Playful Verreaux’s Sifakas: a lovely lemur. In the early morning light in Berenty Private Reserve, Madagascar, we came across this group of Verreaux’s Sifakas in the spiny forest. It was remarkable to see this very agile Sifaka jumping from tree to tree despite the trees being covered in vicious thorns. Whilst mostly found in the tree canopy, they will they will also move around on the ground by sideways skipping. Watching the arboreal antics of these lemurs was very entertaining.
Verreaux’s Sifakas are rather small Sifakas,up to 48cm tall with a tail up to 60cm long. They weigh just 3.5kg. They tend to live in small groups of 4-8 animals.
It is great shame that these wonderful animals are threatened by human activity. Their rarity and uniqueness makes them with protecting.