Golden bamboo lemur
The golden bamboo lemur, bokombolomena or varibolomena in Malagasy, is a medium-sized bamboo lemur endemic to south-eastern Madagascar.
It is able to ingest twelve times as much cyanide as would be considered lethal for other species of its size.
Description
The golden bamboo lemur is crepuscular i.e. is a most active at dawn and dusk. It is about the size of a domestic cat and is long plus a tail of, and on average weighs.Distribution
The species is endemic to the rain forests of south–eastern Madagascar at elevations of. It is known from the vicinity of Ranomafana National Park, Andringitra National Park, possibly in a forest corridor that connects Ranomafana with Andringitra National Park.Ecology
As its name indicates, this lemur feeds almost exclusively on grasses, especially the giant bamboo or volohosy feeding on new shoots, leaf bases and the creepers. The growing shoots of this bamboo contain 0.015% of cyanide. Each adult lemur eats about of bamboo per day, which contain about twelve times the lethal dose of cyanide for most other animals of this size. It is currently unknown how the lemur avoids cyanide poisoning.They live in small groups of two to six individuals and have a home range of up to. but usually move less than in a day. Females have a gestation period of approximately 138 days and give birth to one infant at the beginning of the rainy season, in November or December. The young are highly dependent on their mothers and are kept hidden in dense vegetation for the first two weeks.