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The breeding system of wild red ruffed lemurs (Varecia rubra): a preliminary report

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Abstract

Captive studies have shown that ruffed lemurs (Varecia) have an unusual suite of reproductive traits combined with extremely high maternal reproductive costs. These traits include the bearing of litters, nesting of altricial young, and absentee parenting. To characterize the breeding system of this enigmatic lemur, reproductive traits must be contextualized in the wild. Here, I provide a preliminary report of mating and infant care in one community of wild red ruffed lemurs (Varecia rubra). Observations span a 15-month period covering two birth seasons and one mating season on the Masoala Peninsula, Madagascar. Factors that are not possible to replicate in captivity are reported, such as mating pattern, natality and mortality rates, the location of nests within the home range, and the structuring of infant care within a natural community. V. rubra at Andranobe have a fission-fusion, multifemale-multimale grouping pattern and a polygamous mating system. They do not mate monogamously or live strictly in family-based groups as suggested by previous workers. During the first 2 months of life, nests and infant stashing localities are situated within each mother’s respective core area, and inhabitants of each core area within the communal home range provide care for young. As part of their absentee parenting system, infants are left in concealed, protected, and supportive spots high in the canopy, while mothers travel distantly. This practice is termed ‘infant stashing’. Alloparenting appears to be an integral part of V. rubra’s overall reproductive strategy in the wild, as it was performed by all age-sex classes. Among the alloparental behaviors observed were infant guarding, co-stashing, infant transport, and allonursing. Alloparenting and absentee parenting may mitigate high maternal reproductive costs. Furthermore, V. rubra may have a breeding system in which genetic partners (i.e., mating partners) do not always correspond to infant care-providers. Combined with recently available information on the behavioral ecology of wild ruffed lemurs, this preliminary report suggests directions for in-depth studies on Varecia’s breeding system.

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Notes

  1. Groves (2001) and Vasey and Tattersall (2002) have proposed elevating red ruffed and black-and-white ruffed lemurs to full species, V. rubra and V. variegata, respectively. I adopt this taxonomy here.

  2. “Social organization” and related terms used in this paper (e.g., social group) are congruent with how these terms have been defined in the literature (e.g., Struhsaker 1969; Kummer 1971; Rowell 1972, 1979; Hinde 1976; Dolhinow 1993; Sussman 1999; cf. Kappeler and Van Schaik 2002). In a recent review Fuentes (2007) advocates retention of the commonly understood definitions, and in keeping with them, the term ‘social organization’ is defined as the network of behaviors and patterns that emerges from the conflux of mating and rearing patterns, grouping patterns, and intragroup and intergroup behavior.

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Acknowledgments

I thank Bob Sussman, Steve Goodman, and two anonymous reviewers for comments on earlier versions of this article. I thank the Tripartite Committee of the Malagasy government for permission to complete this research under an accord between the Department of Paleontology and Biological Anthropology, University of Antananarivo and the Department of Anthropology, Washington University. Grant sponsors include: The Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Leakey Foundation, the National Science Foundation, Primate Conservation, Inc., the Boise Fund; Sigma Xi provided funding for fieldwork.

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  1. Department of Anthropology, Portland State University, Portland, OR, 97207-0751, USA

    Natalie Vasey

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Vasey, N. The breeding system of wild red ruffed lemurs (Varecia rubra): a preliminary report. Primates 48, 41–54 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-006-0010-5

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