Possible asynchronous parturition in a multifetal strepsirrhine: Hapalemur meridionalis

ABSTRACT

Although infrequent among primates, twinning is common among strepsirrhines, a group of primates that includes the lemurs of Madagascar. As with any multifetal pregnancy, complications during gestation or even parturition can arise due to various factors (e.g., amniotic infection, stress). On rare occasions during labour of twins, parturition may be delayed between the two neonates, a phenomenon known as ‘delayed interval delivery’ that has been well-documented among the human medical journals. Based on circumstantial evidence, we report an opportunistic account of a habituated, adult female southern bamboo lemur (Hapalemur meridionalis) from Mandena, southeast Madagascar, first giving birth to an infant in midOctober 2013 (found deceased), and then birthing a live infant sometime between 5-21 days later. Similar to cases reported in human medical literature, the second infant survived and appeared to stay healthy until the conclusion of the study. Our account of asynchronous parturition of twins in a non-human primate is, to our knowledge, the first reported case in the literature.