Gum is low in nitrogen content, and the Masoala fork-marked lemur needs to supplement its diet with animal prey, which it stalks on the tree bark and among the foliage, catching it with its hands and stuffing it into its mouth. Hunting takes place late in the night when the main gum-gathering activities are over. The animal's faeces are invariably found to contain fragments of insect chitin. In captivity this lemur was found to be very selective about what it ate, rejecting grasshoppers, beetle larvae and small lizards, but feeding avidly on a large moth and a praying mantis.