What is a Lemur anyway? "...wonderful, cute primates which live in Madagascar..." - Godric Wilke
	photo by Godric Wilkie

What do lemurs do?

"There is in Madagascar a forest reserve called Perinet. Here reside a number of family groups of Indri-Indri lemur. The groups are typically an adult male, one or two adult females and one or two juveniles. Now Indri lemurs look like big black and white pyjama bags... They live entirely on leaves (no fruit, no berries etc.). They eat about 30 or more species of leaves, in fairly strict rotation to ensure they get all the nutrients they need. I don't know whether you've ever tried to survive on leaves but they are less than optimal for primates (this is a vegetarian speaking), so the Indri sleep as close as they can to the tops of trees. Come dawn they climb right into the very top and bask for quite a few hours so that the sun can kickstart them before they go off foraging - their metabolism is that borderline! This is very good for us humans because it means that we can have breakfast before we trudge off into the forest looking for them.

About mid morning they have foraged a little and then they sit and wait, which is also very good because you get a good look at them. Then you will hear a group shouting/crying/singing about a kilometre away. All of the groups shout in turn, apparently the purpose is to say 'we are here and we are about to move of over there, because we haven't eaten those leaves this week, so if you want to swap places with us that's cool 'cos we're outta here'

The entire symphony is over in about two minutes and they immediately start belting through the trees. In a few minutes they have disappeared, and the forest is completely silent. The effect is stunning, as is the volume. I was experiencing that funny tickling sensation you get in your ears c. 110+ dB SPL and I was about 10 metres from the nearest individual - I'd like to know how they protect their own hearing."

What do lemurs sound like?

The sounds are excerpts from a recording made by Godric during his trip to Madagascar. You will need an MP3 player to listen to them.

More Lemur recordings are available at Godrics's Lemur Gallery.

Lemur is also the name of a software application for digital sound modeling and manipulation co-written by Kelly Fitz and others at the CERL Sound Group. More information is available at the Lemur web site.

The Lemur software has since been supplanted by the much more powerful Loris software, please check it out.

Thanks to Godric Wilkie for his enriching narrative and beautiful photos and recordings.