| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
KAWAMOTO Yoshi Kyoto University, Primate Reserch Institute, Associate Professor, 霊長類研究所, 助教授 (00177750)
AIMI Mitsuru Kyoto University, Primate Reserch Institute, Associate Professor, 霊長類研究所, 助教授 (50101241)
TAKAHATA Yukio School of Policy Studies, Kwansei-Gakuin University, Professor, 総合政策学部, 教授 (90183061)
HIRAI Hirohisa Kyoto University, Primate Reserch Institute, Associate Professor, 霊長類研究所, 助教授 (10128308)
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| Research Abstract |
During the study period from 1997 to 1999, we have conducted ecological and population genetic studies of ring-tailed lemurs at Berenty Reserve, Madagascar. Within the main study area of 14.2 ha, there were six troops of ring-tailed lemurs (C2A, C2B, C1, CX, T1, T2). In 1997, 184 ticks (Haemaphysalis lemuris) were collected from the facial skins of the 22 lemurs. Male ticks occupied 93% of the specimen, and the females only 5%. It is suggested that reproductive strategies of female ticks might be different from those of male ticks (Takahata et al., 1998). Go et al. (2000) discussed mechanisms of chromosome differentiation through the change of telometric sequence dispersion patterns among seven species of lemurs. The differentiation must be a manifestation of results of chromosome evolution in these lemurs. In 1999, a total of 103 ring-tailed lemurs were captured and morphometric measurements were undertaken for these lemurs. Most of the blood samples from these lemurs are still under investigation. DNA sequencing and detection of molecular size variation with electrophoresis will be performed.
Some aspects of social relationships of female ring-tailed lemurs are analyzed. We found that close proximity and social grooming occurred more frequently between closely related females than between unrelated females (Nakamichi et al., 1997, Nakamichi and Koyama, 2000). In addition to these findings, we collected data on reproductive parameters and population dyanamics for ring-tailed lemurs at Berenty. We are preparing to publish them in near future (Koyama et al., in preparation, Takahata et al., in preparation).
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