Size:Height; 45cm. Weight; 2.4 kg

Habitat and Distribution: Small patches of rainforest on the eastern coast of Madagascar..

Age:Up to 20 years.

Groups and Breeding: These lemurs are so endangered that little is known about their group structure or breeding. Groups of between four and twelve individuals have been observed in the wild but little else is known. These lemurs mate between May and June and give birth in November to a single young after a gestation of around 149 days. Young are weaned after 8 months.

Diet: 95% of the Bamboo Lemurs’ time is spent feeding on a single species of bamboo (Cathariostachys madagascariensis); the rest of the time they feed on other bamboo, fruit, soil and mushrooms.

• In 1986 this species was thought to be extinct as it had only been seen in two localities in the previous 100 years. In the following 20 years further surveys revealed a limited number of groups but in 2005 the IUCN described this as the most endangered lemur in Madagascar and one of the top five endangered primates on the planet.
• The Greater Bamboo Lemur is in the process of being reclassified from Hapalemur to Prolemur; this means that these lemurs are most closely related to the Ring-tailed Lemur.
• Young Bamboo leaves and shoots contain potentially fatal amounts of cyanide so Bamboo Lemurs have evolved a mechanism to cope with this poison.
• Infant Bamboo Lemurs sometimes suck their thumbs.
• The Greater Bamboo Lemur has specially adapted hands and feet with large pads that allow them to cling to the slippery bamboo shoots.