What is the maximal age a Greater bamboo lemur reaches?
An adult Greater bamboo lemur (Prolemur simus) usually gets as old as 12 years.
Greater bamboo lemurs are around 140 days in the womb of their mother. When born, they weight 24 grams (0.05 lbs) and measure 2.9 cm (0′ 2″). As a member of the Lemuridae family (genus: Prolemur), a Greater bamboo lemur caries out around 1 little ones per pregnancy, which happens around 1 times a year. Fully grown, they reach a bodylength of 37 cm (1′ 3″).
As a reference: Usually, humans get as old as 100 years, with the average being around 75 years. After being carried in the belly of their mother for 280 days (40 weeks), they grow to an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″) and weight in at 62 kg (137 lbs), which is obviously highly individual.
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The greater bamboo lemur (Prolemur simus), also known as the broad-nosed bamboo lemur and the broad-nosed gentle lemur, is the largest bamboo lemur, at over five pounds or nearly 2.5 kilograms. It has greyish brown fur and white ear tufts, and has a head-body length of around one and a half feet, or forty to fifty centimeters. They have relatively long tails and long back legs for leaping vertically amongst the trees of their forest habitat. It feeds almost exclusively on the bamboo species of Cathariostachys madagascariensis, preferring the shoots but also eating the pith and leaves. It is unknown how their metabolism deals with the cyanide found in the shoots. The typical daily dose would be enough to kill humans. Greater bamboo lemurs occasionally consume fungi, flowers, and fruit. Its main food source is bamboo and it is the main reason why it has become critically endangered. Areas with high density of bamboo have major human disturbances, where humans cut or illegally cut down bamboo.Its only confirmed predators are the fossa and the bushpigs, but raptors are also suspected. Its current range is restricted to southeastern Madagascar, although fossils indicate its former range extended across bigger areas of the island, including as far north as Ankarana. Some notable parts of the current range are the Ranomafana and Andringitra National Parks.Greater bamboo lemurs live in groups of up to 28. Individuals are extremely gregarious. The species may be the only lemur in which the male is dominant, although this is not certain. Because of their social nature, greater bamboo lemurs have at least seven different calls. Males have been observed taking bamboo pith away from females that had put significant effort into opening the bamboo stems. In captivity, greater bamboo lemurs have lived over the age of 17.
Animals of the same family as a Greater bamboo lemur
Not really brothers and sisters, but from the same biological family (Lemuridae):
- Red ruffed lemur growing to a mass of 3.87 kgs (8.53 lbs)
- Eastern lesser bamboo lemur becoming 17.08 years old
- Common brown lemur becoming 37 years old
- Greater bamboo lemur becoming 12 years old
- Ring-tailed lemur becoming 30 years old
- Golden bamboo lemur with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Gray-headed lemur growing to a mass of 2.4 kgs (5.29 lbs)
- Black lemur becoming 30 years old
- Mongoose lemur becoming 30 years old
- Lac Alaotra bamboo lemur growing to a mass of 1.62 kgs (3.57 lbs)
Animals that reach the same age as Greater bamboo lemur
With an average age of 12 years, Greater bamboo lemur are in good companionship of the following animals:
- Common duiker usually reaching 14.25 years
- Hispaniolan hutia usually reaching 9.83 years
- Whiptail wallaby usually reaching 14 years
- Blanford’s fox usually reaching 10 years
- Quokka usually reaching 12 years
- Arabian gazelle usually reaching 11.25 years
- Bat-eared fox usually reaching 13.75 years
- Greater false vampire bat usually reaching 14 years
- Long-nosed potoroo usually reaching 12 years
- Asian small-clawed otter usually reaching 10.08 years
Animals with the same number of babies Greater bamboo lemur
The same number of babies at once (1) are born by:
- Black flying fox
- Hoolock gibbon
- Brown dorcopsis
- Speke’s pectinator
- Dryas monkey
- Sooty mangabey
- Rufous soft-furred spiny rat
- Link rat
- Insular horseshoe bat
- Wedge-capped capuchin
Weighting as much as Greater bamboo lemur
A fully grown Greater bamboo lemur reaches around 2.03 kg (4.48 lbs). So do these animals:
- Liberian mongoose weighting 1.82 kilos (4.01 lbs) on average
- Stein’s cuscus weighting 1.85 kilos (4.08 lbs) on average
- Swift fox weighting 2.11 kilos (4.65 lbs) on average
- Mexican hairy dwarf porcupine weighting 2 kilos (4.41 lbs) on average
- Rothschild’s porcupine weighting 2 kilos (4.41 lbs) on average
- White-faced saki weighting 1.67 kilos (3.68 lbs) on average
- Cape genet weighting 2.07 kilos (4.56 lbs) on average
- Red-bellied lemur weighting 2.03 kilos (4.48 lbs) on average
- Jameson’s red rock hare weighting 2.38 kilos (5.25 lbs) on average
- Silky cuscus weighting 2 kilos (4.41 lbs) on average
Animals as big as a Greater bamboo lemur
Those animals grow as big as a Greater bamboo lemur:
- Bronze quoll with 35.6 cm (1′ 3″)
- Podogymnura truei with 31.3 cm (1′ 1″)
- Sumatran striped rabbit with 37.7 cm (1′ 3″)
- Japanese marten with 44.2 cm (1′ 6″)
- Kodkod with 38.8 cm (1′ 4″)
- Humboldt’s white-fronted capuchin with 38.4 cm (1′ 4″)
- Plush-coated ringtail possum with 33.3 cm (1′ 2″)
- Spotted linsang with 35.4 cm (1′ 2″)
- Columbian ground squirrel with 29.6 cm (1′ 0″)
- American marten with 38.2 cm (1′ 4″)
