Happy Earth Day! 🌍
➡️ lemur.duke.edu/landscape-restoration
We want to celebrate today by highlighting the work that the DLC-SAVA Conservation team has been doing thus far in 2025 to advance our landscape restoration goals. Planting trees can be easy; doing it well is not. We started preparing in March 2024, stocking tree nurseries to produce high quality seedlings of diverse species. At one of our dozen tree nurseries, over 22,000 trees from 25 species have been grown with meticulous care, and smaller community-led nurseries produce 3,000+ each. Since November, we’ve been planning and preparing for the 2025 campaign. Every waking moment of January was dedicated to organizing, preparing, and realizing our goals. It is no exaggeration to say it was a military effort! 🌱
Beginning with Andranotsara (the place with the good water named for its natural springs), we organized local leaders and community members to clear brush and dig holes. Over 60 participants arrived and planted 3,000 native trees in a matter of hours. During a bigger event with our partners in the Malagasy military, over 4,000 trees were planted on around 5 acres in just one morning. This brings our total up to 65,000 trees planted with the military! While we enjoyed a picnic lunch with the participants, we discussed new initiatives to expand our efforts, like implementing new agriculture and animal husbandry projects that can improve the environment, yields, and income 🌿
Check out the blog post on our website to read more about our in-situ conservation work in Madagascar! The DLC's conservation projects in Madagascar are run exclusively on grants and donations. You can support our work today at lemur.duke.edu/donate ✨
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Ring-tailed lemur Sprite and her troop enjoy this season's hottest snack: pollen pods! 😋
This group is particularly fond of the pollen pods from sweet gum trees, whose leaves also happen to be a favorite of the DLC's folivorous Coquerel's sifakas. In the wild, ring-tailed lemurs live in the spiny desert in the southern part of Madagascar, and they have evolved hearty digestive systems that allows them to eat a much wider range of items than most lemur species. These opportunistic omnivores will eat not only fruit, veggies, leaves, and flowers, but also lizards, bugs, bark, and even dirt (a behavior called geophagy) 🌿
We're just glad SOMEONE is enjoying pollen season 😅
📸: Sara Nicholson ... See MoreSee Less
2 CommentsComment on Facebook
I ❤️Sprite! And her little calls
They are so beautiful.
🤩 THIS WEEKEND 🤩

Good news: we have the weather and staffing to run an off-season General Tour this Saturday 4/26! 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 Saturday (4/26), Sunday (4/27), and Monday (4/28)! Tickets are limited, so make sure to grab them before they sell out. Just like during the summer, our Walking with Lemurs tours are $85 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
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We’re so excited that black and white ruffed lemur Ripley has settled into her new home at Zoo de Granby! She will be moving in with Ziggy, a male who was paired with her for breeding through the black and white ruffed lemur Species Survival Plan, developed by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) for this critically endangered species. Thanks to Air Canada, the world’s first airline to be awarded IATA’s CEIV Live Animals certification and recertification which provide guidance for the safe and humane transportation of animals, and for the compliance with applicable laws such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) 💙 ... See MoreSee Less
3 CommentsComment on Facebook
That's my boy! From San Antonio! Thanks for this amazing post, full of information and pictures 🥰😍
Welcome. Ziggy and Ripley. Thanks to the airlines for their safe transportation of the animsls.
Awesome. They are very gorgeous.
NEW RESEARCH: lemurs with egalitarian social structures have a greater number of oxytocin receptors than more female dominant species 🔍
researchblog.duke.edu/2025/04/21/how-changes-in-lemur-brains-made-some-mean-girls-nice/
In a study recently published in Biology Letters, researchers Allie Schrock and Christine Drea found that co-dominant Eulemur species, such as collared lemurs, have more oxytocin receptors than species with more domineering females, such as blue-eyed black lemurs, essentially giving them more targets for the "love hormone" to act on. The key difference was in the amygdala, a region of the brain typically associated with emotions such as fear, anxiety, and anger. According to Drea, this suggests that egalitarian species achieved gender parity by becoming less aggressive towards others overall, rather than males ramping up their aggression to match their female counterparts. The research could shed light on how hormones influence behavior in humans and other animals 😱
As with all of the research conducted at the Duke Lemur Center, this study was non-invasive, meaning that no lemurs were harmed in the process 💙
📸: David Haring ... See MoreSee Less
2 CommentsComment on Facebook
So cute 💗
Li amo
Looking for something fun to do this Saturday afternoon? Visit our FREE monthly open house at the Duke Lemur Center Museum of Natural History! 💀
✅ Where: 1013 Broad Street (NOT the main DLC campus!)
✅ When: Saturday 4/26 from 1-4pm
✅ What: Take a look at the DLC's expansive fossil collection and our exhibit showcasing the evolutionary journey of lemurs and humans. Uncover the primate origin story and view fossils of extinct giant lemurs that roamed the island of Madagascar in the not-too-distant past!
✅ How much: FREE!!!!
Want to learn more? Visit lemur.duke.edu/fossil 🔍 ... See MoreSee Less
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Did you know that today is World Book Day? 📖
At the Duke Lemur Center, we have naming themes for each lemur species. As of 2021, ring-tailed lemurs living in our colony have received literary names! From "To Kill a Mockingbird" to "The Great Gatsby," from "Twilight" to "Lord of the Rings" and even "Mr. Popper's Penguins," these varied works of literature have inspired a wide range of names for the DLC's ring-tailed infants over the past few years 🥰
If you could name a ring-tailed lemur, what character would YOU pay homage to?
📸: David Haring (baby Scout); Sara Nicholson (baby Gatsby); Allie Monahan (baby Mr. Popper) ... See MoreSee Less
4 CommentsComment on Facebook
Cute names
Malala, Scarlett. Huck Finn.
Celebrate Earth Day by symbolically adopting a lemur! 🌍
➡️ lemur.duke.edu/adopt
Stay connected with the Duke Lemur Center AND help protect the world's most endangered group of mammals by adopting a lemur! This tax-deductible symbolic adoption supports animal care at the DLC and our conservation programs in Madagascar. You or your chosen recipient will receive an adoption packet and quarterly emails for one year, including photos and updates about your adopted lemur who lives right here at the DLC. Choose from one of five species, and we'll assign you a specific lemur, who you'll get to know through a species info sheet and a biography on "your" lemur 🥰
📸: Sara Sorraia (1); David Haring (2-5) ... See MoreSee Less
4 CommentsComment on Facebook
I’d like to adopt him what’s your phone number please?
I love all the lemurs and the DLC🩷🩷
Love what yall do.
Happy Earth Day! 🌍
➡️ lemur.duke.edu/landscape-restoration
We want to celebrate today by highlighting the work that the DLC-SAVA Conservation team has been doing thus far in 2025 to advance our landscape restoration goals. Planting trees can be easy; doing it well is not. We started preparing in March 2024, stocking tree nurseries to produce high quality seedlings of diverse species. At one of our dozen tree nurseries, over 22,000 trees from 25 species have been grown with meticulous care, and smaller community-led nurseries produce 3,000+ each. Since November, we’ve been planning and preparing for the 2025 campaign. Every waking moment of January was dedicated to organizing, preparing, and realizing our goals. It is no exaggeration to say it was a military effort! 🌱
Beginning with Andranotsara (the place with the good water named for its natural springs), we organized local leaders and community members to clear brush and dig holes. Over 60 participants arrived and planted 3,000 native trees in a matter of hours. During a bigger event with our partners in the Malagasy military, over 4,000 trees were planted on around 5 acres in just one morning. This brings our total up to 65,000 trees planted with the military! While we enjoyed a picnic lunch with the participants, we discussed new initiatives to expand our efforts, like implementing new agriculture and animal husbandry projects that can improve the environment, yields, and income 🌿
Check out the blog post on our website to read more about our in-situ conservation work in Madagascar! The DLC's conservation projects in Madagascar are run exclusively on grants and donations. You can support our work today at lemur.duke.edu/donate ✨ ... See MoreSee Less
1 CommentComment on Facebook
Wonderful. Happy Earth Day. I love the conservation. Planting trees and bountiful fruits. I love all the stuff DLC does.
Just a little joy from little Majorian for your Monday afternoon 🥰
Coquerel’s sifaka infant Majorian just turned four months old this weekend! He’s spending more and more time moving independently, but he always returns to mom Lupicina’s back for a free ride and a safe place to snuggle. Infants like Majorian of critically endangered lemur species are a crucial part of the Duke Lemur Center’s ex-situ conservation work, partnering with other accredited facilities through the AZA to create a genetic safety net in human care for these incredible animals 💙
🎥: Abby Flyer ... See MoreSee Less
13 CommentsComment on Facebook
Oh Majorian🩷🩷🩷🩷 I love the look at the end, “Hey, Ma, where you goin’??”🩷
Fantastic
♥️
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Fresh redbud with Coquerel's sifaka infant Majorian and mom Lupicina 🌸
Did you know that the Duke Lemur Center's colony of Coquerel's sifakas is the most successful breeding colony in the world of this species or any species of sifaka? The DLC owns and manages every member of this critically endangered species in human care outside of Madagascar. We've been successful enough with our ex-situ conservation breeding program to send Coquerel's sifakas to other AZA-accredited institutions, and many of these facilities have seen their own breeding success based on DLC husbandry guidelines. Four-month-old Majorian is just one puzzle piece in creating a genetic safety net for this critically endangered species. If you visit a Coquerel's sifaka at a zoo near you, they're almost certainly related to the sifakas living in our colony! 🥰
📸: David Haring ... See MoreSee Less
4 CommentsComment on Facebook
Thank you so much for all you do for ALL the lemurs. I know it takes a lot of knowledge and hard work!
So sweet. 🥰🥰
Acacia Rowland