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How are Babies Named at the DLC?

Gatsby, Presley, Mangamaso, Egeria, Domestic Chicken, Marshmallow, Sputnik, Poe—if you visit the Duke Lemur Center, you will likely hear a plethora of names that range from obscure to something you might see on a kindergarten attendance list. While some of these names seem absurd out of context, they’re rooted in decades of tradition and species-specific […]

How Changes in Lemur Brains Made Some Mean Girls Nice

By Robin Smith, Ph.D. Originally published on the Duke Research Blog on April 21, 2025. Read the original here. If there was a contest for biggest female bullies of the animal world, lemurs would be near the top of the list. In these distant primate cousins, it’s the ladies who call the shots, relying on physical aggression […]

Landscape Restoration 2025: New Year, New Objectives

For many in Madagascar, the new year brings many opportunities for landscape restoration. January is usually a perfect time because the rainy season has begun, providing natural irrigation for the trees. All over the island, different partners and organizations host big reforestation events, sometimes with thousands of people planting tens of thousands of trees. At […]

Jujube Trees? Yes, Please! Expansion of the DLC’s “Food Forest”

By Mary Paisley, Development Director. Published March 21, 2025. In our quest to acquire special fruit-bearing trees, our friendships grew, organically When Charlie Welch wrote this article about the importance of the Lemur Center’s organic food forest and our dedicated garden volunteers, he also sparked a new challenge by sharing his wish to add four […]

Hibernating Lemurs Can Turn Back the Clock on Cellular Aging

Originally published on Phys.org on March 11, 2025. Read the original here. We’re all familiar with the outward signs of aging. The face that greets you in the mirror each morning may have sagging skin or thinning hair. But many age-related changes start within our cells, even our DNA, which can wear and tear over […]

Celebrating International Women’s Day in Madagascar

Happy International Women’s Day! By James Herrera, Ph.D., DLC-SAVA Conservation Coordinator. Published on March 8, 2025.  On this International Women’s Day, we’re pleased to highlight the amazing women in Madagascar who work tirelessly to ensure food security for their families. DLC-SAVA Conservation is honored to work with networks of women farmers who are doing amazing […]

INFANT ANNOUNCEMENT: Meet Majorian!

The Newest Addition to Our 2025 Baby Season On December 19, 2024, ten-year-old Coquerel’s sifaka Lupicina gave birth to a healthy male infant. Majorian was born at 102 grams, a very standard weight for a sifaka infant. Majorian is the third offspring of Lupicina and breeding partner Gabe. Majorian shares his name with a Western […]

A small brown lemur grasps a reddish-orange persimmon fruit in its hands and takes a big bite.

Creating a “Food Forest” for Lemurs

By Charlie Welch, DLC Conservation Coordinator. Published on February 21, 2025. An onsite, organic “food forest” For over a decade, thanks to a team of garden volunteers, we at Duke Lemur Center (in Durham, North Carolina USA) have been growing vegetables and other edible plants of all sorts for our lemurs. We can’t come close […]