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The Indridae (also spelled Indriidae) are a family of strepsirrhine primates. They are medium to large sized lemurs with only four teeth in the toothcomb instead of the usual six. Indrids, like all lemurs, live exclusively on the island of Madagascar.
The ten indrid species vary considerably in size. Not counting the length of their tails, the avahis are only 30cm in length, while the Indri is the largest extant strepsirrhine. The tail of the Indri is only a stub, while avahi and the sifaka tails are as long as their bodies. Their fur is long and mostly from whitish over reddish up to grey. Their black faces, however, are always bald. The hind legs are longer than their fore limbs, their hands are long and thin, and their thumb cannot be opposed to the other fingers correctly.
All species are arboreal, though they do come to the ground occaisionally. When on the ground, they stand upright and move with short hops forward, with their arms held high. In the trees, though, it can make extraordinay leaps and is extremely agile, able to change direction from tree to tree. Like most leaf eaters they adjust for the low nutrient content of their food by long rests. Often it can be seen lying stretched on trees sunning themselves. Indrids live together in family federations from two to 15 animals, communicating with roars and also with facial expressions.
Indrids are strict vegetarians, eating mostly leaves, fruits and flowers.
Females and males usually mate monogamously for many years. Mostly at the end of the dry season, their four to five-month gestation ends with the birth of a single offspring, which lives in the family for a while after its weaning (at the age of five to six months).
Classification
References - ITIS entry (http://www.itis.usda.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=572769)
- NCBI entry (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?mode=Undef&name=indridae&srchmode=1&keep=1&a=Go&lvl=3)
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