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The Mahoran lemur called Maki, or COMBA in Mahorian, is a member of the Lemur Fulvus Fulvus family or the Madagascan brown Makis.
His scientific name, Lemur Fulvus Mayottensis, distinguishes him from the other lemurs in many respects. Indeed, the species Fulvus
Mayottentis exists only in Mayotte.
He is related to man in many respects : he burries his dead, his 5-finger hands have fingerprints and his feet are comparable to man's.
He is 50 cm tall with a 60 cm tail and weighs about 2 kg.
His long bushy tail has endowed him with an inborn sense of balance, which allows him to move from tree to tree, by sometimes performing several jumps.
He is omnivorous par excellence. His food is varied : fruits (bananas, mangos, papayas, jackfruits, and a variety of berries), leaves and flowers, buds, insects and also little lizards, birds'eggs, ... .
He lives in unstable group of 4 to 10 individuals. The latter is rather fluid, changing associations. The females seem to remain more faithful to the group than the males.
He prefers to move about up on tops of trees, probably to escape from the numerous predators below. Yet, he happens to venture on the ground.
His gentle and sociable nature makes of him an animal easy to tame.
The incessant forest clearing of the island drives him sometimes out of his natural habitat to make foray into cultivated lands for food. And this brings on him the hostilities of the farmers who cannot bear the damage he causes on the crops.
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