Blog

Celebrating Darwin Day

In celebration of Darwin Day (February 12th), I thought it appropriate to broach the topic of evolution – a unifying force for all primates, human and nonhuman alike. Here at the DLC, we are a home to the tiny mouse lemur and to the graceful sifaka and then everything in between. Now add in monkeys...

Ring-tailed lemur behavioral bioassay

We’re at the Duke Lemur Center, and we have lengths of dowel, duct tape, grape jelly and two bags of craisins. Guess what’s going to happen next? Some construction? A fat-free picnic? A food fight? Well, no … actually we are with Katie Grogan, a Duke graduate student, who is going to use this equipment (and...

More Veterinary Books to Madagascar!

This week we sent out a shipment of 53 donated veterinary reference books, destined for the College of Veterinary Medicine of Madagascar, Antananarivo. The books will reinforce the new school’s fledgling library which has a tiny budget with which to purchase badly needed reference books. Our 53 books have been shipped to colleague Dr....

Growing up Aye-aye

Elphaba, the Duke Lemur Center’s most recent Aye-aye infant is now 57 days old and weighing in at...

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Conservation Endures…The first birth of 2012

Our thirteen year old Coquerel’s sifaka female, Pia, has became the first sifaka to deliver an infant this nascent 2012 birth season (a total of four sifaka females were pronounced pregnant by our Vet Staff). She gave birth to a female weighing 103 grams, in the early morning hours of January 7th. The infant’s sire...

The DLC says a sad goodbye to Romeo

“With great sadness, I write to announce an event that I have dreaded for many months now. Our beloved Romeo, the western hemisphere’s only diademed sifaka to be successfully housed in captivity, died this morning of natural causes after a prolonged illness. Death at the Duke Lemur Center is a rare event, and each one is felt...

“With great sadness, I write to announce an event that I have dreaded for many months now. Our beloved Romeo, the western hemisphere’s only diademed sifaka to be successfully housed in captivity, died this morning of natural causes after a prolonged illness. Death at the Duke Lemur Center is a rare event, and each one is felt as a grievous loss, but in Romeo’s case, the grief is profound.

Romeo was an exquisitely beautiful creature, and was gentle and responsive to his caretakers. To see him was to be enchanted by him, and for those who cared for him day in and day out, he was a vivid presence. He was also a symbol of hope and optimism. He was a survivor who beat the odds, and was a source of special pride to all of the DLC staff. He first came to the DLC from Madagascar in 1993, along with his mother and an adult male. Sadly, both adults in Romeo’s group died soon after leaving their native Madagascar. All lemurs are fragile creatures, but sifakas are especially vulnerable. They are devoted leaf eaters, and as such, have an extremely sensitive digestive system. Romeo, perhaps because he was still nursing from his mother, adapted to his new environment, and survived. He went on to live to be 19 years old, an age far beyond what could be hoped for in the wild. His long and rich life is a testament to the remarkable care that he received from the DLC staff over the years.

We will miss our beautiful boy.”

-Dr. Anne Yoder

DLC Director

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Pre-trip blog by Erik Patel

January 14, 2012 In just four days I leave for Madagascar where I’ll remain until August. The usual pre-trip mix of excitement and anxiety has set in. Four giant duffel bags are already full of research and camping gear for myself and our research team as well as forest and city cloths, medications (daily...

Meet Mosi and Seshat

Meet Mosi and Seshat our newest breeding pair of crowned lemurs (Eulemur coronatus)! Mosi is a 1.5 year old male who arrived at the DLC from the Indianapolis Zoo in early November. Seshat was born here at the Lemur Center and is also 1.5 years old. The pair was introduced in mid December, right after...

Sifaka infant watch is on!

January is not my favorite month. The holidays are over, and with them all those wonderful three and four day work weeks. It’s cold, dreary and dark outside. The holiday cookies have all been eaten. But in all that dreary darkness there is one bright spot at the Lemur Center: January marks the true...

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From a student’s perspective

Hi! My name is Leah and I am a sophomore at Duke University studying Environmental Science and Policy and Evolutionary Anthropology and I am lucky enough to have been involved at the Lemur Center since the start of my freshman year. In addition to my duties as a tour guide at our unique “Lemur Landing”...