For up to how many months can the fat-tailed dwarf lemur hibernate?

The fat-tailed dwarf lemur can hibernate for up to seven months.

That unusually long period helps the animal endure Madagascar’s dry season, when drought reduces the availability of fruits, flowers and other foods. Before entering torpor, it feeds heavily and builds a substantial fat reserve, especially in its tail.

“Hibernation” here does not mean uninterrupted sleep. The lemur cycles between deep torpor—when metabolism, heart rate and body temperature fall dramatically—and brief interbout arousals in which it rewarms and becomes physiologically more active. These arousals may occur roughly every six to twelve days.

The exact duration can vary with habitat, seasonality and conditions, so seven months is a maximum commonly reported figure rather than a fixed timetable for every individual. A frequent mix-up is substituting shorter estimates from other dwarf lemurs or other forms of daily torpor. For the fat-tailed dwarf lemur, the accepted upper limit is seven months.