Ring-tailed lemurs are very distinctive with their amazing black and white stripped tails and their beautiful eyes. They don’t use these amazing tails to grip the trees like their primate cousins do. They have a smellier role to play in lemur life. Lemurs use scent to mark their territories and during the mating season the males use scent to establish their dominance over other males. They do this by rubbing their tails with the secretions from their scent glands in their wrists and then waving them in the air in an attempt to out stink each other. The smelliest lemur wins!  :-) 

This is a 40 x 30 cm acrylic painting on Cornwall paper, partly painted in a watercolour style and partly with thicker paint and a knife, giving a mix of texture.

Ring-tailed Lemurs are beautiful and it would be a shame if we lost them. Sadly they are endangered because of a loss of their habitat. Hopefully breeding programs will help them survive.