Black-White Ruffed Lemurs

COMMON NAME: Black-and-White Ruffed Lemurs

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Varecia variegata

TYPE: Mammal

YOUNG NAME: Infant, Baby
DIET: Frugivores. Wild: Grasses, other shrubs and plants, and cacti

Zoo: Fruits, vegetables, greens, monkey chow, rodent pellets, and hay.

AVERAGE LIFE SPAN IN THE WILD: 15 to 20 years

AVERAGE LIFE SPAN IN CAPTIVITY: 25 years
HEAD & BODY LENGTH: 20 to 22 inches

TAIL LENGTH: 24 to 26 inches

WEIGHT: 6 to 10 pounds

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1. When flowers are in bloom, Black-and-white ruffed lemurs eat their nectar. They stick their long snout into the flower and coat their nose with pollen.

2. These lemurs use their bottom teeth, their "toothcomb", for social bonding through grooming.

3. The Black-and-white ruffed lemurs are one of the larger living species of lemur. Once there were lemurs nearly as big as a female gorilla.

4. Black-and-white ruffed lemurs are the only primates that have true litters of young.

5. These lemurs love to sunbathe while lying on their backs, their arms outstretched.

6. This species of lemur are the only primates to make a nest for their offspring.

7. Black-and-white ruffed lemurs are considered to be the world's largest pollinator, dispersing pollen from the Traveller’s tree.

8. “Lemur” in Latin means “ghost”. When people first heard their loud calls, they thought they came from ghosts in the forest.

9. Lemurs communicate mainly through smell. They “scent-mark” by means of rubbing their bodies against branches to let other lemurs know they were there.

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