Together alone: Sportive lemurs stay individualists in relationships
During a one-year field study in Southern Madagascar the two researchers discovered that nocturnal white-footed sportive lemurs (Lepilemur leucopus) share a common territory with a pair partner of the opposite sex. This result clarified conflicting earlier reports on the social organization of this species. The study of the DPZ researchers also revealed a specific type of relationship model that has not yet been described for other pair-living species. Although males and females live together also outside the brief annual mating season and defend a common territory together, they were never observed to huddle or to groom each other during the more than 1,500 hours of observation. "This species is characterized by an active avoidance of pair partners," says Iris Dröscher, first author and PhD student at the Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Unit of the DPZ.