July 17, 2003. It was a dramatic demonstration when former Primate Center technician Jennifer Campbell mounded two piles of lemur food — one large, one much smaller — on a table a few years ago. Her point: The center had been unknowingly overfeeding its animals. The larger pile of pounds of food pellets, cabbage and bananas represented a human-sized extrapolation of what the generous technicians had been giving the lemurs — the equivalent of a pile of Big Macs and fries. And the smaller pile represented the human version of a more reasonably sized diet. Since then, the technicians have monitored more closely the portions they give the lemurs. And since then, Campbell has gone on to earn a Ph.D. from North Carolina State University by conducting landmark studies of lemur nutrition that are sure to influence the health and reproduction of some of the world’s most endangered primates. Read the full story here.
