Berenty reserve: Interactions among the diurnal lemur species and the gallery forest

Abstract

The gallery forest of Berenty Reserve contains two native diurnal lemurs, the ring-tailed lemur, Lemur catta and Verreaux's sifaka, Propithecus verreauxi , as well as introduced hybrid brown lemurs Eulemur ru fifrons ' E. collaris . Feeding data indicate that competitive mutualism, an indirect interaction, may be occurring among these three species: L. catta and P. verreauxi apparently prevent Eulemur from accessing certain foods, although brown lemurs are dominant and compete directly with the ring-tailed lemurs for tamarind fruits. Indeed, brown lemurs eat the fruits while still green and deplete the abundance of ripe fruit later available to the ring-tailed lemurs. This behavior may reduce recruitment of tamarind seedlings. In contrast, ring-tailed lemurs bene fit the gallery forest by dispersing the few ripe tamarind seeds available.