The diademed sifaka (''Propithecus diadema''), or diademed simpona, is an
endangered species
An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...
of
sifaka
A sifaka (; ) is a lemur of the genus ''Propithecus'' from the family Indriidae within the order Primates. The name of their family is an onomatopoeia of their characteristic "shi-fak" alarm call. Like all lemurs, they are found only on the isl ...
, one of the
lemur
Lemurs ( ) (from Latin ''lemures'' – ghosts or spirits) are Strepsirrhini, wet-nosed primates of the Superfamily (biology), superfamily Lemuroidea (), divided into 8 Family (biology), families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 exist ...
s endemic to certain
rainforest
Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...
s in eastern
Madagascar
Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...
. Along with the
indri
The indri (; ''Indri indri''), also called the babakoto, is one of the largest living lemurs, with a head-body length of about and a weight of between . It has a black and white coat and maintains an upright posture when climbing or clinging. ...
, this species is one of the two largest living lemurs, with an average weight of 6.5 kg
and a total adult length of approximately 105 centimetres (41 inches), half of which is its tail.
Russell Mittermeier
Russell Alan Mittermeier (born November 8, 1949) is a primatologist and herpetologist. He has written several books for both popular and scientist audiences, and has authored more than 300 scientific papers.
Biography
Russell A. Mittermeier is ...
, one of the contemporary authorities on lemurs, describes the diademed sifaka as "one of the most colorful and attractive of all the lemurs", having a long and silky coat. ''P. diadema'' is also known by the
Malagasy names simpona, simpony and ankomba joby. The term "diademed sifaka" is also used as a group species designation formerly encompassing four distinct subspecies.
Description
![Propithecus diadema 02 MWNH 196](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Propithecus_diadema_02_MWNH_196.JPG)
''P. diadema'' is readily distinguished from all the other lemur species by its characteristic markings and large physical size. Its entire coat is moderately long, silky and luxuriant. The long white fur encircling his
muzzle and covering its cheeks, forehead and chin, engenders the "
diadem
A diadem is a type of crown, specifically an ornamental headband worn by monarchs and others as a badge of royalty.
Overview
The word derives from the Greek διάδημα ''diádēma'', "band" or "fillet", from διαδέω ''diadéō'', "I ...
" or crown appearance. Its eyes are a reddish brown, the muzzle is short, and the face is bare with colourisation of darkish gray to jet black. The crown fur is also quite black and often extends to the
nape
The nape is the back of the neck. In technical anatomical/medical terminology, the nape is also called the nucha (from the Medieval Latin rendering of the Arabic , "spinal marrow"). The corresponding adjective is ''nuchal'', as in the term ''nu ...
of the
neck
The neck is the part of the body on many vertebrates that connects the head with the torso. The neck supports the weight of the head and protects the nerves that carry sensory and motor information from the brain down to the rest of the body. In ...
. The upper back and shoulder fur are slate grayish, although the lower back is lighter in colour attaining a silvery quality. Flanks and tail are a paler gray, sometimes even white, as is the case for ventral fur. Hands and feet are entirely black, while arms, legs and base of tail are a yellowish-golden hue. Only the male is endowed with a large
cutaneous
Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation.
Other animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have different de ...
gland
In animals, a gland is a group of cells in an animal's body that synthesizes substances (such as hormones) for release into the bloodstream (endocrine gland) or into cavities inside the body or its outer surface (exocrine gland).
Structure
De ...
at the exterior center of the
throat
In vertebrate anatomy, the throat is the front part of the neck, internally positioned in front of the vertebrae. It contains the pharynx and larynx. An important section of it is the epiglottis, separating the esophagus from the trachea (windpipe ...
, which feature is typically reddish brown.
Diademed ready to push off.jpg
Diademed Sifaka (Propithecus diadema) 5.jpg
Diademed sifaka (Propithecus diadema) 2.jpg
Range and habitat
The diademed sifaka is one of the mostly widely distributed member of the genus ''Propithecus'', although definitive mapping of its range has not been conducted. The species occurs from 200 to 800 metres (656 to 2,624 feet) elevation throughout much of the eastern
Madagascar lowland forests
The Madagascar lowland forests or Madagascar humid forests are a tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion found on the eastern coast of the island of Madagascar, home to a plant and animal mix th ...
, and from 800 to 1,550 metres (2,624 to 5,084 feet) in portions of the montane
Madagascar subhumid forests
The Madagascar subhumid forests are a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion that covers most of the Central Highlands of the island of Madagascar. They are included in the WWF's Global 200 list of outstanding ecoregions. Most of the origin ...
. These two ecoregions have been designated as a
Global 200
The Global 200 is the list of ecoregions identified by the World Wide Fund for Nature ( WWF), the global conservation organization, as priorities for conservation. According to WWF, an ecoregion is defined as a "relatively large unit of land or w ...
ecoregion, one of the world's most significant regions for conservation. Geographically the range extends to at least the
Mananara River
The Mananara River is one of the main rivers in eastern Madagascar. Its mouth is located at the Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. I ...
in the north to the
Onive and
Mongoro Rivers in the south. One set of researchers has recorded a
clinal variation between ''Propithecus diadema'' and ''
Propithecus edwardsi'' in the extreme southern portion of the range. As with all Indriidae, this species and its entire genus have
evolved
Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
on the island of Madagascar independent of other mainland African species.
An anomalous outlier population of ''P. diadema'' has been discovered in south central Madagascar; the members of this population exhibit an array of different colour markings, including at least one observation of an all black lemur.
DNA analyses have not resulted in consistent results as to whether this group of individuals should constitute a new species. Scientists have decided to classify this outlier group as ''P. diadema'' until further research warrants designation of a separate species.
Specific locations for sighting the diademed sifaka are
Mantadia National Park
Andasibe-Mantadia National Park is a 155 square kilometre protected area, located about 150 km east of Antananarivo, consisting principally of primary growth forest in Alaotra-Mangoro Region in eastern Madagascar. The park's elevation rang ...
(approximately three hours in driving time from the capital city of
Antananarivo
Antananarivo ( French: ''Tananarive'', ), also known by its colonial shorthand form Tana, is the capital and largest city of Madagascar. The administrative area of the city, known as Antananarivo-Renivohitra ("Antananarivo-Mother Hill" or "An ...
) and in the forests of
Tsinjoarivo
Tsinjoarivo is a town and commune in Madagascar. It belongs to the district of Fenoarivobe, which is a part of Bongolava Region. The population of the commune was estimated to be approximately 27,934 in 2018.TROISIEME RECENSEMENT GENERAL DE LA PO ...
.
Behaviour
The diademed sifaka forms groups typically of two to ten individuals, which may include multiple male and female adults. Each troop defends an exclusive home territory of 25 to 50 hectares (62 to 125 acres) using perimeter
scent
An odor (American English) or odour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is caused by one or more volatilized chemical compounds that are generally found in low concentrations that humans and animals can perceive via their sense ...
territorial
A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal.
In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...
marking by both the males and females. Although the diademed sifaka defends the group's territory strongly against other members of their same species, it will share territory with other species such as the
red-bellied lemur
The red-bellied lemur (''Eulemur rubriventer'') is a medium-sized strepsirrhine primate with a luxuriant chestnut brown coat. This lemur is endemic to eastern Madagascan rainforests and is distinguished by patches of white skin below the e ...
and the
common brown lemur
The common brown lemur (''Eulemur fulvus'') is a species of lemur in the family Lemuridae. It is found in Madagascar and has been introduced to Mayotte.
Taxonomy
Five additional currently recognized species of lemur were until 2001 considered ...
. ''P. diadema'' is thought to traverse the greatest daily path distance relative to other members of its family in its patrolling and foraging, attaining a typical travel distance in excess of 1.6 kilometres (one mile) per day. To accomplish this it consumes a diet high in energy content and diverse in plant content, each day consuming over 25 different vegetative species. This
diurnal lemur further diversifies its diet by consuming not only fruits, but certain flowers, seeds and verdant leaves, in proportions that vary by season.
For a large lemur, the diademed sifaka is rather athletic, being capable of lateral aerial propulsion of up to 30 kilometers per hour, a result of muscular leg thrusting action pushing off from a vertical tree trunk. It is possible, although not proven, that its vigorous health characteristics are enhanced from high consumption of two plants which contain high concentrations of
alkaloid
Alkaloids are a class of basic, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Some synthetic compounds of similar ...
s. This species is
arboreal
Arboreal locomotion is the Animal locomotion, locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally, but others are exclusively arboreal. Th ...
, and only rarely are seen on the ground; moreover, it is a vertical clinger and lateral leaper.
The diademed sifaka makes a warning call resembling the sound "kiss-sneeze" when a
terrestrial
Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth.
Terrestrial may also refer to:
* Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on or near the ground, as opposed to ...
predator
Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...
is perceived; the sole terrestrial predators of ''P. diadema'' are the
fossa and
Nile crocodile
The Nile crocodile (''Crocodylus niloticus'') is a large crocodilian native to freshwater habitats in Africa, where it is present in 26 countries. It is widely distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa, occurring mostly in the central, eastern ...
.
Sexual maturity occurs after age two or three, with the male maturing somewhat more slowly than the female. Little is known of mating behaviour; however, it is believed that the female is
receptive to mating
Animal sexual behaviour takes many different forms, including within the same species. Common mating or reproductively motivated systems include monogamy, polygyny, polyandry, polygamy and promiscuity. Other sexual behaviour may be reproduc ...
only a few days per year. Being dominant, the female has the greatest input to mate selection. Copulation occurs in the summer (around December), and the expected number of births is one offspring per female per annum.
Conservation issues
The diademed sifaka is classified as critically endangered on the
IUCN
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...
Red List
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biologi ...
, and is listed in
CITES
CITES (shorter name for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of interna ...
Appendix I.
As of the year 2002,
population
Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...
estimates for the species range between 6,000 and 10,000 individuals. The primary threat is habitat reduction due to
shifting cultivation
Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned while post-disturbance fallow vegetation is allowed to freely grow while the cultivator moves on to another plot. The period of cul ...
by native peoples. This threat is also present even within designated national parks, which are sufficiently distant from the center of government, that enforcement of existing national laws protecting ''P. diadema'' habitat is problematic. Pressures of
population growth
Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 83 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to ...
in central and eastern Madagascar are causing many of the rural poor to seek subsistence by seizing whatever forest lands are available and undertaking
slash-and-burn
Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed vegeta ...
tactics as their initial step in a shifting cultivation system. Returns from such land use are usually meager, yielding small amounts of
charcoal
Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...
,
firewood
Firewood is any wooden material that is gathered and used for fuel. Generally, firewood is not highly processed and is in some sort of recognizable log or branch form, compared to other forms of wood fuel like pellets or chips. Firewood can ...
or grass crop for
grazing
In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to roam around and consume wild vegetations in order to convert the otherwise indigestible (by human gut) cellulose within grass and other ...
of
zebu
The zebu (; ''Bos indicus'' or ''Bos taurus indicus''), sometimes known in the plural as indicine cattle or humped cattle, is a species or subspecies of domestic cattle originating in the Indian sub-continent. Zebu are characterised by a fatty ...
.
Classification
The diademed sifaka and three other sifaka species form a tight species group within the genus ''Propithecus''. The other three species are
Milne-Edwards' sifaka (''Propithecus edwardsi''),
Perrier's sifaka
Perrier's sifaka (''Propithecus perrieri'') is a lemur endemic to Madagascar. It was formerly considered to be a subspecies of diademed sifaka
It has a very small range in northeastern Madagascar where its habitat is dry deciduous or semihumid fo ...
(''P. perrieri''), and the
silky sifaka
The silky sifaka (''Propithecus candidus'') is a large lemur characterized by long, silky, white fur. It has a very restricted range in northeastern Madagascar, where it is known locally as the ''simpona''. It is one of the rarest mammals on Ear ...
(''P. candidus''). All of these species have luxuriant silky coats and are powerful leapers. They share similar characteristics of
gestation
Gestation is the period of development during the carrying of an embryo, and later fetus, inside viviparous animals (the embryo develops within the parent). It is typical for mammals, but also occurs for some non-mammals. Mammals during pregna ...
length (four months), age of sexual maturity, female dominance, life expectancy (18 years) and propensity for sunbathing while stretched out on a branch. They differ distinctly in colouration and markings, except for having universally totally black faces.
References
External links
University of Michigan fact sheet for diademed sifakaPrimate Info Net Eastern Sifakas Factsheet
{{Taxonbar, from=Q677608
Sifakas
Mammals of Madagascar
Critically endangered fauna of Africa
Mammals described in 1832
Fauna of the Madagascar subhumid forests
Madagascar lowland forests
Taxa named by Edward Turner Bennett