Western Madagascar

This scene is an original illustration set in Western Madagascar. It lies in the tropics, where the climate is tropical savanna — a pronounced dry season.

A troop of ring-tailed lemurs walks in single file across a dry-forest track, black-and-white banded tails held high. Two or three baobabs with massive smooth trunks stand behind. The forest is thin and leafless in the late dry-season afternoon light.

Why does a lemur hold its tail straight up?

Holding the tail up like a banner keeps a moving troop together in low scrub where sightlines are short. Lemurs exist as a whole branch of primates only because an island separated early and stayed separated — they radiated with no monkeys to compete against. Baobabs storing water in swollen trunks, above a forest that drops its leaves, mark a long severe dry season.

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