Northern sportive lemur have large bacteria-filled ceca, which helps them to digest plant matter such as cellulose and break it down into sugars and starches. The northern sportive lemur is preyed on by the native Malagasy tree boa, which hunts the lemurs while they are sleeping in tree holes. Large birds of prey, Falconiformes and Strigiformes, are also natural predators of the lemurs. Along with these ecological threats, the arboreal lemur species are also highly threatened by human charcoal production, which still continues to remove the only remaining forest habitat of the lemurs, greatly restricting their range. "L. septentrionalis" is also illegally hunted
Gleaning (birds) aforementioned piculet are specialized for gleaning the bark of trees, as are nuthatches, woodcreepers, and treecreepers. Most bark-gleaners work their way up tree trunks or along branches, though nuthatches are well known as the birds that can go the opposite direction, facing down and working their way down the trunk, as well. This requires strong legs and feet on the part of the nuthatch and piculet, while birds that face upwards tend to have stiff tail feathers to prop them up. Birds often specialize in a particular niche, such as a particular stratum of forest or type of vegetation. In