10 and 14 August 1998, the XVIIth International Primatology Society (IPS) Congress was held in Antananarivo, Madagascar. For a country that about a decade ago was largely closed to foreign visitors, this Congress constituted a massive event for the Malagasy scientific community and was assisted by about 550 primatologists from 35 different countries. Naturally, given the venue and context of the Congress? many of the presentations dealt with lemurs and covered a very wide breadth of subjects. As the field of primatology has grown, particularly the study of lemurs, many new ideas and directions have emerged. Congresses, where colleagues and students exchange ideas and present new working hypotheses, are often the events where interactions give rise to major advances in practical applications of techniques, as well as theoretical formation of new avenues of research. What we have tried to assemble in this book is a series of chapters based on presentations made at the IPS Congress in Antananarivo which comprise many of these new directions in lemur studies, covering the areas of phylogeny, paleontology, physiology, behavioral ecology, education, and conservation of lemurs. Perhaps some of these new directions will prove to be incorrect or flawed, while others will certainly lead to major advances in our understanding of lemurs, primates in general, and the natural world. Berthe Rakotosamimanana, Hanta Rasamimanana, Jorg U. Ganzhorn and Steven M. Goodman Antananarivo, 13 December 1998 CONTENTS 1. Ancient DNA in Subfossil Lemurs: Methodological Challenges and Their Solutions 1 Anne D. Yoder, Berthe Rakotosamimanana, and Thomas J. Parsons 2. Past and Present Distributions of Lemurs in Madagascar 19 Laurie R. Godfrey, William L. Jungers, Elwyn L. Simons, Prithijit S. Chatrath, and Berthe Rakotosamimanana 3. Skeletal Morphology and the Phylogeny of the Lemuridae: A Cladistic Analysis 55 Gisele Francine Noro Randria 4. Support Utilization by Two Sympatric Lemur Species: Propithecus verreauxi verreauxi and Eulemur fulvus rufus 69 Leonard Razefimanantsoa 5. Field Metabolic Rate and the Cost of Ranging of the Red-tailed Sportive Lemur (Lepilemur ruficaudatus) 83 Sonja Drack, Sylvia Ortmann, Nathalie Buhrmann, Jutta Schmid, Ruth D. Warren, Gerhard Heldmaier, and Jorg U. Ganzhorn 6. Metabolic Strategy and Social Behavior in Lemuridae 93 Michael E. Pereira, Russ A. Strohecker, Sonia A. Cavigelli, Claude L. Hughes, and David D. Pearson 7. Cathemeral Activity of Red-fronted Brown Lemurs (Eulemur fulvus rufus) in the Kirindy Forest/CFPF 119 Giuseppe Donati, Antonella Lunardini, and Peter M. Kappeler 8. Social Organization of the Fat-tailed Dwarf Lemur (Cheirogaleus medius) in Northwestern Madagascar 139 Alexandra E. Muller 9. Demography and Floating Males in a Population of Cheirogaleus medius 159 Joanna Fietz 10. Influence of Social Organization Patterns on Food Intake of Lemur catta in the Berenty Reserve 173 Hantanirina Rasamimanana 11. The Importance of the Black Lemur (Eulemur macaco) for Seed Dispersal in Lokobe Forest, Nosy Be 189 Christopher R. Birkinshaw 12. Taste Discrimination in Lemurs and Other Primates, and the Relationships to Distribution of Plant Allelochemicals in Different Habitats of Madagascar 201 Bruno Simmen, Annette Hladik, Pierrette L. Ramasiarisoa, Sandra Iaconelli, and Claude M. Hladik 13. Folivory in a Small-bodied Lemur: The Nutrition of the Alaotran Gentle Lemur (Hapalemur griseus alaotrensis) 221 Thomas Mutschler 14. Conservation of the Alaotran Gentle Lemur: A Multidisciplinary Approach 241 Anna T. C. Feistner 15. Teaching Primatology at the Universite de Mahajanga (NW Madagascar): Experiences, Results, and Evaluation of a Pilot Project 249 Urs Thalmann and Alphonse Zaramody 16. Lemurs as Flagships for Conservation in Madagascar 269 Joanna C. Durbin WHERE TO ORDER: Andrea Macaluso, Editor Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers 233 Spring Street, 7th Floor New York, NY 10013 Telephone: (212) 620-8007 Fax: (212) 463-0742 E-mail: amacaluso@wkap.com Price: $125.00 ISBN: 0-306-46187-0
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