Adaptation is Key to Survival: Part 1

Previously, we talked about the few species of lemurs that can be found in the animation, Madagascar. Let’s do a little recap, we have a ring-tail lemurs, mouse lemur, crowned lemur, and the aye aye maki. These are just the few species that we can cover within the blog because there are approximately 107 lemur species in the island itself. It is a wonder how there are so many species arising and how they do not fight each other! By fighting, I mean fighting for mates! or fighting for food!!

The illustration may come handy in the next part of this blog!

In this week’s new blog, we are going to introduce some of the species that has differentiated and specialized in a way that they are well adapted to the island of Madagascar.

Let's tickle the brain with a little information about how the lemurs adapt! The lemurs of Madagascar have a species called, extant lemuriform folivories (Guevara et al. 2021). These species avoid feeding competition by adopting and adapting to:

1. Different dietary strategies, where selection of leaves with varying amounts of protein, structural carbohydrates, and plant secondary compounds

2. Activity patterns

3. Microhabitat use

References:

Guevara, EE, Greene, LK, Blanco, MB, Farmer, C, Ranaivonasy, J, Ratsirarson, J, Mahefarisoa, KL, Rajaonarivelo, T, Rakotondrainibe, HH, Junge, RE, Williams, CV, Rambeloson, E, Rasoanaivo, HA, Rahalinarivo, V, Andrianandrianina, LH, Clayton, JB, Rothman, RS, Lawler, RR, Bradley, BJ & Yoder, AD 2021, ‘Molecular Adaptation to Folivory and the Conservation Implications for Madagascar’s Lemurs’, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, vol. 9.