The Ring-tailed Lemur is endemic to the island of Madagascar where they range from gallery forests to spiny scrub in the southern regions of the island. They are opportunistic omnivores, primarily eating from as many as three dozen different plant species, and their diet includes flowers, herbs, bark and sap, particularly from the tamarind tree. They have also been observed eating decayed wood, earth, spider webs, insect cocoons, arthropods (spiders, caterpillars, cicadas and grasshoppers) and small vertebrates such as birds and chameleons. They have a slender frame and narrow face, and their long, bushy tail is ringed in alternating between twelve or thirteen black and white transverse bands. Their coat varies from gray to rosy-brown, sometimes with a brown patch around the tail region. The hair on the throat, cheeks, and ears is white or off-white and also less dense, allowing the dark skin underneath to show through. They are relatively large, with their average weight at 2.2 kilograms and their body length ranging between 39 and 46 cm. The average troop contains 13 to 15 individuals and their home range size varies between 6 and 35 hectares. They are a female-dominant species, and females socially dominate males in all circumstances, including feeding priority. Dominance is enforced by lunging, chasing, cuffing, grabbing and biting. Although the females may seek outside males, they typically mate within their troop. Their breeding season runs from mid-April to mid-May and gestation lasts for about 135 days. The offspring are born in September or occasionally October. One offspring is the norm, although twins may occur. Due to their diurnal lifestyle, they also sunbathe; the lemurs can be observed sitting upright on their tails, exposing their soft, white belly fur towards the sun. They will often also have their palms open and eyes gently closed, as if meditating. Like other lemurs, this species relies strongly on their sense of smell, and territorial marking, with scent glands, provides communication signals throughout a group's home range. They use many different calls, including those which concern group cohesion and announce the presence of predators. Despite their relatively small brain they can organize sequences, understand basic arithmetic, and preferentially select tools based on functional qualities. Listed as endangered by the IUCN, only about 2,000 ring-tailed lemurs are estimated to be left in the wild in 2017, making the threat of their extinction serious. Their native predators include the fossa, the Madagascar harrier-hawk, the Madagascar buzzard, and the Madagascar ground boa. There are also introduced predators like the small Indian civet, the domestic cat and the domestic dog. As this suggests, they are mostly threatened by the actions of people, such as habitat destruction, the bushmeat and pet trades, and poaching for zoos.