Critically Endangered
Golden-crowned sifaka
Propithecus tattersalli
The golden-crowned sifaka or Tattersall's sifaka is a medium-sized lemur characterized by mostly white fur, prominent furry ears, and a golden-orange crown.
Appearance
The golden-crowned sifaka or Tattersall's sifaka is a medium-sized lemur characterized by mostly white fur, prominent furry ears, and a golden-orange crown. Found in gallery, deciduous, and semi-evergreen forest, its restricted range includes 44 forest fragments, totaling an area of 44,125 hectares (109,040 acres. 170.37 sq mi), centered on the town of Daraina in northeast Madagascar.
It is one of the smallest sifakas (genus Propithecus), weighing around 3.5 kg (7.7 lb) and measuring approximately 90 cm (35 in) from head to tail.
Range and habitat
The golden-crowned sifaka lives in dry deciduous, gallery, and semi-evergreen forests and is found at altitudes up to 500 m (1,640 ft), though it seems to prefer lower elevations. Surveys have shown it to be limited to highly fragmented forests surrounding the town of Daraina in an area encircled by the Manambato and Loky Rivers in northeastern Madagascar. The golden-crowned sifaka has one of the smallest geographic ranges of all indriid lemur species.
Its range was originally not covered by any national parks or protected areas in Madagascar, but a new protected area, Loky-Manambato reserve, was established in 2005 to include a 20,000 ha (49,000 acres. 77 sq mi) portion. In 2002, none of the forested areas that the golden-crowned sifaka inhabits were part of a formally protected national park or reserve.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet
The golden-crowned sifaka is primarily active during the day (diurnal), but researchers have witnessed activity in the early morning and evening (crepuscular) during the rainy season (November through April). It also emits mobbing alarm calls in response to birds of prey.
The diet of the golden-crowned sifaka consists of a wide variety of plants—as many as 80 species—whose availability varies based on the season. It is a seed predator, making seeds a year-round staple in its diet when available. The golden-crowned sifaka is a seasonal breeder, often mating during the last week of January.
In crisis
Its estimated population is between 4,000 and 5,000 individuals. The golden-crowned sifaka lives in groups of around five to six individuals, containing a balanced number of adult males and females. Forest fragmentation, habitat destruction, poaching, slash-and-burn agriculture, and other human factors threaten its existence.
The golden-crowned sifaka is listed by the IUCN Red List as Critically Endangered. As of its 2014 assessment, the golden-crowned sifaka is once again "Critically Endangered" on the IUCN Red List.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix I. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Golden-crowned sifaka is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Golden-crowned sifaka, Wikidata item Q775574. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
