ring-tailed lemurs are part of the primate family and are related to monkeys apes and humans they are different to other primates due to their doglike muzzle and wet nose lemurs can be found living in forest areas within the large African island of Madagascar the head and body of a ring-tailed lemur is between 15 and 18 inches long their tail is an additional 22 to 24 inches in length and they weigh between five and eight pounds although they are sometimes active at nights ring-tailed lemurs are mainly diurnal meaning they are most active during the day they spend a lot of their day foraging for fruit Leafs flowers tree bark and sometimes insects ring-tailed lemurs are very social animals they live in groups of around 15 to 20 individuals the name given to a group of lemurs is a troop within the troop they spend a lot of time grooming each other grooming is very important for establishing relationships with others in the troop the females are more dominant than the males and the females are the ones that lead the troop also if the territory is invaded the females are normally the ones that will defend it while the males tend to hang back until the battle is over during the mating season male lemurs fight with one another in order to gain female attention also they rub scent secretions over their tail so the smell is extremely potent the strong smell helps to attract females many scientists believe the stronger the smell the more attractive they are to females and the smell may even be more attractive than the size and strength of the males female lemurs only come into heat once every year for an average of just 24 hours after a pregnancy of around four to four and a half months females give birth to an average of one to three babies but the most common is one baby when born a ring-tailed lemur baby weighs less than 100 grams the newborn is carried on its mother's chest for the first one or two weeks and then it is carried on her back after two weeks the baby starts eating solid food and begins venturing out on its own but they are not fully weaned until around five months of age ring-tailed lemurs are endangered due to habitat destruction caused by farming and logging in the wild their population is estimated at between 10,000 and 100,000 individuals thank you very much for listening for more videos about wildlife