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Animal Database
Western Woolly Lemur
Western-woolly-lemur-in-tree
Information
Common Name Western Avahi
Range western Madagascar
Scientific Classification
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Class Mammalia
Order Primates
Family Indriidae
Genus Avahi
Species Avahi occidentalis
Conservation Status
ENSpecies
Endangered

The Western woolly lemur (Avahi occidentalis), also known as the Western avahi, is a species of woolly lemur native to western Madagascar, where they live in dry deciduous forests. These nocturnal animals weigh 0.7-0.9 kg. It is a folivorous species.

The western woolly lemurs live in monogamous pairs together with their offspring.

Ecology

The Western woolly lemur mostly consumes leaves and buds that derive from around 20 different plants which have not matured and have high levels of sugars and proteins. The food is typically consumed within the time frame of two hours before dawn and two hours after dusk, in which the lemurs consume their food at the tops of trees ranging between 2 and 9 metres. During feeding time, lemurs typically settle on thinner branches unless the tree itself is too small to support the animal's weight. Most likely due to the lemur's folivorous diet, Western woolly lemurs spend large amounts of time resting in order to conserve energy.

Conservation

Because the Avahi as a species is highly selective in their folivorous diet, depending on plants with specific characteristics, it is hard to keep Avahi in captivity. Therefore, one of the primary and most general ways of conserving the species is to conserve the forests in which Avahi are currently found.

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