Melissa and I made this presentation for our conservation class on the Indri Lemur

1. INDRI
Indri indri

2. Indri
•Simply means ‘there it is’ in the Malagasy
language.
•The species got its name from local people
shouting ‘indri indri!’ When pointing out the
animal to European naturalists, saying, ‘there
it is, there it is’.

3. Indri
•It is also called the babakoto
•One of the largest living lemurs
•Related to the Sifakas
•Endemic to Madagascar
•It came from Africa around 50 million years ago
•Habitat Specialists
•Its Diurnal Herbivorous

4. Taxonomy
Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family
-ANIMALIA -CHORDATA –MAMMALIA -PRIMATES -INDRIIDAE

5. General Information
•Size: Head and body length: 610-900 mm
•Tail length: 50-64 mm
•Weight: 6-10 kg
•Distinguished from other lemurs by its almost
total lack of tail.
•A dense coat of silky black and white fur,
prominent black ears.

6. General Information
•The face and muzzle are black
•They are able to sniff out markings with ease
and avoid confrontation.
• Eyes: yellow-green
•Their eyes face forward helping them to judge
the distance before making a jump.

7. General Information•Indris are well adapted to their arboreal
lifestyle
•Long slender hind limbs, and move through
the canopy with spectacular bounds of up to
ten (10) metres
•Their toes and fingers are dexterous and are
good for grasping and their long hind legs aid
them in leaping

8. General Information
•Indris communicate through
a series of eerie wailing calls.
Through this they can be
easily located and identified.
•They call to unite families
and to mark their territory.
It can be heard up to 2km

9. Habitat & Ecology
•Lives in groups of two to
six individuals
•Normally consisting of a
monogamous adult pair
(they seek new partners
only after a mate dies)
and their offspring.

10. Habitat & Ecology
•Low Reproductive Potential
•Females reach sexual/reproductive maturity at
7 - 9 years (Pollock 1977).
•Reproduction is highly seasonal
•Gestation period of between 4 and 5 month
•Give birth every two to three years.
•Birth of a single offspring occurring in May -
June.

11. Habitat & Ecology
•Male and females sex ratio at birth is
approximately 1:1 (Kappeler 1997).
•Infants clings onto the belly of it's mother for
the first few months of life, it then moves
round onto her back.
•At 8 months Indri babies are independent of
their mother, but generally remain with her
until the age of 2 or 3.

12. Habitat & Ecology
•Half of all Indri babies
die before age 2, usually
due to sickness or injury.
•Indris have been known
to reach their twenties,
most live for between 15
and 18 years.

13. Habitat & Ecology
Diet consists primarily of :
•Immature Leaves
•Flowers
•Fruit
•Seeds
•Bark

14. Habitat & Ecology
•Occasionally
descend to the
ground to eat the
soil, and to
detoxify.

15. Proximate Factors
• Classified as Endangered
A2cd on the 2010 IUCN Red
List of Threatened Species.
Predation
•The native fossa is an
incredibly agile and primarily
tree-dwelling mammal that
has evolved to catch Lemurs.
•Other predators include large
birds and reptiles.

16. Proximate Factors
High Economic Value
•Hunted for their skins
•Immigrants kill the species for food
•“….current levels of indri hunting
are unsustainable.” (Golden 2005,
2009; Jenkins et al. 2011; R. Dolch
pers. comm.).

17. Ultimate Factors
Habitat loss
•Logging and slash-and-burn
agriculture, occurring even
within protected areas.
•Its habitat so fragmented
that few areas are thought to
be large enough to support
viable populations of the
species

18. Ultimate Factors
•Attempts to keep the
species in captivity
proven unsuccessful
•There are currently no
Indri in captivity
anywhere in the world.
•They cannot tolerate
habitat disturbance.

19. Stochastic factors
•Inhabits tropical moist lowland
and montane forests.
•Daily path lengths average 350
m per day.
•This species inhabits the eastern
rainforests from the Mangoro
River north to Sambava, but
excluding the Masoala Peninsula.

20. Population
•A reasonable estimate
would be a total of
1,000–10,000 individuals
(C.Golden pers. comm.)
•To date Population
trend is said to be on a
decrease.

21. Recovery Efforts
•Many local people consider hunting of the indri
taboo so they assist in it’s protection
•The Malagasy government announced in 2003
that it is committed to tripling the nation’s total
protected areas to six million hectares by 2008
•It is given the Highest Priority rating in the
IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group’s Lemur
Action Plan.

22. Recovery Efforts
•Habitat protection was identified as the most
important conservation measure.
•Action plan recommended surveys be carried out to
determine the size and status of indri populations in
protected areas, and in areas not currently protected
to determine the true distribution of the species.
•Research into possible captive breeding programme
to insure against possible extinction in the wild and
to work more effective on sustaining them

23. Save The Species
•Research should be done at least every 2-3 years to
hasten creation of outreach programs etc.
•More legislation and judicial action against illegal
loggers
•More research into captive breeding
•Population control and monitoring of fossa population
to minimize over-preditation of this species
•Protected areas should have rangers
•Young can be assisted by researchers to avoid such high
infant mortality rate

24. References
• EDGE of Existence,. (2015). EDGE of Existence.
Retrieved 30 April 2015, from
http://www.edgeofexistence.org/mammals/species
_info.php?id=36#distribution
• Iucnredlist.org,. (2015). Indri indri (Indri). Retrieved
30 April 2015, from
http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/10826/0

25. References
• Arkive.org,. (2015). Indri videos, photos and facts -
Indri indri | ARKive. Retrieved 30 April 2015, from
http://www.arkive.org/indri/indri-indri/
• A-z-animals.com,. (2015). Indri (Indri indri) -
Animals - A-Z Animals - Animal Facts, Information,
Pictures, Videos, Resources and Links. Retrieved 30
April 2015, from http://a-z-
animals.com/animals/indri/

26. Interesting Facts
•The females are dominant and get to feed first
while the males defend their territory
•They also urinate along borders to mark out
their patch
•Colouration varies considerably between
populations

27. Interesting Facts
•Individuals at the southern extreme tend to
have larger patches of white fur than the
predominantly black individuals in the north.
• Groups in fragmented habitat tend to be
larger than those in more extensive,
undisturbed areas (Pollock 1979, Powzyk
1997). Why do you think?