• behavioral thermoregulation
• feeding ecology
• habitat use

The red collared brown lemur, Eulemur collaris, is a cathemeral lemur with an extraordinary ecological flexibility that allows this lemur to live in almost every forest type in Madagascar. The littoral forests of southeastern Madagascar are among the most endangered habitats in the world, and Eulemur collaris is well adapted to live in these forests. The red collared brown lemur is mostly frugivorous, and it is an important seed disperser for a large number of plant species.
Our goal was to study ecological and behavioral differences between groups of collared brown lemurs living in a more intact and in a more degraded forest fragment. For this, two groups in Mandena (a more degraded fragment) and two groups in Sainte Luce (a more intact fragment) were studied for 7 months. Each month, we collected data during 4 days per group and 1 night per site, from 06:00 to 18:00 for diurnal and from 18:00 to 06:00 for nocturnal sessions. We collected data on habitat use, activity patterns, feeding behavior, behavioral thermoregulation and social structure.
Overall, lemurs at Mandena had a lower group size, had greater home ranges, spent more time resting and used more energy-saving behaviors compared to lemurs at Sainte Luce.