FEMALE OF THE SPECIES - RING-TAILED LEMUR

Lucy Cooke on a prosimian society ruled by violent females

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IN THE MOVIE MADAGASCAR, THE GREAT African island is ruled by a fast-talking ring-tailed lemur called King Julien. The producers may have felt it natural to impose male governance on their feel-good movie but when I visited the island back in 2018 King Julien was nowhere to be found. In real life ring tailed lemur females are unquestionably the authoritarian sex.

For a start, females do the majority of territorial defence. They have well developed scent glands and produce more chemical signals than males. Females are more interested in the scent of their own sex, especially breeding females, than they are males. The cocktail of chemicals they produce provides a health report on their immune system and stress levels, indicating how strong and sexy they are.