Return to Lemur Island (or Lookout Again Lemurs!)

Now that I have pictures, I want to talk a little bit about my second trip to see the lemurs in North Carolina. I got to help my sister feed some of them. The ‘Zooboomafoo’ lemurs eat sumac leaves, there is another type that eats bamboo, the lorises (similar to lemurs but a different animal) ate fruit and crickets, and the aye ayes got corn on the cob. All of the different species of lemurs are named in different ways – one species has Roman names, another has Greek names, and the aye ayes have ‘spooky’ names like Poe, Kali, Morticia, and Nosferatu. The bamboo eating lemurs all have names that start with ‘Be’, like Beamish, Bejeebers, and Beavis. We gave out some more raisins as an afternoon snack to some of the lemurs that had already been fed their main meal. Some of the lemurs were making grunting sounds that kind of sounded like pigs as they were trying to get us to give them raisins.

Right now the lemurs are in indoor cages because it so cold outside. During the summer, many of them get to ‘free range’ inside large outdoor enclosures of several acres. Electric fences surround the enclosure to keep the lemurs inside, and there is a ‘buffer zone’ right next to the fence where the trees have been cut back so they can’t jump over the fence. There are many trees on the property, and when the lemurs are free ranging they can climb the trees (some of which are 60-70 feet tall).

The aye aye picture is not one that I took, due to the ‘film incident’. The aye ayes live in rooms that are completely dark and have concrete walls, because they like to chew on things to keep their front teeth worn down. Their two front teeth grow continuously like the teeth of rodents. They are nocturnal and sleep in big nests during the day. I read today that there are estimated to only be 50 aye ayes left in the wild. Unfortunately in Madagascar the local people consider them to be omens of bad luck and will often kill them if they see one.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention this, but I thought some of you might appreciate the fact that most lemur species are female dominant. In fact, Beavis the bamboo eater was chased away from the bamboo several times by the 2 females in the same cage. Also, if you want to learn more about the center and the types of lemurs there, check out this web page.

This is a sifaka, the 'Zooboomafoo' type of lemur


My mom feeding a raisin to a sifaka

This is another species of sifaka. Note the reddish eyes.

A gaggle of lemurs? Actually I'm not sure what the name for a group of lemurs is...

A ringtail



This was a baby ringtail. He was very curious and was constantly jumping around.


An aye aye, they are very strange looking!



I took this picture for Holli - this is my brother-in-law's egg collection

And for Acumamakiki, here's a lemming