Gait‐specific metabolic costs and preferred speeds in ring‐tailed lemurs ( Lemur catta) , with implications for the scaling of locomotor costs

Metabolic costs of resting and locomotion have been used to gain novel insights into the behavioral ecology and evolution of a wide range of primates; however, most previous studies have not considered gait‐specific effects. Here, metabolic costs of ring‐tailed lemurs ( Lemur catta ) walking, cantering and galloping are used to test for gait‐specific effects and a potential correspondence between costs and preferred speeds. Metabolic costs, including the net cost of locomotion (COL) and net cost of transport (COT), change as a curvilinear function of walking speed and (at least provisionally) as a linear function of cantering and galloping speeds. The baseline quantity used to calculate net costs had a significant effect on the magnitude of speed‐specific estimates of COL and COT, especially for walking. This is because non‐locomotor metabolism constitutes a substantial fraction (41–61%, on average) of gross metabolic rate at slow speeds. The slope‐based estimate of the COT was 5.26 J kg −1 m −1 for all gaits and speeds, while the gait‐specific estimates differed between walking (0.5 m s −1 : 6.69 J kg −1 m −1 ) and cantering/galloping (2.0 m s −1 : 5.61 J kg −1 m −1 ). During laboratory‐based overground locomotion, ring‐tailed lemurs preferred to walk at ∼0.5 m s −1 and canter/gallop at ∼2.0 m s −1 , with the preferred walking speed corresponding well to the COT minima. Compared with birds and other mammals, ring‐tailed lemurs are relatively economical in walking, cantering, and galloping. These results support the view that energetic optima are an important movement criterion for locomotion in ring‐tailed lemurs, and other terrestrial animals. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.