MythscribeMundus
THE NATURAL & IMAGINED WORLDAn illustrated compendium
mythscribe.cloudSearch/
NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD

Southern Woolly Lemur

Avahi meridionalis Zaramody, Fausser, Roos, Zinner, Andriaholinirina, Rabarivola, Norscia, Tattersall & Rumpler, 2006

Source-backed taxonomic record

Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.

Southern Wooly Lemur (Avahi meridionalis) with infant at Sainte Luce Private Reserve

Southern Wooly Lemur (Avahi meridionalis) with infant at Sainte Luce Private Reserve

Maky (Alex Dunkel) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Image source

Provider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.

Open encyclopedia reference

The southern woolly lemur (Avahi meridionalis), or southern avahi, has been recently recognized as a separate species of woolly lemur in 2006 by Zaramody et al. It is a nocturnal and pair-living species. Groups can range from 2 (the parental pair only) to 5 individuals (including the offspring of subsequent years). A study in Sainte Luce forest revealed home range varied from 2.2 to 3.5 ha and that males can have larger home range and cover longer daily distances than females (which can spend more time feeding), in agreement with the territory defence and mate guarding hypotheses.

Wikipedia contributors, Southern woolly lemur; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T09:18:01.655345+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name
Avahi meridionalis Zaramody, Fausser, Roos, Zinner, Andriaholinirina, Rabarivola, Norscia, Tattersall & Rumpler, 2006
Name authority
Zaramody, Fausser, Roos, Zinner, Andriaholinirina, Rabarivola, Norscia, Tattersall & Rumpler, 2006
Common name
Southern Woolly Lemur
Rank
species
Accepted status
accepted
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Mammalia
Order
Primates
Family
Indriidae
Genus
Avahi
Extinction status
Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

  1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
  2. kingdomAnimalia
  3. phylumChordata
  4. subphylumVertebrata
  5. infraphylumGnathostomata
  6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
  7. megaclassTetrapoda
  8. classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
  9. subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
  10. infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
  11. orderPrimates Linnaeus, 1758
  12. suborderStrepsirrhini É. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1812
  13. infraorderLemuriformes Gray, 1821
  14. superfamilyLemuroidea Gray, 1821
  15. familyIndriidae Burnett, 1828
  16. genusAvahi Jourdan, 1834
  17. speciesAvahi meridionalis Zaramody, Fausser, Roos, Zinner, Andriaholinirina, Rabarivola, Norscia, Tattersall & Rumpler, 2006

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Avahi. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

SpeciesClassificationSource status
Betsileo Woolly LemurAvahi betsileo Andriantompohavana, Lei, Zaonarivelo, Engberg, Nalanirina, McGuire, Shore et al., 2007IndriidaeChordataAccepted speciesRecorded extant
Bemaraha Woolly LemurAvahi cleesei Thalmann & Geissmann, 2005IndriidaeChordataAccepted speciesRecorded extant
Manombo Woolly LemurAvahi ramanantsoavani Zaramody, Fausser, Roos, Zinner, Andriaholinirina, Rabarivola, Norscia, Tattersall & Rumpler, 2006IndriidaeChordataAccepted speciesRecorded extant
Sambirano Woolly LemurAvahi unicolor Thalmann & Geissmann, 2000IndriidaeChordataAccepted speciesRecorded extant
Peyrieras's Woolly LemurAvahi peyrierasi Zaramody, Fausser, Roos, Zinner, Andriaholinirina, Rabarivola, Norscia, Tattersall & Rumpler, 2006IndriidaeChordataAccepted speciesRecorded extant

Browse 11 records assigned to Indriidae.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Africa

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

  1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=944085 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:K29R. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.