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Primates often live in human-altered habitats; Malagasy lemurs are no exception. It is important to understand if habitat alteration affects primates' space use patterns across multiple spatial and temporal scales, as this drives population density. We quantified the daily, seasonal, and annual space-use of seven groups of Milne-Edwards' sifaka ( Propithecus edwardsi) living in unlogged and logged rain forest in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar between December 2002 and November 2003. Concurrent data showed that sifakas consumed higher quality foods in the unlogged than in logged forests; thus we explored how space use patterns were related to energy use strategies. Sifaka groups in the logged rain forest traveled 7-13% less per day than groups in the unlogged rain forest, despite their larger home ranges (median: 46.12 and 23.52 ha, in the logged and unlogged forests, respectively). Sifakas may thus use an energy-minimizing strategy at the scale of the individual day but an energy-maximizing strategy at the annual home range scale. Sifakas exhibited fidelity to the home range across seasons, but their core area of use shifted considerably with season. We found no difference in population density between sites. However, given the interannual variability in sifaka foods, a multiyear study is needed to assess if energy strategies observed in this study are consistent across longer time periods. Our findings suggest that lemurs may persist in logged habitats by altering spatial use patterns; future work should attempt to quantify the threshold level of forest regeneration from logging that will allow lemurs to persist at similar densities as in unlogged forest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Olfactory signals can communicate a wide variety of information and are very important in many mammalian species. However, little is known about the olfactory communication of primates. This study used gas chromatography to examine the volatile components of the anogenital gland secretions of wild Milne-Edward's sifaka, Propithecus edwardsi (Primates, Indriidae) (n = 17), captured in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar. We compared scent swabs of animals and examined differences between social group, age class, sex, and season. The only identified differences in the volatiles were between swabs from the different seasons; all other categories were statistically indistinguishable. Am. J. Primatol. 68:1202–1207, 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The endangered Milne-Edwards' sifaka (Propithecus edwardsi) is a female dominant herbivorous primate that lives in small groups. This species exhibits sex-biased survival patterns with males surviving better as infants and young adults, but females living up to 10 years longer. Differences in survival have been attributed to males engaging in more risky behaviours than females as adults. To determine the relationship between canopy height use and potential predator exposure, data were collected on seven groups of sifakas located within Ranomafana National Park: four groups in disturbed forest and three in undisturbed forest. Each group was followed for five days each month (Jan 02 - May 04), with group scans conducted every 10 minutes to record the height of each individual from the ground. While height use varied significantly between the two sites, males within each site had significantly different patterns of height use than females with infants (DF: p=0.004; PF: p<0.001). Additionally, within the disturbed forest adult females with infants had significantly different height use patterns than females without infants (p=0.012). These differences may be due to differing food distribution patterns or predator avoidance strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]