--- title: Madagascar: real lemurs, the aye-aye and the fossa — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Madagascar: real lemurs, the aye-aye and the fossa», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: In the film Madagascar, King Julien dances at a lemur party, tiny Mort clings to his feet, and the hungry foosa chase t --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/127-madagascar-real-lemurs/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Madagascar: real lemurs, the aye-aye a… # Madagascar: real lemurs, the aye-aye and the fossa Lesson 127 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 15 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/127-madagascar-real-lemurs/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/127-madagascar-real-lemurs/0/) — In the film Madagascar, King Julien dances at a lemur party, tiny Mort clings to his feet, and the hungry foosa chase them all; every one of these animals is real. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/127-madagascar-real-lemurs/1/) — Madagascar broke away from other land millions of years ago, and the animals that reached it, maybe on floating rafts of plants, slowly changed into new kinds found nowhere else. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/127-madagascar-real-lemurs/2/) — With no monkeys or woodpeckers on the island, lemurs spread into many kinds: the aye-aye taps on bark with a long thin finger to find grubs, and sifakas bound sideways across the ground like dancers. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/127-madagascar-real-lemurs/3/) — Real ring-tailed lemurs are led by females, not kings, sunbathe each morning with arms spread wide, and male rivals hold «stink fights» by waving smelly tails. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/127-madagascar-real-lemurs/5/) — Ring-tailed lemurs live in groups of about 6 to 30 led by females, who get first choice of food. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/127-madagascar-real-lemurs/6/) — Wild lemurs live only on Madagascar and a few small islands nearby, and about 90 percent of Madagascar's wild animals and plants live nowhere else. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/127-madagascar-real-lemurs/7/) — In the morning ring-tailed lemurs sit with arms open and bellies to the sun to warm up, because their belly fur is thin. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/127-madagascar-real-lemurs/8/) — Male ring-tailed lemurs have «stink fights», rubbing their tails on smelly wrist glands and waving them at rivals; the tail is longer than the body and cannot grab; it is used for balance and signalling. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/127-madagascar-real-lemurs/9/) — Mouse lemurs are among the smallest primates; the smallest weighs about 30 grams, and big eyes help them hunt at night; some sleep through the dry season on fat stored in their tails. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/127-madagascar-real-lemurs/10/) — The aye-aye taps on bark, listens for grub tunnels, gnaws a hole and pulls the grub out with its long thin middle finger, doing the job of a woodpecker. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/127-madagascar-real-lemurs/11/) — The aye-aye's teeth keep growing like a rodent's, so scientists first thought it was a kind of squirrel. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/127-madagascar-real-lemurs/12/) — Sifakas leap about 10 metres between trees and on the ground bound sideways on two legs, because their legs are much longer than their arms. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/127-madagascar-real-lemurs/14/) — The fossa is real: Madagascar's biggest predator, a slim cat-like animal with a long tail, related to mongooses, which climbs head-first down trees and hunts lemurs. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/127-madagascar-real-lemurs/15/) — Most kinds of lemurs are endangered, mainly because their forests are being cut down, and they are among the most threatened mammals in the world. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/127-madagascar-real-lemurs/16/) — Some lemurs drink nectar and carry pollen on their faces from flower to flower, pollinating plants as bees do. - ← previous: [The Lion King's hyenas, Rafiki and Zazu: real hyenas, mandrills and hornbills](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/126-the-lion-king-hyenas-rafiki-and-zazu/) - next →: [Marty, Gloria and Melman: real zebras, hippos and giraffes](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/128-madagascar-real-zebras-hippos-and-giraffes/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)