Living in the dark: Exploring the factors driving nocturnal activity in three lemur species

With a focus on three lemur species (Eulemur rubriventer, E. rufifrons, and Varecia variegata editorum) in a Malagasy tropical rainforest, we investigated how nocturnal luminosity (NLI), temperature, and rainfall influenced their active state and distance traveled at night compared to the day. We monitored them across 24‐h cycles from May 2023 to September 2024 using GPS collars.
, , # Data from: Living in the dark: Exploring the factors driving nocturnal activity in three lemur species

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.905qftv0m](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.905qftv0m)

## Description of the data and file structure

Data file name: Nocturnal_data_updated_Jan2026.xlsx

**DATASET LIST**

dpl_data: this sheet contains daily records for a tagged lemur, indicating the species distance traveled (dpl) for each observation.

factors: contains nightly activity data for tagged lemurs, including movement (mean distance and total distance traveled at night), night length, nocturnal light index (NLI), temperature, and rainfall for each date.

**DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR dpl_data**

1\. Number of variables: 5

2\. Number of cases/rows: 1438

3\. Variable List:

Date: date of observation

Species: one of three lemur species (*E. rubirventer*, *E. rufifrons*, and *V. variegata*)

Tag: the unique identification number of the lemur’s tracking device.

time_type: the classification o...,