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Duke Lemur Center

1 day ago

Enjoy some #tbt photos of a few lovely ring-tailed lemur ladies 💕

Many of our lemurs have lived their whole lives at the DLC! Sierra Mist is pictured as an infant in the first photo with mom Sprite (also a current DLC resident) and as an adult in the second photo. You might know her at the amazing mother of juvenile twins Merry and Eowyn! Next up is Lilah, who was born in 2005 to mom Sosiphanes and now lives with geriatric companion Aristides. Finally, we've got baby Sophia clinging to mom Artemesia, as well as a stunning portrait of adult Sophia, who currently lives with breeding partner Randy and daughters Nemesis and Nyx 🥰

📸: David Haring (1-5); Aditya Baliga (6) ... See MoreSee Less

Duke Lemur Center

2 days ago

Personality pics of nine-month-old Cirilla, our tiniest ring-tailed lemur 🤩

If Cirilla had a yearbook quote, it would be Shakespeare's "Though she be but little, she is fierce!" When she was born to mom Alena back in April, she weighed a mere 37 grams—about half of the average birth weight for a ring-tailed lemur, tied for the second smallest surviving ring-tailed infant in DLC history. She spent the first three days of her life in our ICU incubator, as the tiny baby couldn't keep her head up or maintain her body temperature. Members of our veterinary and husbandry teams stayed on site overnight to position Cirilla to nurse on mom every two hours, as she wasn't able to nurse on her own. The dedication and hard work of our staff, as well as mom Alena's years of mothering experience, allowed this precious infant to survive and thrive 💖

Cirilla is still relatively tiny for her age, and it's possible that she will always be on the smaller side, but she boasts an otherwise clean bill of health from our vets and lacks neither energy nor tenacity. As Alena and Stewart's only female offspring, Cirilla ranks below only the matriarch herself in the troop's hierarchy. She spends lots of time running and jumping around her family's enclosure with her three big brothers and snacking voraciously on anything her keepers offer her. We're so lucky to have this resilient little lady in our colony! ✨

📸: David Haring ... See MoreSee Less

Duke Lemur Center

3 days ago

Happy #TongueOutTuesday from 3 month old Arcadius 😜

It seems like our youngest Coquerel's sifaka never stops growing! He's already over 600 grams, which is more than six times his birth weight. Adult Coquerel's sifakas average around 4 kg (just under 9 lbs), so he still has plenty of growing left to do. We can already tell he's going to be a goofy lemur just like big brother Silas, as he loves to spend time swinging on branches and climbing all over his larger family members 🌿

📸: David Haring ... See MoreSee Less

Duke Lemur Center

4 days ago

Happy #MadagascarMonday! New year, new objectives for landscape restoration 🌿

This year, we aim to partner with over 1,000 local actors to reforest almost 1,000 acres—an ambitious goal, to say the least! But with motivated communities and partners, we know we can do it 💚

Our restoration initiative officially began on Saturday January 18 with our first community tree planting of the year. Andranotsara is a rural community where the name means good water, referring to the freshwater springs that seep up through white sand soils. Almost 100 local community members, forestry officials, and conservation enthusiasts turned up to plant 3,000 tree seedlings. The seedlings were raised in a nursery by a local technician supported by the Graine de Vie, with almost 10 different species of native forest trees. Everyone enjoyed a picnic lunch in the afternoon to celebrate their hard work 🌱

The community’s hard work is paying off; they’ve been planting trees in their community for almost a decade, and in some areas, those trees are already 40 feet tall. Those original trees were planted so that communities could harvest wood in the future, and now that time is drawing near. The forests in the area are also protected by local taboos because there are graves within. These factors and more are part of why this restoration project is so successful 🪵

Over the next few months, we’ll be planting more than 20,000 trees with dozens of local interest groups and individuals. These initiatives are community-led, and we’re always inspired by how many people are getting involved in reforestation. Thank you to all our Lemur Center supporters who make this work possible! 🥰

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

📸: Dr. James Herrera ... See MoreSee Less

Duke Lemur Center

5 days ago

Happy #SelfieSunday from red ruffed lemur Hubble and Coquerel's sifaka Felix 📸

Two-year-old Hubble and four-year-old Felix each live with their respective parents and siblings at the DLC. In the wild, these two species live in very different styles of social groups! Coquerel's sifakas live in smaller family groups of 3-10 members, and parents will kick sexually mature offspring out of the group so that they can find their own breeding partners. Ruffed lemurs, on the other hand, appear to have a variable social system that changes depending on the season and the quality of their habitat. Ruffed lemurs will form larger groups (as large as 32 individuals!) during the wet season when food is plentiful and disperse during the dry season in search of scarcer fruit. When foraging for fruit, large groups might fragment completely as individuals go their separate ways—in striking contrast to other diurnal lemurs, which always forage and move through the forest together as cohesive groups 🤗

The biggest thing Hubble and Felix have in common? Both young males can often be found playing with their sisters and dads, while their no-nonsense matriarch mothers are less likely to engage in their roughhousing. And they both love to get up close and personal with camera lenses 😜

📸: David Haring ... See MoreSee Less

Duke Lemur Center

1 week ago

Enjoy some handsome photos of blue-eyed black lemur Mangamaso 💙

Mangamaso ("mahn-gah-MAH-soo") was born at Parc Ivoloina, a nonprofit nature center in Madagascar, and transferred to the DLC in 2017 with breeding partner Velona as part of our conservation breeding program. His name literally means "blue eyes" in Malagasy. Blue-eyed black lemurs are the most endangered species in our colony, with an estimated fewer than 1,000 individuals left in the wild. In coordination with the AZA, we partner with institutions around the world to help form a genetic safety net for this critically endangered species. Mangamaso has already fathered two beautiful daughters, Ranomasina and Malala, and we hope this sweet male will continue to contribute to the preservation of his species with more future offspring 🤗

📸: David Haring ... See MoreSee Less

Duke Lemur Center

1 week ago

This is a Baby Agatha appreciation post 💜

For this week's #tbt, it was Agatha All Along! This beautiful girl was born in 2017 to parents Medusa and Poe. Binx fans may disagree, but some sources claim Agatha was the cutest baby aye-aye in DLC history 👀

Of course, seven-year-old Agatha is an equally adorable adult! You can support Agatha's care, as well as the welfare and conservation of all of our lemurs, by symbolically adopting her through our Adopt a Lemur program. You'll get quarterly updates on Agatha and a custom adoption packet introducing you or your gift recipient to this lovable lady. Symbolic adoptions make great gifts for any animal lover in your life, so consider adopting a lemur for Valentine's Day, birthdays, or anniversaries! Learn more at lemur.duke.edu/adopt✨

📸: David Haring ... See MoreSee Less

Duke Lemur Center

1 week ago

Celebrate Valentine's Day with our Love & Lemurs Wild Workshop 😘

➡️ lemur.duke.edu/wildworkshops

Did you know that lemurs have wildly different reproductive strategies than their other primate relatives like monkeys, apes, and us? Have you ever wondered how lemurs choose their mates, how many infants a lemur can have, or why the DLC participates in a conservation breeding program? Find out the answers to those questions and so much more during our in-depth Wild Workshop all about lemur reproduction! 😍

We will be running this special Love & Lemurs Wild Workshop two weekends in February, and registration is already up on our website! Whether you attend solo, with a partner, or with a group of your best Galentines, you're sure to have a fun afternoon with our education staff and volunteer docents. Note: since this workshop will include fascinating and overt discussions of primate sexuality and reproductive behaviors, registration is limited to guests who are 18+ 💕

📸: Sara Sorraia (Leigh with rose); David Haring ... See MoreSee Less