Use of vertical space by the mother-young greater bamboo lemur (Prolemur simus) in the fragmented forest of Ambalafary-Eastern Madagascar

Environnement science

Vertical and horizontal space use and exploitation are different in primates depending on the state of degradation of their habitats. For the mother and the young Prolemur simus data on space use according to the developmental phase of the young were recorded assuming that the young exploits its space independently of its mother. To achieve the objectives, both mother-young individuals were followed in october 2014 to september 2015 in the site of Ambalafary using the focal animal sampling method every 5 min including rare events in "ad libitum". The results show that during phase 1 (0-2 months old) and phase 2 (3-5 months old) the supports used by the dyad are bamboos (young: 69.9%; mother: 70.7%), trees (young: 26.4%; mother: 25.2%) and ground (young: 3.7%; mother: 4.1%). There was no significant difference in the height chosen by the mother and the young on the trees for all phases. For phase 3 (6-8 months old) and phase 4 (9-11 months old) the use of ground as a support is no longer observed and is replaced more by bamboos (young 94.8%; mother: 94.3%). Thus the exploitation of the vertical space by the young Prolemur simus is done in the presence of its mother at least until its first year of life. It is essential to extend the study of the ecology of the young to a more advanced age in order to detect how far this mother-young relationship holds to have an idea on the dynamics of the population of Prolemur simus given the degradation of the site and to be able to ensure the survival of the species in the long term.

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