Habitat/Conservation
In the wild, red-bellied lemurs inhabit the high altitude rainforests of eastern Madagascar at very low concentrations. They are one of the rarest species in the genus Eulemur . At one time their range encompassed Madagascar's entire eastern rainforest swath, but now they are found from the Tsaratanana Massif in the north to the Andringitra Massif in the south (not including the Masoala Peninsula, home of the red ruffed lemur). The animals are found in nine protected areas in Madagascar. The primary threat to the continued survival of the red-bellied lemur is from forest destruction from logging and from slash and burn agriculture.
Eulemur rubriventer are fairly rare in captivity. The first red-bellied lemur in captivity in North America arrived at Duke in 1979, a single female from a zoo in France. Although she produced several hybrid offspring in captivity, a red-bellied mate was never obtained for her, and she died in 1981. In 1985 another single female, Dido, a confiscated pet from the Perinet region of Madagascar, was brought to Duke. She also produced a hybrid offspring before the arrival in 1986 of 2.1 wild caught Eulemur rubriventer from the rainforest in the vicinity of Ranomafana National Park.
Currently there are 67 captive red-bellied lemurs worldwide, but only three institutions in the US house the animals as compared to 16 in Europe. Following the recommendations of the Prosimian Taxon Advisory Group, which determines strategies for the North American captive breeding of lemurs, the DLC has decided to maintain only a small population of this lemur, and perhaps eventually phase it out entirely. European institutions have expressed interest in continuing to breed and manage this species.