Eulemur albifrons
Creators: name: Russell A. Mittermeier
name: Anthony B. Rylands
name: Don E. Wilson
Publisher: name: Lynx Edicions
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Primates
Lemuridae
Eulemur
Eulemur albifrons

description: 11.
White-fronted Brown Lemur
Eulemur albifrons
French: Lémur a front blanc / German: WeilRkopfmaki / Spanish: Lémur pardo de frente blanca
Other common names: \White-fronted Lemur, White-headed Brown Lemur, White-headed Lemur
Taxonomy. Lemur albifrons E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1796,
Madagascar.
Hybridization with E. fulvus occurs south of the Mananara River and with E. sanford: in the area north of Sambava. Monotypic.
Distribution. NE Madagascar from the Bemarivo River, near Sambava, S to the region of Mananara-Nord, including the Masoala Peninsula and possibly extending from Marojejy W into Tsaratanana; there are additional isolated and most likely introduced populations in the Betampona Strict Nature Reserve and on Nosy Mangabe and on Ile Roger (also called Aye-aye I) near the town of Mananara-Nord. The distribution S of Mananara needs to be clarified because significant hybridization with the Brown Lemur (FE. fulvus) occurs over a wide area.
Descriptive notes. Head-body 39-42 cm, tail 50-54 cm; weight 1-9 kg. The Whitefronted Brown Lemur is a medium-sized, sexually dichromatic species with a notably convex forehead. Pelage is extremely variable and differs greatly between sexes, with the defining characteristics largely restricted to the head of the male. The dorsal coat and tail of males are medium to dark brown, darkening and becoming redder moving front to rear. The ventral fur is pale gray, sometimes creamy-white on the throat and chest. The muzzle is jet-black and contrasts with the thick snowy-white beard, bushy cheeks, forehead, and crown. Eyes are reddish-orange. Females have a grayish-brown back and tail, with dark gray on their chest and shoulders and paler underparts. The muzzle is blackish-gray, although in contrast to males, the head is otherwise grayish and lacks whitish tufts or whiskers. Albinism is fairly common.
Habitat. Primary and secondary tropical moist lowland forest and montane rainforest from sea level to elevations of 1600 m.
Food and Feeding. Diets of the White-fronted Brown Lemur consist primarily offruit, which is supplemented with variable amounts of flowers, young and mature leaves, and other items such as millipedes, spiders, insects, mushrooms, bark, stems, and moss. It uses relatively small food patches and preferentially feeds on trees with a diameter of less than 20 cm. In contrast to males, females feed heavily on flowers during the dry season when they are also more likely to give birth.
Breeding. Female White-fronted Brown Lemurs give birth from mid-October to early December. Fecundity has been measured at 0-2-0-7 young/female/year, with most adult females producing offspring each year.
Activity patterns. The White-fronted Brown Lemur is cathemeral and arboreal. It is believed to be active day and night throughout the year.
Movements, Home range and Social organization. White-fronted Brown Lemurs use a wide variety of forest sites and vertical strata, and both sexes show seasonal and circadian heterogeneity in microhabitat use. They primarily use the understory (ground, lianas, and trunks) and lower-canopy trees (5-15 m in height). Home ranges are relatively small. Individuals regularly use dense lianas and crown lianas with very restricted arboreal access for their mid-day resting period, where they are out of sight from terrestrial and aerial predators and protected from high or low ambient temperatures, rain, and windy conditions. Individuals huddle together and wrap their tails around each other, which has been suggested to function as social thermoregulation. Density is ¢.15 ind/km?2.
Status and Conservation. CITES Appendix I. Classified as Vulnerable on The IUCN Red List. However, at the IUCN/SSC Lemur Red-Listing Workshop held in July 2012, E. albifrons was assessed as endangered due to a past and ongoing population decline caused by unsustainable levels of hunting as well as habitat loss and fragmentation. The White-fronted Brown Lemuris threatened mainly by habitat loss from slash-andburn agriculture, logging, and mining. Hunting and trapping is also a major problem in some areas, and it can be quite severe. Studies in the Makira region, for example, found that the White-fronted Brown Lemuris taken with firearms and traps and that it is the most heavily hunted of all lemur species; current levels of hunting are not sustainable. It occurs in three national parks (Mananara-Nord, Marojejy, and Masoala) and two special reserves (Anjanaharibe-Sud and Nosy Mangabe), with an introduced population in the Betampona Strict Nature Reserve. The White-fronted Brown Lemur has evidently been extirpated from areas north of the present distribution.
Bibliography. Duckworth et al. (1995), Golden (2005), Iwano (1989), Mittermeier, Langrand et al. (2010), Mittermeier, Tattersall et al. (1994), Rakotondratsima & Kremen (2001), Rasmussen (1999), Vasey (1997a, 2000a, 2000b, 2002, 2004).
description: Published as part of Russell A. Mittermeier, Anthony B. Rylands & Don E. Wilson, 2013, Lemuridae, pp. 90-141 in Handbook of the Mammals of the World – Volume 3 Primates, Barcelona :Lynx Edicions on page 134, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6638668