The time is now
Lemurs are the most endangered mammals on Earth
about
Duke Lemur Center
Founded in 1966 on the campus of Duke University in Durham, NC, the Duke Lemur Center is a world leader in the study, care, and protection of lemurs—Earth’s most threatened group of mammals.
With more than 200 animals across 13 species, the DLC houses the world’s most diverse population of lemurs outside their native Madagascar.
Want to visit? We’d love to host you! Just note that tour reservations are required in advance.
Our Mission
To advance science, scholarship, and biological conservation through non-invasive research, community-based conservation, and public outreach and education.
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THIS SATURDAY: Help our fossil team unwrap field specimens at this month's FREE DLC Museum of Natural History Open House! 🦴
When our team collects fossils, they wrap them in toilet paper and give them a field number. Then when they get back to the museum, they unwrap them (after some much needed hydration and rest). They take a look at each specimen, see if they agree with their original ID, then assign them accession numbers and put them in specimen boxes 🔍
Open House visitors can help unwrap specimens and get them settled in their new specimen box homes after 50 million years in the badlands of Wyoming. This season, our team found lemur-like primates that evolved in the shadow of the rising Rocky Mountains, guinea pig-sized horse relatives, and crocs with shark-like teeth! 🦷 ... See MoreSee Less
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Chase away the Sunday Scaries with more pics of baby Paloma 🥹
At seven weeks old, mongoose lemur infant Paloma has started spending more time on mom Bonita's back! Infant lemurs start out life "fanny packing" aka clinging to mom's belly, which provides easy access for nursing. As babies approach two months old, they will transition to "backpacking" and will even start venturing off of mom as they gain confidence. Paloma hasn't been spotted off of mom yet, but watching exuberant big sister Leonor leap around their enclosure might inspire Paloma to start testing her independence! 💖
📸: David Haring ... See MoreSee Less
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Even more good news from our 2026 Baby Season... Meet our newest Coquerel's sifaka infant! 🤩
➡️ lemur.duke.edu/magdalena-infant-2026
This critically endangered baby girl was born on June 7th and is the second daughter of 9-year-old Magdalena and 24-year-old Gratian. She joins this family of four with mom, dad, and older sister Pax, who was born in 2024. This female infant is a member of an illustrious family—she is the grand-niece of Jovian, the lemur who played the famous Zoboomafoo! ✨
Two-year-old Pax is “obsessed” with her little sister, says Keeper Megan, the family’s primary caretaker. This is Pax’s first infant experience, and her keepers hope that learning to care for her little sister will help prepare her to be a mom herself one day 💖
At two months old, Magdalena’s infant is starting to grow curious about the world around her! “She’s starting to come off Magdalena and eat leaves,” explains Megan, “until she sees you watching her. Then she jumps back on.” 🥺
Through 9/5/2026, Magdalena's infant will be available for an Ultimate Adoption! A new tax-deductible donation of $20,000, which you can opt to pay half now and half in the next year, will allow you the honor of helping the DLC choose the name for this infant. Interested? Learn more on our website at lemur.duke.edu/ultimate 💫
📸: David Haring (1,2,4,5,7); Megan C. (3); Abby Flyer (6) ... See MoreSee Less
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New Research: Fossil study finds that vision—not the 'thinking' frontal lobe—drove varied brain development in primates 🧠
➡️ lemur.duke.edu/vision-brain-development
A new study led by a Duke University scientist overturns a long-held idea about how primates, including humans, came to have such large and sophisticated brains. The research finds that the dramatic expansion of the primate neocortex was driven largely by vision, not by the disproportionate growth of the frontal lobe often associated with higher reasoning 😱
The researchers used a unique collection of skulls, many from the Duke Lemur Center Museum of Natural History, to create models of the inside of these brain cases to compare the brains of living and extinct primates 💀
Read the whole story on our website! ✨ ... See MoreSee Less
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Whether handing out breakfast, cutting browse, or making sure the lemurs' homes stay clean, our staff go through LOTS of gloves and cleaning supplies! 💙
www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/373AW0NFW38GY/ref=nav_wishlist_lists_1
Want to help the Duke Lemur Center keep the nearly 250 primates in our care happy and healthy? You can send items from our Amazon wishlist directly to our staff—including zip ties, gloves, bleach, masks, clippers, and laundry sheets—that go into the behind-the-scenes care for the world's most endangered mammals 😊
(Our keepers will especially love you forever if you send zip ties—they're in high demand for setting up branching and structural enrichment in the lemurs' indoor rooms and screened-in outdoor patios!) 🌿 ... See MoreSee Less
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Meet our newest critically endangered mongoose lemur infant, Paloma! 😍
➡️ lemur.duke.edu/paloma
On June 28th, Bonita gave birth to a healthy baby girl! This infant is Bonita's second with dad Juanito, following the birth of daughter Leonor last year. Now that Bonita is an experienced mom, she seems incredibly calm, often relaxing in a basket (and sometimes even falling asleep) while Paloma nurses 💖
Paloma is just as “bonita” as her mom and older sister. She has beautiful yellow-brown eyes and stares calmly at her surroundings, taking in the world around her. Her keepers have said that she seems “less amazed by the world” than Leonor as an infant, joking that she must be an “old soul" 🤩
Paloma’s name, which means "dove," was chosen by a generous couple whose Ultimate Adoption donation will further the Duke Lemur Center’s mission through its Animal Care Fund. "“Last year, we adopted and named Leonor, Bonita and Juanito’s first daughter, and were delighted to hear that baby Paloma has arrived!" say donors Melanie and Carl. "We’re excited to watch these two sisters as they grow and bond together.” 🕊
📸: Leah H. (1); Madison A. (2,5); David Haring (3,6); Isabella L. (4) ... See MoreSee Less
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Crowned lemur Aria enjoys breakfast on the summer tour path 😋
➡️ lemur.duke.edu/visit
Come see the Duke Lemur Center on our most affordable, family-friendly tour, the General Tour! This open house-style tour is ideal as an introduction to the DLC for all ages and includes loads of interaction and Q&A opportunities with trained educators stationed along the tour path. We can only guarantee these tours through the end of September (the end of our summer tour season), so be sure to book your tickets to come out on a Friday (5-7pm), Saturday (10am-noon), or Sunday (10am-noon) and see the world's most endangered mammals! 🌎
📸: Keeper Leah ... See MoreSee Less
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Red ruffed lemur Hoku enjoys her first summer free-ranging with mom Mae ❤️
Here at the Duke Lemur Center, we have eleven multi-acre forest habitats where lemurs can free-range on warm days! Hoku and Mae started this summer in one enclosure, but four-year-old Hoku seemed nervous about leaving her outdoor patio and venturing out into the woods. The DLC's Curatorial Team had a thought: maybe Hoku was uncomfortable crossing the bridge into the habitat. To test their theory, they swapped Mae and Hoku to a different enclosure without a bridge... and voila! Hoku seemed much more comfortable traveling along a thin branch to reach the great outdoors 🌿
Sometimes a small change in environment can completely change an animal's behavior!
📸: David Haring ... See MoreSee Less
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New research shows that howling isn't just for ring-tailed lemur males! 📣
➡️ lemur.duke.edu/howl-vocalization
Dr. Lisa Paciulli and her team discovered that female ring-tailed lemur Tellus, who lived at the DLC with companion Licinius, produced a previously-believed male-specific howl vocalization. While collecting data for another study, Dr. Paciulli’s team opportunistically captured video and audio of Tellus howling 😱
The team examined body posture and acoustic structure of the call by analyzing spectrograms of the female’s calls and compared these features to male howls. Body posture comparison revealed similarities in the female’s position and orientation of the body to males when howling. A linear discriminant function analysis (DFA) failed to distinguish the female’s calls from male howls 💖
Learn more on our website! ✨
📸: David Haring ... See MoreSee Less
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Sierra Mist's infant explores his new summer home! 🤩
Now that this boisterous ring-tailed lemur infant is two months old, he and his family have moved to one of our summer enclosures: a two-story screened-in patio with plenty of nest boxes and baskets to snuggle up in at night. The best part? A glass wall gives these curious lemurs an unobstructed view into the Duke Lemur Center's main building, providing endless visual enrichment as staff, volunteers, and guests go about their day! It took the brave baby only about 30 minutes in his new crib to jump off of mom's back and start exploring with older siblings Eowyn and Merry 💙
While this enclosure is not viewable from our primary tour path, guests on Behind the Scenes tours are likely to catch a glimpse of this energetic family enjoying their summer digs 🏠
🎥: Keeper Sarah K. ... See MoreSee Less
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