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Let's check in with some of the DLC's littlest residents! 😍
➡️ lemur.duke.edu/ultimate
💚 Rodelinda's infant has started free-ranging for the first time! He likes to spend his mornings high up in the trees with his parents and older siblings. Big sister Egeria has apparently taken quite a liking to her little brother and has been seen spending more time with the infant, although his safe space is still mom Rodelinda's back (📸: David Haring)
❤️ Ruby's infant is a little more hesitant to explore the forest! He's dipped his toes into the grass a couple of times, but he feels more comfortable hanging out with his older siblings in their screened-in patios. Big brother Hubble has been especially attentive to the infant, coming back from the forest to check on his little brother when he doesn't follow the rest of the troop outside (📸: David Haring)
💜 Bonita's infant is the star of our summer tour path! Every day, she spends more and more time roaming her enclosure independently. She's started participating in lots of Big Girl Activities, like voluntarily jumping onto a scale for weighing and finger painting with her parents—her paintings are sold exclusively in our gift shop! Pick one up after your tour to bring happy memories of this little lady home with you (📸: Sarah M.)
💙💙 Sophia's infants are starting to eat solid food! These tiny twin girls are balls of energy and love bouncing around their forest enclosure, but they get just as excited to return to their indoor housing at the end of a long day for their dinner. When have you ever seen two kids so enthusiastic about cabbage?? (📸: David Haring)
All of these infants are still waiting to receive the perfect names—and YOU could be the one to name them! With a tax-deductible donation of $20,000 (payable in two installments), you—or your family, company, organization, etc.—can symbolically adopt and name a little lemur. Your donation contributes to the care of the infant, their family, and all of the other lemurs who reside in our colony, as well as the conservation of the most endangered group of mammals in the world! ✨
A little Agatha ASMR for your Thursday morning ❤️
Aye-ayes have incredibly strong incisors that can chew through almost any substance besides glass and steel! Agatha puts her teeth to good work chewing through the spiky skin of a rambutan to access the sweet, juicy fruit beneath. Agatha doesn't eat the skin—you can see around 7s into the video that she spits it out and keeps chewing until she gets to the tasty part 😋
🎥: Lizzie L.
5 CommentsComment on Facebook
She works hard for her dinner! Reminds me of when I eat crab😋
She is so cute and smart!
I love Agatha❤️Beautiful lady❤️
Meet Mitsiky, a critically endangered blue-eyed black lemur born to first-time mom Charlie on March 6, 2025 💙
➡️ lemur.duke.edu/mitsiky
We’re thrilled to share that our first donors to come forward to claim an Ultimate Adoption are Cindy and Tom Cook! Cindy and Tom have lived near the Lemur Center for more than 25 years, but they hadn't considered making a significant donation until a friend of theirs, DLC education volunteer Cindy Richards, shared with them the Adopt a Lemur program’s promotion to “name a baby lemur." During Cindy and Tom's visit to the DLC to meet all of the eligible infants, they were immediately taken with this little lemur's big blue eyes and the fact that she is the only infant of her species this year in human care, in any facility in the world 🌍
Cindy, who was touched to see how much the DLC's technicians care for these lemur families, decided to let the technicians choose the name. In the spirit of collaboration, the team who care for Charlie’s family got together and came up with a list of four names to propose to Cindy and Tom, who enjoyed selecting “the” name in this way. “The name ‘Mitsiky’ means ‘smiling’ in Malagasy,” Cindy explained. “Charlie and her infant are known amongst the staff for their upturned lips that make it look like they’re smiling. She makes us smile, too, so the name was just perfect!” ☺️
Mitsiky has been described by keepers as spunky, adventurous, and curious—just like mom! Dad Mangamaso ("blue eyes" in Malagasy) was born at Parc Ivoloina, a nonprofit nature center in eastern Madagascar, and traveled to the DLC in 2017. Blue-eyed black lemurs are among the most endangered primate species in the world, with possibly fewer than 1,000 individuals remaining in the wild, so maintaining a genetically diverse population of these lemurs in human care is a crucial safety net. With a father from Madagascar and a mother descended from generations of lemurs in North America, Mitsiky is a testament to the DLC’s dedication to caring for and conserving the world’s most endangered group of mammals 💚
Learn more about the story behind Mitsiky's name at lemur.duke.edu/mitsiky ✨
📸: Madison A.
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These new tumblers have FLOWN off the shelves! 😱
If you've visited our Lemur Landing Gift Shop recently, you may have seen these amazing new tumblers. In collaboration with Logo Brands, these tumblers were free with the in-person purchase of $100 or more in merchandise, and we ran through our limited supply in just a couple of weeks! 🤩
Should we bring these back in the future as a regular gift shop item? Let us know in the comments!
17 CommentsComment on Facebook
Yes, please bring them back. I’d like to purchase.
YES!! Please, please 💚
Yes please!
Starting Monday right with the DLC's littlest mongoose lemur 😍
➡️ lemur.duke.edu/ultimate
Mongoose lemur Bonita's three-month-old infant has been the superstar of our summer tour path! Whether she's bouncing off the walls, using her parents as a trampoline, or creating beautiful finger paintings, this little girl has stolen the hearts of our staff, volunteers, and guests. Shoutout to Bonita (4th photo) for being such an incredible first-time mama and Juanito for being a very patient papa 🥰
Bonita's infant still doesn't have a name—and YOU could be the one to name her! With a tax-deductible donation of $20,000, you (or your family, company, organization, etc.) can *symbolically* adopt and name this little lemur. Your donation contributes to the care of the infant, her family, and all of the other lemurs who reside in our colony, as well as the conservation of the most endangered group of mammals in the world. Adoptions include quarterly email updates, complete with social media-worthy photos and videos, and a visit to the DLC to meet your adopted infant. Visit our website to learn more, or email us directly at adoptalemur@duke.edu if you're ready to make a contribution! 💙
📸: David Haring
9 CommentsComment on Facebook
This baby is not lacking in energy, is she? Congratulations, Bonita and Juanito!
Wow thank you
Such an underrated species. They’re so sweet.🥹
Action shots of one-year-old twins Eowyn and Merry 💨
While mom Sierra Mist doesn't seem too impressed by her kids' antics, there's nothing more fun than watching these ring-tailed lemur twins explore the forest for the first time! Merry and Eowyn, who were born March 2024, are some of the more rambunctious free-rangers who enjoy the summer sun in our natural habitat enclosures. Not pictured: the whole family cuddling up in a sleepy pile when they return to their indoor enclosures after a full day of energetic free-ranging 🤩
If you've been on a Walking with Lemurs tour this summer, you may have met this dynamic family! If you've been on a General or Private Tour, you've likely met the twins' older siblings, Scout and Gatsby, on our summer tour path. Learn about all of the different ways you can visit the Duke Lemur Center at lemur.duke.edu/visit ✨
📸: Sara Nicholson
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I love my cosines
They are absolutely precious 💜💜💜💜❤️❤️❤️❤️💙🩷💙🩷💙🩷💙🩷💋💋💋💋🩷💙🩷💙🩷💙🩷💙❤️❤️❤️❤️💜💜💜💜
These are A-Mazing photos! Great captures Sara!
In this new video, we’ve partnered with CYLNDR Studios to explore a fresh way to tell our story. By responsibly using AI tools, we were able to create visuals that help people see and feel the wonder of lemurs—and the urgent need to protect them 🌍
We’re excited to share this piece as a conversation starter, an invitation for support, and a reminder of what’s at stake.
➡️ lemur.duke.edu/closer
BACKGROUND: “Closer Than You Think” was created by a team of creatives at CYLNDR Studios, a Los Angeles-based video production company, as part of the DLC’s ongoing effort to share the story of lemurs and inspire support for their future. Using AI tools in conjunction with materials provided by the DLC, the result is a bit of fantasy, a blend of real and not, that helps us visualize moments and connections that would otherwise be impossible to capture.
This was a pro bono project, completed for no charge for the DLC. We’re grateful to the teams at CYLNDR and LTX Labs for donating their time and talent to bringing lemurs, and the people working to protect them, to life in a whole new way 💙
20 CommentsComment on Facebook
Duke Lemur Center as someone who has donated a not insubstantial amount to DLC over the last few years, I have to say I am very disappointed to see you working with and platforming the use of generative AI which among its very many ethical issues, is terribly bad for the environment in how energy intensive the technology is.
The quality of the AI generated lemur images appears to range from that of a Disney animated feature (mother brown lemur and infant) to a primitive claymation sequence using lemur plush toys rather than clay figures (sifaka bipedal hopping footage). I am sure that AI will continue to improve to such an extent that soon you will not be able to tell the difference between an AI generated lemur image and a real lemur. Then people can just sit around with their VR headphones and watch incredibly realistic AI generated lemurs prancing around in their incredibly realistic AI generated Madagascar forest habitat. But what's the point from the standpoint of actual living lemurs and lemur conservation? If you can sit in your living room and watch images of fantastic creatures in an otherworldly forest does that make you more likely to jump up and make an actual effort to preserve real forests and their creatures, or does it make you more likely to just settle into your comfy chair and watch more and more VR? Finally, why manufacture images of adorable baby (and adult) lemurs when you have the real thing right outside your doorstep?
As a long time photographer and one who has spent a lot of time around lemurs, I do not like the plastic effect of the AI images. Tastes may change but the environmental damage of energy consumption will be a constant.
Coquerel's sifaka Ferdinand, son of Jovian aka Zoboomafoo, looks regal in a tree 👑
We love to feature photos from guests on our social media! Dr. Colin Duckett, Executive Vice Dean for Basic and Preclinical Science at the Duke University School of Medicine, recently captured this great photo of Ferdinand in one of our free-ranging forest enclosures. If you come on a tour and take any photos that you think are social media worthy, feel free to email your highlights to our team at primate@duke.edu, and we might choose a few favorites to post 😉
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Enjoy this sneak peek into the nest of the DLC's newest infants: Bufflehead, Smew, and Toulouse Goose! 🤩
➡️ lemur.duke.edu/dominique-triplets
On June 3, 2025, fat-tailed dwarf lemur Dominique Chicken gave birth to three little girls! This is Dominique Chicken’s second litter with breeding partner Goose, following the birth of twins Wigeon and Eider in 2023. Dominique Chicken is the older sister of Java Chicken, whose infants we announced just last week. Bufflehead and Smew, like their older sister and brother, get their names from duck species, while Toulouse Goose, in a nod to her dad, is named after a breed of domestic goose 🦆
Unlike diurnal lemurs, whose infants cling to mom's belly and travel through the forest with the family, nocturnal lemurs build nests to house their infants until they're developed enough to explore on their own. Dominique Chicken and her family live in one of our free-ranging nocturnal rooms, meaning that she, Goose, and their offspring will have plenty of space to explore once the babies get more adventurous! Stay tuned for future videos as these tiny triplets take on the world 🥰
➡️ lemur.duke.edu/adopt
If you symbolically adopt fat-tailed dwarf lemur Raven through our Adopt a Lemur program, you'll be excited to learn that these are even MORE of her grandlemurs! Learn more about how you can support the care and conservation of lemurs through our symbolic adoption program, or discover all of the ways you can contribute to the Duke Lemur Center at lemur.duke.edu/donate 💙
🎥: Elizabeth D. (Smew starts outside of the basket, Bufflehead is on the left, and Toulouse Goose eats the blueberry)
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Coquerel's sifakas Remus and Francesca hurry home at the sound of their dinner bell 🤩
➡️ lemur.duke.edu/wwl
Like many of the Duke Lemur Center's residents, Remus and Francesca free-range in one of our forest enclosures during the day and return to their secure indoor homes late in the afternoon. Thanks to month of positive reinforcement training with our husbandry staff, the lemurs voluntarily recall in response to a dinner bell! When the bell rings at the beginning of the video, Remus takes note but waits for his mate to appear before following her to their overnight enclosure 🥰
Want to see these incredible primates leap, snack, snooze, and play in person? Book a Walking with Lemurs tour at the Duke Lemur Center! Walking with Lemurs tours run most mornings at 8:30am and/or 10:30am and are open to guests ages 10+. Tickets are currently available on our website through the end of September, so reserve your spot now at lemur.duke.edu/wwl ✨
🎥: Abby Flyer
📸: Sara Nicholson (cover photo)
47 CommentsComment on Facebook
My kids and I were supposed to visit this place while we were on vacation in NC. But a huge snow storm hit and we spent the day holed up in our hotel instead😢. Maybe one day I’ll get another chance to visit.
This is great. I have been fascinated with lemurs since I was a kid. But you might make where you are located a bit easier to find. I had no idea what state you were in. If I hadn't been motivated, I never would have known.
The positive reinforcement training is truly impressive, and it's wonderful to see the lemurs responding so well to the dinner bell ❤️
3 CommentsComment on Facebook
Beautiful!!
They are so cute
Big Girl Activities 🥹