Hapalemur simus
Greater Bamboo Lemur

Hapalemur simus chewing culm pith^P1

Identification

Hapalemur simus is the largest of the bamboo lemurs. It has a greyish brown coat (similar in color to that of H. griseus). It is easily distinguished from the other species by the white ear tufts which the other species do not have; it also has a blunter face, and will often be found on the ground, while the other species are rarely seen there.

Hapalemur simus at RNP

There is one H. simus group in the Talatakely Trail System at RNP, this group has been studied by Chia Tan, and most of the data given here are derived from it (Tan 1999a). The group consisted (in Jan 1999) of one adult male, two adult females, two sub-adults (born in '96), two juveniles (born '97), and two infants (born '98).

The adult male wears a yellow collar with a silver tag (named Yellow-Silver, or YS), the dominant adult female used to wear a pink collar with a green tag (she no longer does but is still called Pink-Green, PG), the other adult female has no collar and is called No Collar Female (NC). None of the other animals has a collar, they are identified by their size and either the year of their birth or their age (thus Big Sub Adult, or B96).

Physical Characteristics

Head & Body Length (Meier et al, 1987)	450mm (18in)
Tail Length (Meier et al, 1987)	420mm (16in)
Weight (Meier et al, 1987) (Tan, 1999a)	2365g (83oz)
	2450g (87oz)

Diet & Feeding

In Chia Tan's study group, H. simus spent 95% of its feeding time on one species of bamboo (Cathariostachys madagascariensis (formerly thought to be C. viguieri), or volohosy in the local dialect of Malgache, or giant bamboo in English), 3% on other bamboo species (mostly bamboo grasses), .5% fruit, and 1.5% other (mostly soil and mushrooms). (Tan 1999a).

H.s. feeding on culm pith ^P4

The feeding strategy varies with the seasons. Between July and November H. simus consumes mostly the pith of the giant bamboo (Tan 1999a). They crack open the culm, tear it into strips and eat the soft pith on the inside (Wright et al., 1987). Feeding on culm pith: ^{1.8Mb V5.1}, stripping off the outer layer: ^{1Mb V5.2}.

H. s. before & after breaking volohosy shoot ^P5

When the new bamboo shoots start appearing in December they switch to shoots.

Volohosy shoot ^P6

H.s. feeding on branch shoot ^P7

H. simus will eat mature leaves (which the other Hapalemurs will not), an animal will take a bunch of leaves in its hand, tear them off the plant, hold them as a bouquet and eat them from the stem toward the tip, they usually drop the leaves after they have eaten about half of them (half-eaten leaves on the ground are a distinctive mark of H. simus's presence). They will also eat young leaves and pseudo-petioles (the small green stem at the base of the leaf) (Tan 1999a).

H. simus, like H. aureus will eat cyanogenic parts of volohosy (young leaves and branch shoots) (Tan 1999a).

The average diameter of shoots eaten by H. simus is 6cm, this is much greater than that for H. aureus (2.1cm) or H. griseus (.8 cm) (Tan, 2000)

Note: The sample size for H. g. g. is small because they rarely eat volohosy ground shoots. (Tan, 2000; Tan, in review)

Activity Pattern

Chia Tan found that H. simus is cathemeral and this activity pattern is not dependent on the level of ambient light at night (Tan 2000)

Predators

I can find only one confirmed predation event on H. simus in the literature.

The fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox)

The bones and hair of H. s. have been found in fossa feces. (Wright et al, 1997)

Potential predators would be:

Raptors

Have been observed to prey upon various lemur species.

Other lemurs

Eulemur fulvus ssp. have been observed to eat infant Lemur catta  and infant conspecifics at Berenty (A. Jolly et al, 2000).

Man, dogs, and cats

Oddments

H.s. infant sucks its thumb^P12

H. simus infants occasionally suck their thumbs.^{.9Mb V25}

Sometimes an animal is a klutz. ^{1.3Mb V26}

Geographic Range

Hapalemur simus is currently believed to be restricted to a few small patches of rainforest near the eastern coast (Mittermeier et al., 1994). Specimens captured in the eighteen hundreds come from wider area, and suggest that the range has contracted. Sub-fossil sites abound with skeletons similar to H. simus, and indicate an even greater range (Godfrey and Vuillaume-Randriamanantena, 1986).

Taxonomy

Mammalia -> Primata (Strepsirrhini, Lemuriformes) -> Lemuridae (Lemurianae) -> Hapalemur simus

Godfrey, L. and Vuillaume-Randriamanantena, M. 1986. Hapalemur simus: endangered lemur once widespread. Primate Conservation 7:92-96.

Goodman, SM, Langrand O, Raxworthy CL, 1993 "Food habits of the Madagascar Long-Eared Owl Asio madagascariensis in two habitats in Southern Madagascar", Ostrich 64(2) 79-85

Goodman, SM, O'Conner S, Langrand O, 1993 "A review of predation on lemurs: Implications for the evolution of social behavior in small, nocturnal primates", Lemur Social Systems and their Ecological Basis, 51-66

Gray, JE; 1870 "Notes on Hapalemur (Prolemur) simus, a new species lately living in the gardens of the Society", Procedings of the Zoological Society of London, 828-831

IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre, viewed in July 2000, "Threatened Animals of the World", IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals

Jolly, A. et al, 2000 "Infant killing, wounding and predation in Eulemur and Lemur", International Journal of Primatology, 21:(1) 20-40

Karpanty SM, Goodman SM, 1999 "Prey profile of the Madagascar Harrier-Hawk, Polyboroides radiatus in southeastern Madagascar", Journal of Raptor Research, 33: 313-316

Macedonia et al, 1994, "Phylogeny of the Lemuridae", Folia Primatologica, 63(1):1-43

Meier, B. et al, 1987, "A new species of Hapalemur primates from south-eastern Madagascar", Folia Primatologica, 48:211-215

Mittermeier, Russell et al, 1994, The Lemurs of Madagascar, Conservation International

Rakotondravony D, Goodman SM, 1998, "Predation on Hapalemur griseus griseus by Boa manditra (Boidae) in the Littoral Forest of Eastern Madagascar", Folia Primatologica, 69(6) 405-408

Rowe, Noel, 1996, The Pictorial Guide to the Living Primates, Pogonias Press

Santini-Palka ME, 1994, "Feeding Behavior and Activity Pattern of 2 Malgasy Bamboo Lemurs, H. simus and H. griseus, in captivity", Folia Primatologica 63(1) 44-49.

Tan, Chia L, 2000, "Patterns of resource use in three sympatric Hapalemur species in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar", American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Supplement 30, 299

Tan, Chia L, 1999, "Group Composition, Home Range Size, and Diet of Three Sympatric Bamboo Lemur Species (Genus Hapalemur) in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar", International Journal of Primatology, 20(4) 547-566

Tan, Chia L, 1999b, "Life History and Infant Rearing Strategies of  Three Hapalemur Species", Primate Report, 54-1

Tan, Chia L, 1998, "Comparison of food passage time in three species of Hapalemur", American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Supplement 26

Tan, Chia L, in review, "Patterns of resource use in three sympatric Hapalemur species in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar"

Wright PC, Daniels PS, Meyers DM, Overdorff DJ, Rabesoa JA; 1987, "Census and study of Hapalemur and Propithecus in Southeastern Madagascar", Primate Conservation, 8:84-88

Wright, P. C., and Randriamanantena, M. 1989, "Behavioral ecology of three sympatric bamboo lemurs in Madagascar", American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 78: 327

Wright, P. C., et al 1997, "Predation on Milne Edwards Sifaka (Propithecus diadema edwardsi) by the fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox) in the rainforest of southeastern Madagascar", Folia Primatologica 68(1) 34-43.

H.s. with strip of culm pith^P13

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