I still remember my anxiety the first day Ndrina Kotonirina and I hacked our way into the wall of green vegetation that is Madagascar's Mantadia National Park. But just as my French-speaking guide had promised, the forest was in pristine condition and overflowed with les lemuriens, eleven species in all. It was also home to animals that preyed on lemurs, among them the large, catlike fossa, which I was to encounter many times. As planned, I set up a base camp in the north of the park and set out to study the two largest lemurs, Propithecus diadema diadema (commonly known as the diademed sifaka) and Indri indri (commonly known as the indri). My research focused on their dietary habits, but as happens to many fieldworkers, I stumbled upon something else, an aspect of their behavior that could not easily be explained.
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