The males and females are very different, the females (shown bottom left) are grey with a pale orange crown while the males (shown right) are a darker reddish brown crowned with black and orange.

This species has a distribution range of less than 20,000 km², it is severely fragmented, and there is continuing decline in the area and quality of habitat within the range of the species coupled with a decline in the number of mature individuals due to hunting.

Crowned lemurs are extremely trusting and show little fear of man in the wild, to the extent that the natives can get close enough to kill them with sticks. Recently Crowned lemurs have been seriously exploited for Bush meat.

Crowned lemurs visit water sources during the dry season, even hiking great distance to previously found pools in caves.