THE unique primates that roam the wilds of Madagascar are different from others primates because of the poor quality of Madagascan fruit according to a new Oxford study.

The work, published in the journal Scientific Report, was led by Dr Giuseppe Donati, Reader in Primatology at Oxford Brookes University and Professor Joerg U Ganzhorn, Head of Animal Ecology and Conservation at Hamburg University.

They analysed fruit protein concentrations from 62 forest sites across three continental regions and researchers found that fruits in Madagascar contain insufficient proteins to meet primate metabolic requirements.

This has led to the unique traits of the iconic lemur that is native to the east African country.

Dr Giuseppe Donati said of the research: “Our results add an additional dimension to the existing hypotheses depicting the island of Madagascar as ecologically challenging environment for primates. Lemurs show a number of unusual primate traits.

"Over the last two decades the most accepted idea to explain many of these traits was based on the driving force of extended periods of food scarcity, the low predictability of fruiting and the high frequency of cyclones which characterise the island of Madagascar”.

“Our results indicate that the low nutritional quality of the fruits in Madagascar may have caused lemurs to differentiate their diet and develop some of the unique traits that we can see today such as the irregular activity patterns over day and night”.