Linking Vegetation Characteristics of Madagascar’s Spiny Forest to Habitat Occupancy of Lepilemur petteri

Climatic changes with unpredictable weather conditions have negative effects on many primates. With several lemur species reaching their ecological limits in the dry and hypervariable spiny forest, Madagascar might provide an example for understanding adaptations of primates to unpredictable conditions. Here, we aimed to identify vegetation characteristics that allow Lepilemur petteri to persist in an environment at the limit of its ecological niche. For this, we linked the patchy distribution of the species to vegetation characteristics described on the ground and by remote sensing reflecting primary production (Enhanced Vegetation Index from MODIS) for 17 sites in nine regions, spread over 100 km along Tsimanampetsotse NP. We verified the results on a smaller scale by radio-tracking and vegetation analyses related to home ranges of 13 L. petteri. Remote sensing indicated that L. petteri is more likely to occur in forests where the variation of the annual primary production and the interannual variability of the month with the lowest primary production are low.

Lepilemur petteri was more likely to occur with increasing densities of large trees, large food tree species (diameter ≥ 10 cm) and octopus trees (Alluaudia procera). Alluaudia procera provide food year-round and shelter in the spiny forest where large trees with holes are absent. High tree species diversity might buffer food availability against failure of certain tree species to produce food. These findings illustrate limiting constraints of climatic hypervariability for lemurs and indicate benefits of forest restoration with high numbers of tree species for biodiversity conservation.