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Eulemur coronatus (Gray, 1842)

Scientific name: 
Scientist name: 
(Gray, 1842)
Malagasy: 
Ankomba, Ankomba Fiaka, Gidro
English: 
Crowned Lemur
German: 
Kronenmaki
Other english: 
None
French: 
Lémur couronné
Taxa: 

Species

Identification

Eulemur coronatus is the smallest member of the genus, with a head-body length of 34–36 cm, a tail length of 41–49 cm, an overall length of 75–85 cm, and a body weight of 1.1–1.3 kg (Terranova and Coffman, 1997). This species is sexually dichromatic. In males the dorsal coat is gray-brown, becoming a richer chestnut-brown on the flanks and the limbs, and darker on the tail. The ventral coat is a paler, creamy-gray. Only the tip of the muzzle is black, the face and ears being pale gray to white. An orange-brown, forward- pointing, V-shaped crown runs from the eyebrows alongside the ears and onto the cheeks. There is a dark gray to black patch in the center of the crown. In females, the dorsal coat, flanks, limbs, tail, top of the head and cheeks are gray. The tail darkens toward the tip. The ventral coat, face and ears are a paler gray to creamy-white. The nose is black and the muzzle dark gray. The V-shaped crown is chestnut-orange, but is less prominent than in the male and does not curve around to the cheeks. This species can be distinguished readily from Sanford’s brown lemur (Eulemur sanfordi), the only other Eulemur species with which it is sympatric, by its V-shaped crown, as well as by the absence of the white face that is so characteristic of male E. sanfordi.