Like the vast majority of lemurs, red-bellied lemurs live in social groups where the female dominates the male. In this case the groups are very small, normally made up of a pair of adults and their offspring. They are mainly diurnal, but can also be active at night. The group communicates through different vocalizations.

They present dichromatic sexual dimorphism. The body is basically brown in both sexes, but females have a lighter chest and belly. The male has a black tail, face and nose, with a white halo around the eyes. This coloration is similar in the female, but the eye halo is smaller.

The red-bellied lemur is in a vulnerable state of conservation in the wild, due to the destruction of its habitat by human settlements, deforestation and indiscriminate hunting.