The past decade has seen a steady increase in studies oflemur behavior and ecology. As a result, there is much novel information on newly studied populations, and even newly discovered species, that has not yet been published or summarized. In fact, lemurs have not been the focus of an international symposium since the Prosimian Biology Conference in London in 1972. Moreover, research on lemurs has reached a new quality by addressing general issues in behavioral ecology and evolutionary biology. Although lemurs provide important comparative information on these topics, this aspect of research on lemurs has not been reviewed and compared with similar studies in other primate radiations. Thus, as did many in the field, we felt that the time was ripe to review and synthesize our knowledge of lemur behavioral ecology. Following an initiative by Gerry Doyle, we organized a symposium at the XIVth Congress of the International Primatological Society in Strasbourg, France, where 15 contributions summarized much new information on lemur social systems and their ecological basis. This volume provides a collection of the papers presented at the Strasbourg symposium (plus two reports from recently completed field projects). Each chapter was peer-reviewed, typically by one "lemurologist" and one other biologist. The first three chapters present novel information from the first long-term field studies of three enigmatic species. Sterling describes the social organization of Daubentonia madagascariensis, showing that aye-aye ranging patterns deviate from those of all other nocturnal primates.

This volume includes up-to-date field research on the longest-studied and best known of lemur species. It contains articles by scientists from America, Europe, Japan and Madagascar, who combine their knowledge to describe an animal which is unique among primates. The papers review past research and add new dimensions of research related to nutrition, health, hormonal biology, plant ecology, behavioral ecology, and demography of Lemur catta.

Laminated identification guide illustrating 65 species of extant nocturnal prosimians in Madagascar.

The papers in this volume are representative of those presented at a conference entitled "Creatures of the Dark: The Nocturnal Prosimians," held at Duke University, June 9-12, 1993. The purpose of the conference, attended by more than 100 scientists, was to assemble, for the ftrst time ever, scholars from diverse ftelds with a common interest in the nocturnal prosimian primates. The history of the precursors of this meeting are outlined in the Historical Perspective by Doyle (this volume). Most of the invited papers are presented here in modified form, as are several papers originally presented as posters. Two papers are included that were not presented, due to scheduling conftcts and health considerations. Some papers, delivered from the podium, are not included in this volume. Interactions among conference participants resulted in many revisions to the contributions, as did the comments of reviewers and the editors. Several papers which contained new data or new interpretations of familiar phenomena met with constructive criticism, resulting in modification of the original papers. We thank all of the contributors for their patience and cooperation, and commend the numerous reviewers who generously donated their time and expertise. We greatly appreciate funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the Duke University Center for International Studies, the Duke University Primate Center, and Drs. Charles Putman of Duke University and Malcolm Gillis, currently of Rice Universtiy.

The first book to present the latest discoveries on the behaviour, ecology and evolutionary biology of lorises and pottos.

The first and still the only book focused exclusively on juvenile primates, this collection presents original research covering all the major divisions of primates, from prosimians to humans. Contributors explore the evolutionary history of the juvenile stage in primates, differences in behavior between juvenile males and females, how juvenile behaviors act both to prepare juveniles for adulthood and to help them survive the juvenile stage, how juveniles learn about and participate in social conflict and dominance relationships, and the similarities and differences between development of juvenile human and nonhuman primates. This edition includes a new foreword and bibliography prepared by the editors. Contributors: Filippo Aureli, Bernard Chapais, Marina Cords, Carolyn M. Crockett, Frans B. M. de Waal, Carolyn Pope Edwards, Robert Fagen, Carole Gauthier, Paul H. Harvey, Charlotte K. Hemelrijk, Loek A. M. Herremans, Julia A. Horrocks, Wayne Hunte, Charles H. Janson, Nicholas Blurton Jones, Katharine Milton, Leanne T. Nash, Timothy G. O'Brien, Mark D. Pagel, Theresa R. Pope, Anne E. Pusey, Lal Singh Rajpurohit, John G. Robinson, Thelma Rowell, Daniel I. Rubenstein, Volker Sommer, Elisabeth H. M. Sterck, Karen B. Strier, Carel P. van Schaik, Maria A. van Noordwijk, David P. Watts, and Carol M. Worthman.

The volume of studies on prosimian primates has, until recently, tended to lag well behind that of studies on the higher primates. This is so despite the fact that the considerable intrinsic interest of the living prosimians and the signifi cance of their stuQ,y for our understanding of the earlier stages of primate evolution have long been acknowledged by zoologists, paleontologists, and anthropologists alike. Among the prosimians, the Malagasy lemurs are of profound interest not only because they include the only extant diurnal forms, but also because it is only on Madagascar that the absence of competition with higher primates has allowed a surviving prosimian fauna to radiate, es sentially unrestricted, into a broad spectrum of ecological zones. In contrast, the few extant prosimians of Africa and Asia occupy a relatively narrow range of "refuge" niches; although of considerable interest in themselves, they do not show the richness and variety of adaptation which make the Malagasy prosimian fauna such a fascinating object of study. Over the past few years, however, there has been a considerable resur gence of interest in the prosimians in general, and in the lemurs in particular. The range of studies resulting from this rekindling of interest is wide, compre hending the systematics, evolution, anatomy, behavior, and ecology of these forms. This volume constitutes a progress report on our knowledge of the le murs.