Safari-Tember Day 4 - Ring-Tailed Lemur

Staying in the spiny forest of Madagascar, King Julien XIII, his royal advisor Maurice, and his obsessive lackey Mort, are surprised to discover so many ring-tailed lemurs in one place. Julien especially will be even more surprised once he finds out that they don't even have a king! Indeed, ring-tailed lemurs are matriarchal in which females are dominant in the group, as they have preferential access to food and choice of who to mate with. However, the hierarchy among ring-tailed lemur females is not linear, and daughters do not always assume the rank of their mothers. One explanation for this pattern is that ring-tailed lemur mothers do not support their daughters in social interactions, so the daughters don't inherit the rank but fight to achieve their own rank.

Madagascar (c) DreamWorks