Red-bellied lemurs

Eulemur rubriventer

The adult red-bellied lemur is about 34 to 40cm long, with a tail which is almost 20% longer than the body itself. Both males and females are chestnut brown in colour but are easily told apart as only males have a red belly while females have a white one.

Here at Wild Place Project we have two red-bellied lemurs.

You can get up-close to our lemur family in their walk-through enclosure in Discover Madagascar from 10.30am – 3.30pm.

Diet

Similar to other species of lemur, the red-bellied lemur's diet in the wild is mainly made up of fruit. However, they do often forage on plants, flowers, leaves and some small invertebrates.

Habitat

The red-bellied lemur comes from eastern Madagascar. They live in primary and secondary rainforests at medium to high altitudes.

Conservation

The red-bellied lemur is classified as Vulnerable. The main threat they face is habitat loss with almost 90% of the eastern rainforest in Madagascar being destroyed since humans have lived on the island. The forests are mainly being destroyed by slash-and-burn farming, logging and mining. In some areas, there is also the threat of hunting.

You can learn more about the red-bellied lemurs' conservation status on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species website.