CC Biological Anthropology Professor Krista Fish recently coauthored a study that discovered the first evidence of primates regularly sleeping in caves. From 2006 to 2013, the research team tracked and observed eleven troops of ring-tailed lemurs in the Tsimanampesotse National Park and the Tsinjoriake Protected Area in southwestern Madagascar. They found that “over a six-year period, the same troops of ring-tailed lemurs used the same sleeping caves on a regular, daily basis,” said CU Boulder Professor Michelle Sauther, who led the study. This behavioral adaptation could be used to provide refuge from predators and deforestation, as well as to regulate body temperature.
For more information, please visit http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131204123746.htm.