It’s birth season here at the Duke Lemur Center! Birth season began in December with the arrival of Elagabalus (“Gabe”), an endangered sifaka born December 23! Different species breed and give birth at different times, so infants should continue arriving through July and even August, concluding with the last mouse and dwarf lemur births. As birth season draws […]
By Elizabeth Anne Brown. Originally published in the Durham News & Observer on March 20, 2018. Liesl, a 9-year-old ring-tailed lemur with the attitude of an Amazon warrior, is the undisputed matriarch of the North Carolina pine forest her family calls home. She and her troop preside over 14 acres of land, foraging alongside squirrels […]
By Charlie Welch, DLC Conservation Coordinator February 24, 2018 ANTALAHA Today the whole DLC-SAVA team headed south, to the town of Antalaha. First stop was the tree nursery belonging to Madam Marie Helene KAM HYO. Marie Helene is a pharmacist by training and by passion the proprietor of Macolline Reserve – she is a genuine […]
By Charlie Welch, DLC Conservation Coordinator February 22, 2018 Click here for the second installment of Charlie’s Travelogue I arrived in Sambava on Thursday of last week and after settling in to my SAVA home away from home, the Orchidea Beach Hotel, spent the first days meeting with DLC-SAVA project manager Lanto Andrianandrasana. Project coordinator […]
Like humans, mouse lemurs sometimes develop amyloid brain plaques and other Alzheimer’s-like symptoms as they age. Because mouse lemurs are primates, they are a closer genetic match to humans than mice or rats are. The Duke Lemur Center’s non-invasive research on these tiny primate cousins could help explain the initial stages of Alzheimer’s and other […]
Why is lemur research important? A newly published study by Dr. Erin McKenney, one of our Director’s (Anne Yoder’s) recent graduates, highlights just TWO reasons: “McKenney and her fellow researchers recently discovered that the gut microbiomes of two of the lemur species share surprising similarities with those of humans who suffer from inflammatory bowel diseases, like Crohn’s […]
Rosewood, which grows in the rainforests of Madagascar, has surpassed ivory in terms of illegally harvested and traded plant/animal products worldwide and their black-market value. Sadly, much of Madagascar’s remaining rosewood is in protected areas, such as national parks and reserves, and illegal logging destroys not just the rosewood trees but also the other trees […]
