Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Sunda fly­ing lemurs are found in South­east Asia and are en­demic to In­dochina and Sun­da­land, an area which in­cludes the Malay Penin­sula and the sur­round­ing is­lands. ("Amer­ica Zoo", 2005; Burnie and Wil­son, 2001; Shapiro, 2010)

• Biogeographic Regions
• oriental
  • native

Habi­tat

Sunda fly­ing lemurs are strictly ar­bo­real, spend­ing their en­tire lives in the tree­tops of trop­i­cal rain­forests. They can also be found in high­lands and can read­ily adapt to dis­turbed forests edges and plan­ta­tions. ("Amer­ica Zoo", 2005; "Malayan Colugo Cyno­cephalus var­ie­ga­tus", 2007; Burnie and Wil­son, 2001)

• Habitat Regions
• tropical

• Terrestrial Biomes
• rainforest

• Other Habitat Features
• agricultural

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Sunda fly­ing lemurs have small heads, large and for­ward-fac­ing eyes, wide brows, and small ears. They have blunt snouts, and there are no ob­vi­ous whiskers on their faces. The fur of Sunda fly­ing lemurs is dense and mot­tled. While the un­der­side is pale, the dor­sal fur can be white, gray, black, or red. Un­like Philip­pine fly­ing lemurs, Sunda fly­ing lemurs have bold patches of color that look sim­i­lar to lichen on a tree, which aid in cam­ou­flage. While Sunda fly­ing lemurs can­not fly, a mem­brane of skin called a patag­ium al­lows them to glide. This mem­brane is fully furred, ex­tend­ing along the limbs from the neck to the fin­gers, toes and tail. When glid­ing, the patag­ium can ex­tend to about 70 cm with the help of an ex­ten­sor mus­cle in the flank mem­brane. Sunda fly­ing lemurs have four legs of sim­i­lar size with webbed feet and curled claws. Their dig­its are flat­tened, and the soles of the feet can form suck­ing discs to allow a bet­ter grip while climb­ing. Sunda fly­ing lemurs weigh 0.9 to 2 kg (2 to 4.5 lbs) and are 33 to 42 cm in length with 17.5 to 27 cm tails. ("Amer­ica Zoo", 2005; Al­laby, 1999; Burnie and Wil­son, 2001; Dar­win and Beer, 1996; Shapiro, 2010)

Sunda fly­ing lemurs have 34 car­ni­vore-like teeth. Fly­ing lemurs of the fam­ily Cyno­cephal­i­dae have unique comb-shaped bot­tom in­cisors, which can be used for strain­ing or groom­ing. These in­cisors in­clude up to up to 20 prongs per tooth. While most in­cisors of mam­mals are sin­gle rooted, the sec­ond in­cisors of Sunda fly­ing lemurs are dou­ble rooted. The front of the top jaw is tooth­less as the upper in­cisors are po­si­tioned at the sides of the jaw. The ca­nines of Sunda fly­ing lemurs re­sem­ble pre-mo­lars. ("Amer­ica Zoo", 2005; Al­laby, 1999; Burnie and Wil­son, 2001; Dar­win and Beer, 1996)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike

• Range mass

  0.9 to 2 kg

  1.98 to 4.41 lb

• Range length

  50.5 to 69 cm

  19.88 to 27.17 in

• Average wingspan

  70 cm

  27.56 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Lit­tle is known about the re­pro­duc­tive sys­tems and courtships of Sunda fly­ing lemurs.

Sunda fly­ing lemurs can mate through­out the year. After a ges­ta­tion pe­riod of about 60 days, fe­male Sunda fly­ing lemurs give birth to a sin­gle off­spring. Rarely, twins can be born. The off­spring is born un­der­de­vel­oped and weighs around 35 g. Wean­ing oc­curs at six months of age, and adult­hood is reached at about three years. The mother can mate again shortly after giv­ing birth, and it is pos­si­ble for a fe­male to be preg­nant while still nurs­ing. ("Amer­ica Zoo", 2005; Burnie and Wil­son, 2001; Linzey, 2007; Mar­tin, 2004)

• Key Reproductive Features
• year-round breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• fertilization
• viviparous

• Breeding season

  Mating of Sunda flying lemurs occurs throughout the year.

• Range number of offspring

  1 to 2

• Average number of offspring

  1

• Average gestation period

  60 days

• Average weaning age

  6 months

• Average time to independence

  3 years

Off­spring of Sunda fly­ing lemurs nurse from a sin­gle pair of mam­mae lo­cated near the mother's armpits. The mother can fold her patag­ium into a pouch to pro­tect and warm her off­spring. Young Sunda fly­ing lemurs are de­pen­dent on the mother until they are weaned. Off­spring cling to the un­der­side of the mother, if not in the pouch, even when she is glid­ing from tree to tree. (Burnie and Wil­son, 2001; Linzey, 2007; Mar­tin, 2004)

• Parental Investment
• altricial
• female parental care
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Lit­tle in­for­ma­tion is avail­able on the lifes­pan of Sunda fly­ing lemurs, but the old­est known cap­tive fly­ing lemur of the fam­ily Cyno­cephal­i­dae was 17.5 years old. ("Max Planck In­sti­tute for De­mo­graphic Re­search", 2002)

• Range lifespan
  Status: captivity

  17.5 (high) years

Be­hav­ior

Sunda fly­ing lemurs are mainly noc­tur­nal. Dur­ing the day, they sleep in holes in trees or high in the dense fo­liage of the tree­tops. They grasp the un­der­side of branches or the trunk of a tree with all four feet. Climb­ing trees in­volves stretch­ing out the two front legs then bring­ing up the two back legs, giv­ing an awk­ward, hop­ping ap­pear­ance. When threat­ened, this species ei­ther climbs higher into the trees or com­pletely stops mov­ing. Sunda fly­ing lemurs are strictly ar­bo­real and are quite help­less on the for­est floor. They are able to glide over 100 m with lit­tle loss in el­e­va­tion. Sunda fly­ing lemurs live alone or in small, loosely con­nected groups. How­ever, they can be ter­ri­to­r­ial of sleep­ing and for­ag­ing areas. ("Amer­ica Zoo", 2005; "Malayan Colugo Cyno­cephalus var­ie­ga­tus", 2007; Burnie and Wil­son, 2001; Linzey, 2007; Shapiro, 2010)

• Key Behaviors
• arboreal
• scansorial
• glides
• nocturnal
• motile
• solitary
• territorial

Home Range

Not much is known re­gard­ing the home ranges of Sunda fly­ing lemurs, al­though home ranges broadly over­lap. In the pro­tected forests of Sin­ga­pore, one Sunda fly­ing lemur is es­ti­mated per two hectares. (Linzey, 2007; Shapiro, 2010)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

As most Sunda fly­ing lemurs are soli­tary, lit­tle is known about com­mu­ni­ca­tion be­tween in­di­vid­u­als. They can be ter­ri­to­r­ial of sleep­ing and for­ag­ing areas, though in­for­ma­tion re­gard­ing ter­ri­to­r­ial be­hav­ior is lim­ited. ("Amer­ica Zoo", 2005; Burnie and Wil­son, 2001; Linzey, 2007)

• Communication Channels
• acoustic

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Sunda fly­ing lemurs are strictly her­biv­o­rous. They feed on soft plant parts such as fruits, flow­ers, buds, young leaves, nec­tar, and sap. The un­usu­ally comb-shaped lower in­cisors are thought to be used to scrape up sap from trees or to strain fruits and flow­ers. ("Malayan Colugo Cyno­cephalus var­ie­ga­tus", 2007; Burnie and Wil­son, 2001)

• Primary Diet
• herbivore
  • folivore
  • frugivore

• Plant Foods
• leaves
• fruit
• nectar
• flowers
• sap or other plant fluids

Pre­da­tion

Hu­mans are among the few known preda­tors of Sunda fly­ing lemurs. If threat­ened, these an­i­mals ei­ther freeze or climb higher into the trees. Bold patches of fur that look sim­i­lar lichen pro­vide cam­ou­flage against preda­tors. Sunda fly­ing lemurs also glide away to es­cape preda­tors, glid­ing up to up to 100 m with min­i­mal loss in al­ti­tude. ("Malayan Colugo Cyno­cephalus var­ie­ga­tus", 2007; Burnie and Wil­son, 2001)

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• cryptic

• Known Predators

  • Humans homo sapiens

Ecosys­tem Roles

As Sunda fly­ing lemurs con­sume fruit and flow­ers, they may aid in seed dis­per­sal as well as flower pol­li­na­tion. (Burnie and Wil­son, 2001)

• Ecosystem Impact
• disperses seeds
• pollinates

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Sunda fly­ing lemurs are oc­ca­sion­ally hunted for their meat and skin. As the clos­est liv­ing rel­a­tives to pri­mates, the genome of Sunda fly­ing lemurs could prove evo­lu­tion­ar­ily en­light­en­ing. (Kennedy, 2002)

• Positive Impacts
• food
• body parts are source of valuable material
• research and education

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Be­cause Sunda fly­ing lemurs adapt well to dis­turbed and frag­mented forests and plan­ta­tions, they are con­sid­ered as pests for fruit crops. ("Malayan Colugo Cyno­cephalus var­ie­ga­tus", 2007)

• Negative Impacts
• crop pest

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Al­though Sunda fly­ing lemurs are fairly adap­tive to dis­turbed forests, their num­bers have been de­creas­ing due to habi­tat loss from log­ging and the con­ver­sion of na­tive forests into farm land. Nonethe­less, Sunda fly­ing lemurs are con­sid­ered at low risk of ex­tinc­tion by the IUCN Red List. (Burnie and Wil­son, 2001)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

Other Com­ments

Sunda fly­ing lemurs are also known as Malayan fly­ing lemurs, as they in­habit both Malaysia and the Malay Penin­sula. Sunda fly­ing lemurs have pre­vi­ously been clas­si­fied as and/or linked to in­sec­ti­vores, bats, and pri­mates. This species is dif­fi­cult to breed and sus­tain in cap­tiv­ity. Few for­mal stud­ies have been con­ducted on Sunda fly­ing lemurs, and there is much yet to learn. (Mar­tin, 2004)

Con­trib­u­tors

Ka­t­rina Beat­son (au­thor), North­ern Michi­gan Uni­ver­sity, John Brug­gink (ed­i­tor), North­ern Michi­gan Uni­ver­sity, Gail Mc­Cormick (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web Staff.

Ref­er­ences

2005. "Amer­ica Zoo" (On-line). Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 03, 2009 at http://​www.​americazoo.​com/​goto/​index/​mammals/​52.​htm.

2007. "Malayan Colugo Cyno­cephalus var­ie­ga­tus" (On-line). Wildlife Sin­ga­pore. Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 23, 2009 at http://​www.​wildsingapore.​per.​sg/​discovery/​factsheet/​colugo.​htm.

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. 2002. "Max Planck In­sti­tute for De­mo­graphic Re­search" (On-line). Longevity Records: Life Spans of Mam­mals, Birds, Am­phib­ians, Rep­tiles, and Fish. Ac­cessed March 02, 2009 at http://​www.​demogr.​mpg.​de/​longevityrecords/​index2.​htm.

Al­laby, M. 1999. A Dic­tio­nary of Zo­ol­ogy. Ox­ford: New York Ox­ford Uni­ver­sity Press (UK).

Burnie, D., D. Wil­son. 2001. Smith­son­ian In­sti­tu­tion An­i­mal: The De­fin­i­tive Vi­sual Guide to the World's Wildlife. New York, New York: DK Pub­lish­ing, Inc.

Dar­win, C., G. Beer. 1996. The Ori­gin of Species. Ox­ford: New York Ox­ford Uni­ver­sity Press (UK).

Kennedy, B. 2002. "Penn State Live" (On-line). Ac­cessed March 02, 2009 at http://​live.​psu.​edu/​story/​26969.

Linzey, D. 2007. Der­moptera. Pp. 390-391 in Mc­Graw-Hill En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Sci­ence and Tech­nol­ogy, Vol. 5, 10 Edi­tion. New York: Mc­Graw-Hill.

Mar­tin, R. 2004. Der­moptera (Colu­gos). Pp. 299-305 in E Hutchins, D Thoney, M Mc­Dade, eds. Grz­imek's An­i­mal Life En­cy­clo­pe­dia, Vol. 13, 2 Edi­tion. De­troit: Gale.

Shapiro, L. 2010. "Ga­le­opterus var­ie­ga­tus (Au­de­bert, 1799)" (On-line). En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Life. Ac­cessed Jan­u­ary 18, 2011 at http://​www.​eol.​org/​pages/​1040858.