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Duke Lemur Center

14 hours ago

Happy Wednesday from mongoose lemur Rico 🧡

You can tell that this handsome seven-year-old is a male thanks to his orange beard—female mongoose lemurs have a white beard. Rico has participated in a wide variety of tours with guests over the past few years. In 2022, visitors saw Rico and his breeding partner, Carolina, free-ranging in one of our forest enclosures on Walking with Lemurs tours. In 2023, Rico and Carolina spent the summer on our General Tour path. This year, the mongoose lemur pair participate in our Wild Workshops, interacting eagerly with guest-made enrichment 😋

Some of our residents are a little more shy around visitors, so we take that into account with our housing arrangements to keep our introverted lemurs in more private areas. Luckily, Rico is both handsome AND outgoing, making him popular with guests and staff members alike 🤗

Interested in visiting our facility? Make sure you book tickets beforehand—a tour is required to see the lemurs. Most of our tours are available May-September, but we have a few off-season offerings, like our Behind the Scenes tours and Wild Workshops. Schedule your visit through our website at lemur.duke.edu/onsite-tours ✨

📸: Sara Nicholson ... See MoreSee Less

Duke Lemur Center

2 days ago

No one misses the summer sunshine more than black-and-white ruffed lemur Sunshine ☀️

Four-year-old Sunshine spent this past summer free-ranging in one of our forest enclosures with mom Halley, stepdad Bruno, and siblings Orbit, Sputnik, Kepler, and Spitzer. With such a big family, tail shaves were crucial in helping tell the lemurs apart! These shaves are harmless haircuts, like you see on Sunshine in the first photo. One or two shaves in different locations on the tail (tip, mid, or base) allow us to identify individuals, even when they climb to the tippy tops of the tallest trees 🌲

You can stay up-to-date on Sunshine and her family by symbolically adopting her mom, Halley! Learn more at lemur.duke.edu/adopt ✨

📸: Sara Nicholson (1-4); Aditya Baliga (5) ... See MoreSee Less

Duke Lemur Center

2 days ago

There's no better cure for the Mondays than adorable portraits of old man Poe 😝

Aye-aye Poe, the oldest resident in our colony, will be turning 38 years old next month! There are a couple features that hint at Poe's age—the spots in his ears, his slightly cloudy eyes, and his tongue blep. While lemurs (and other animals) of all ages can sport a blep from time to time, you see the tongues of older animals peeking out more frequently because they've often lost teeth over the years. With only three teeth remaining, Poe doesn't have much of a barrier to hold his tongue in place, creating his signature sweet expression 🥰

📸: David Haring ... See MoreSee Less

Duke Lemur Center

5 days ago

The best part of autumn at the Duke Lemur Center is watching the lemurs explore their changing surroundings 😍

Lemurs are incredibly curious animals! It's one of the many reasons why providing our residents with daily enrichment is so crucial to their wellbeing. Like us, lemurs are primates, meaning they have relatively large brains and are pretty smart. Whether they're solving puzzles for snacks or investigating fallen leaves, lemurs thrive on mental stimulation, and our staff works hard to ensure that our primates never get bored 🧩

Scroll to the end to see Gertrude's reaction after a wasp decided to explore HER in return!

📸: Sara Nicholson ... See MoreSee Less

Duke Lemur Center

6 days ago

🤩 THIS WEEKEND 🤩

Good news: we have the weather and staffing to run an off-season General Tour this Sunday 11/17! Like our summer General Tours, this tour is an open house format, and guests can arrive any time before 11:30am to walk around and see the lemurs. Because the lemurs' housing needs may mildly affect their visibility to guests, we are offering a discounted off-season rate of $15 per person for ages 18+ and $12 per person for ages 3-17 (children 2 and under are free) 🥳

We are also able to run off-season Walking with Lemurs tours this Monday (11/18)! Tickets are limited, so make sure to grab them before they sell out. Just like during the summer, our Walking with Lemurs tours are $75 per person and open to guests ages 10+ 🤗

Tickets MUST be purchased in advance to attend! Tickets and information are available on our website at lemur.duke.edu/GT for the General Tour and lemur.duke.edu/wwl for the Walking with Lemurs tour 🎟

📸: David Haring; Sara Nicholson ... See MoreSee Less

Duke Lemur Center

7 days ago

Happy International Day of Zoo and Aquarium Educators to our amazing education team! 💙

If you've taken a tour of the Duke Lemur Center or had an educator visit your classroom for an outreach program, you've interacted with our fantastic staff members, seasonal educators, and volunteer docents. All of our educators love sharing their passion for lemurs and conservation with visitors of all ages. In addition to spreading awareness of these incredible creatures, all of the money from ticket sales and gift shop purchases goes directly back into the care and conservation of lemurs, both here and in Madagascar, so our educators are crucial in helping us preserve the most endangered group of mammals on the planet 🌎

To learn more about our tours and schedule your visit, go to lemur.duke.edu/onsite-tours ✨

📸: Abby Flyer, Gene X, Sara Nicholson ... See MoreSee Less

Duke Lemur Center

7 days ago

Looking for a gift for hard-to-shop-for friends and family? Our Adopt a Lemur program has got you covered! 🎁

➡️ lemur.duke.edu/adopt

For a limited time, receive a special holiday package with your symbolic adoption of a black-and-white ruffed lemur! The holiday package includes a BRAND NEW black-and-white ruffed lemur plush, as well as a wooden ornament, a copy of the 2024 edition of our official DLC Magazine, and a customized adoption packet introducing your recipient to Halley, their symbolic adoptee. Updates on Halley's life will be emailed quarterly, so your gift will last all year long 🤗

Your adoption fee includes a donation to support the lemurs of the DLC and our conservation programs in Madagascar. A win-win!

You can learn more about our special holiday package at lemur.duke.edu/adopt 🎉

📸: Sara Nicholson ... See MoreSee Less

Duke Lemur Center

1 week ago

Did you know that aye-ayes are the only lemurs who don't have fingernails on most of their digits? 💅

Like us, most primates (including lemurs) have nails on their fingers rather than claws! The only claws that most lemurs possess are their grooming claws, found on the index toe of each back foot. Aye-ayes, however, have claws on all but their big toes of their back feet, and those claws aid in their unique percussive foraging 👐

Curious about the difference between nails and claws? Nails are broad and flat, and they only cover the tops of fingers, while claws are long and narrow, ending at a point and extending beyond the fingertips. Both nails and claws are made of keratin, a tough protein also found in horns and hair. Our primate ancestors likely evolved nails to improve grip and sensitivity when climbing trees! 🤩

📸: David Haring (aye-aye Nirina and red ruffed lemur Hoku) ... See MoreSee Less

Duke Lemur Center

1 week ago

After planting thousands of trees and supporting the livelihoods of local people while overseeing conservation programs in Madagascar for the Duke Lemur Center for 35 years, Charlie Welch is set to retire this summer.

➡️ today.duke.edu/2024/11/planter-seeds

Conservation Coordinator Charlie Welch will be retiring in the summer of 2025, after more than 35 years at the DLC. Read about Charlie's remarkable career and rich legacy of conservation and biodiversity protection, and learn more about the DLC's newest endowment, the Charles Welch and Andrea Katz Fund, established in honor of Charlie and his wife, conservationist Andrea Katz. ... See MoreSee Less