This week, we’re chatting with one of our wonderful colleagues Madison Armand about her role as a primate technician (our version of a zookeeper here at the Duke Lemur Center). Madison shares what it takes to be a fantastic primate technician, why she particularly enjoys working with ruffed lemurs, and how the DLC animal care […]

This season we’re leaping into the world of ruffed lemurs – beautiful lemurs with big personalities. In this episode, we discuss the basics of the two species in the Varecia genus – black and white ruffed lemurs and red ruffed lemurs. This is our longest season yet, full of fascinating interviews with ruffed lemur caretakers, […]

We are wrapping up our sifaka season with Malagasy scientist and conservationist, Mamy Razafitsalama. Mamy’s work in and around Ankarafantsika National Park, which serves as critical habitat for Coquerel’s sifakas in the wild, recently earned him the 2023 Whitley Award for conservation. We were so honored to hear about Mamy’s work studying sifakas in the […]

Sifakas are beautifully adapted to their environment. Dr. Elaine Guevara studies the source of these adaptations in the genetic code of sifakas (and other primates). Elaine shares how she traveled a complex path to get to Duke University and primate evolution – including a stop by the bug department. Now she’s a lecturer in Evolutionary […]