The time is now

Duke Lemur Center

6 hours ago

Happy #FossilFriday! 💀

Just how large was Megaladapis, an extinct giant lemur? For scale, here's gray mouse lemur Seaweed sitting atop a replica of a Megaladapis skull! Gray mouse lemurs like Seaweed are the smallest lemur species housed at the Duke Lemur Center, at about three inches tall. Megaladapis would have been about the size of a gorilla 😱

You can learn about Megaladapis and other extinct fossil primates at our FREE monthly open house at the Duke Lemur Center Museum of Natural History! The first open house of 2025 will be held on January 25th from 1-4pm at the DLCMNH on Broad Street. No reservations required! ✨

📸: David Haring ... See MoreSee Less

Duke Lemur Center

1 day ago

Happy 3rd birthday to our youngest aye-aye, Binx 🥳

Big boy Binx was born on this day in 2022 to mom Fady and dad Grendel. You may have met this curious young lemur during one of our Wild Workshops or afternoon Behind the Scenes tours, or you may simply be a fan of his photos on social media. Like all of his fellow aye-ayes at the DLC, Binx's name has spooky connections—Thackery Binx from Hocus Pocus. His favorite snacks are honey and nuts, and he loves spending time with his mama 🍯🥜

📸: David Haring ... See MoreSee Less

Duke Lemur Center

2 days ago

Looking for an in-depth look at the world of lemurs? Check out our Behind the Scenes tours! 🤩

➡️ lemur.duke.edu/engage/onsite-tours/2022-bts-tour/

The Behind the Scenes tour is a private, customizable experience for groups of 1-4 guests that involves a look "behind the curtain" at everything that goes into caring for the nearly 250 primates in our colony. Your group, along with one of our expert education staff members, will check out areas off-limits to most guests, including the inside of our animal housing buildings and one of our small nocturnal colony rooms. The morning version of the tour includes watching lemurs enjoy their breakfast, while afternoon tours will take a peek at our elusive aye-ayes. This is also our most customizable tour—if you have a species you'd like to see, a topic you'd like to learn about, or a list of questions you've been dying to ask, our staff will do their best to accommodate your request and shape the tour to your group's interests 🤗

Behind the Scenes tours can be booked now on our website! Afternoon dates through the end of March are available for purchase, and morning dates will be added throughout the winter/spring as we determine which of our other weather-dependent tours we will be able to offer 📆

📸: David Haring ... See MoreSee Less

Duke Lemur Center

3 days ago

Mother knows best 💕

Can you believe Coquerel's sifaka infant Arcadius is already three months old? This little guy is starting to look more and more like mom Gisela as he grows into his face. He's also starting to steal more of mom's food, including the piece of folivore chow—a manufactured food designed for leaf-eating primates in human care—that he's eating in the third photo 😋

In the wild, leaves comprise about 40-60% of sifakas' diet, and they have been recorded to eat as many as 98 different plant species. Here at the DLC, we feed our sifakas a mixture of folivore chow, fresh veggies, nuts, and beans each morning, and we distribute leaves to our sifakas every afternoon 🌿

You can keep up with Arcadius and his family by symbolically adopting Gisela through our Adopt a Lemur program! You'll get quarterly updates on the family and a custom adoption packet, and your donation will go towards lemur care and conservation. A win-win! Learn more at lemur.duke.edu/adopt ✨

📸: David Haring ... See MoreSee Less

Duke Lemur Center

4 days ago

Happy #MadagascarMonday! We're excited to announce that the 2025 DLC-SAVA Newsletter is now out 🤩

➡️ connect-technology.net/SAVA2025/index.html#p=1

From environmental education and sustainable farming to lemur research and landscape restoration, our team in the SAVA region of Madagascar has had a busy year working hard to protect lemurs and their environment in collaboration with local communities. Looking forward, we are optimistic that our community focused approach to conservation helps people meet their needs with nature-based solutions that develop resilience and adaptation to future global change. We trained multiple generations of students, scientists, and farmers who will continue this work into the future because they see the positive impacts in their communities. With the right people leading the charge, and the right tools in their hands, long-term conservation success is possible 💚

➡️ lemur.duke.edu/welch-katz-fund/

In honor of DLC Conservation Coordinator Charlie Welch's upcoming retirement, we have created the Charles Welch and Andrea Katz Fund, an endowment fund to support the Duke Lemur Center in perpetuity. Gifts of any size are welcome and are tax-deductible! Visit the link above to learn more 🤗

As always, you can learn more about our conservation programs at lemur.duke.edu/conservation, and keep an eye out for upcoming #MadagascarMonday updates! ✨ ... See MoreSee Less

Duke Lemur Center

1 week ago

Missing our sunny summer days in the forest 🥺

To distract from the snowy forecast this weekend in North Carolina, enjoy some lush, green photos of black-and-white ruffed lemurs Orbit, Sputnik, and Bruno out in their summer forest enclosure. Don't worry about any of your fluffy friends catching a chill—our lemurs are all snuggled up in their warm indoor housing! ❄️

📸: Sara Nicholson ... See MoreSee Less

Duke Lemur Center

1 week ago

Celebrating #ThrowbackThursday with some more archive photos from 1976 📸

The Duke Lemur Center was originally founded in 1966 as a non-invasive research facility, and we've grown over the past 58 years to include conservation and education as key parts of our mission. In its earlier days, the DLC (known then as the Duke University Primate Center) used to house a broader range of primate species. Now, under the guidance of the Prosimian Taxon Advisory Group (PTAG), we are focused on maintaining healthy, genetically diverse populations of fewer species, ensuring that we have the facilities and resources to support all of the lemurs in our care 💙

Shoutout to volunteer Cindy for her hard work digitizing all of these #tbt photos!

📸: Katie Boskoff ... See MoreSee Less

Duke Lemur Center

1 week ago

We're thrilled to now offer FREE classroom programs for Title I schools! 🤗

➡️ lemur.duke.edu/engage/outreach-programs

In our active, inquiry-based lesson, one of our professional educators will visit your classroom and teach students about evolution, adaptation, and animal classification. We have four tailored presentations based on grade level and are happy to adjust our approach based on your students' interests and personalities 💙

At this time, our in-person outreach programs are limited to schools within a 30-minute drive of the Duke Lemur Center, but we may consider slightly longer distances if we can work with several classrooms in the same day. If you live a little farther away, we're able to offer a virtual version of this program, using images and videos to walk through the activities and presentation with your students from afar 💻

Check out our website for information on how to request a Duke Lemur Center presentation in YOUR classroom ✨ ... See MoreSee Less

Duke Lemur Center

1 week ago

Enjoy this #TongueOutTuesday from Coquerel's sifaka brothers Silas and Arcadius 😝

Did you know that the Duke Lemur Center’s colony of Coquerel’s sifaka 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 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. 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

Duke Lemur Center

2 weeks ago

Mama Leigh and her boys 💙

Blue-eyed black lemur Leigh is a strong matriarch who lives with breeding partner Lincoln and their son, McAvoy. Since blue-eyed black lemurs are sexually dichromatic, it's easy to identify orange-furred Leigh amongst her black-furred male group mates. They all share their stunning blue eyes—this is the only lemur species with blue eyes 👀

Fun fact: Brady, the blue-eyed black lemur representative in our Adopt a Lemur program, is Leigh's son and McAvoy's brother! You can symbolically adopt Brady and support this critically endangered species at lemur.duke.edu/adopt ✨

📸: David Haring ... See MoreSee Less