Yesterday, Reed and I had a fabulous adventure related to the NC Science Blogging Conference. As part of the pre-conference activities, a limited number of tours were available for conference members at local labs in the Triangle. The Duke Lemur Center was one of those labs, and you better believe we were on that list!!
Lemurs are prosimians, like lorises and bush babies, and I really enjoy learning about them. Prosimians are primates, like monkeys and apes, but they are a more ancient lineage. Learning about prosimians can tell us more about our ancient ancestors and what they might have been like. And they are cute! Unfortunately, many of these animals face extinction and are endangered or threatened. The usual culprits are to blame–habitat destruction and degradation by humans. The Duke Lemur Center not only conducts research to learn more about these animals, it also works to conserve their habitat.
Our tour started with a quick chat with Prof. Anne Yoder about some of the research projects that are being done and the facilities, and we met some of the staff who work at the center. Before we went on the traditional tour, we got to go behind-the-scenes and see a couple very special critters.
We went downstairs and waited our turn to step into the dark room, only to see two pairs of faintly reflecting eyes peering down at us from above. Aye-ayes! Aye-ayes are nocturnal creatures, and they’re not exactly lemurs–they’re kind of their own little selves. They have an extra-long finger on each of their hands, which they use to tap trees like a woodpecker. When they hear their food inside the tree, they will gnaw a hole in the tree and then fish the insect out with their long finger. They are very, very creepy looking. The two we saw were a mother-daughter pair, and they were not quite happy about us intruding on them (there was also a loris in that room, but it did not deign to come out and see us). The room has scaffolding of a sort inside of it, which they ran (very quickly) around upon, leaping sometimes here and there. One leapt to the vertical bar directly beside me, no more than a few inches away. (Imagine thrilled, but slightly alarmed, squeals from me at this point. In my head, of course! I didn’t want the aye-aye to gouge my eyes out. Teehee!)
I could have gone home after this and been perfectly happy. Hello? Aye-ayes! What more could you ask for?
However, my day was going to become even more perfect because the heart of the tour was yet to come. I did get to take some pictures of these lemurs, but most of them didn’t turn out very well because 1) lemurs are fast and bouncy and 2) it is hard to take pictures through the wire of the cages. Even these decent ones are a little fuzzy, but that’s ok with me.
Our tour viewed many different types of lemurs, and they can be very close to you. Sometimes they are just on the other side of the wire, looking at you, sticking their little fingers and toes and hands through. Other times, they are bouncing around and climbing up, up, and away in their pens. These animals are in a sheltered, heated area during the winter, and they have a warm, enclosed box inside their pens if they feel chilly. In the summers, many of them are out in the woods! There are six (or so) enclosed wooded areas at the Center where the lemurs live and play during good weather. Reed and I promised ourselves that we will come back for a tour during the summer, because frankly I don’t know if I can live a full life if I never see a lemur in a pine tree.
Anywho, on to the pictures.
One of the first animals we saw during our trip were Coquerel’s Sifakas, and we even got to meet one very famous one!
Here, you can see two of them up in the top left-hand corner. We also got to see them a little bit closer. Apparently, it was almost time for their evening snack. They get a big breakfast, and then it takes them most of the day to digest it–but we were there in the afternoon and they were ready for more!
If these look familiar, it may be because you’ve seen one of these before. (I know some of you leaping lemur fans have!) The next picture is of Jovian, but he is better known as the Kratt brothers’ friend, Zoboomafoo.
Hi, Zoboo! Thank you for introducing “leaping lemurs!” into my vocabulary. (And if you go to the show’s website that is linked above, you can sing along, karaoke-style, with the show’s songs. Just saying!)
Besides Zoboo and his kinfolks, there are two other lemurs that I can show you from our tour. One is this Golden-crowned Sifaka.
He has a sad story. Until 1988, it was thought to be “just” a subspecies of the also-rare Diademed Sifaka. After genetic testing, scientists discovered that the Golden-crowned was a separate species. Unfortunately, that means that this species faced a significant delay in conservation planning, and it has been declared critically endangered since 1996. Gold has been discovered in its habitat, and it is unlikely that this species will survive much longer in the wild. There are only a handful in captivity.
The other lemur is a Red ruffed lemur. These are similar to a blue-eyed black lemur, which we also saw on our tour, and these two species can mate and produce hybrids (called calico lemurs!). When our group rounded the bend, this lemur and its mate let off a full minute (and then some) of alarm calls! They calmed down by the time we reached them, and this one stayed still for the most part and let me take its picture. Later, it crawled over to us, and I have a good picture of its foot, too! I’ll spare you the close-up of the lemur’s foot, but I like it.
Besides these lemurs, we also saw ring-tailed lemurs, the evil dwarf bamboo lemurs, and a diademed sifaka. Those are the ones that stand out the most, but there were several other species that I’m not remembering much about, probably because I was trying to get a good picture and not listening very well! Oops! There are many more species of lemurs and it is very sad to think that there are fewer of them on the planet each year.
If you are ever in the Triangle area, I suggest you call and set up a trip to the center and take the tour. They also have a marvelous gift shop, and I now have new lemur socks, new lemur postcards, and a new lemur water bottle. I went a little overboard, but I could have bought one of almost everything! Reed made me go back to work after the tour to earn back all I spent. Meanie.
P.S. We did get snow today, but not as much as predicted! More in Morrisville where the conference was and very little in Raleigh at home. Fun!! I will write more about the conference tomorrow (fingers crossed), but I’ll say that it was very interesting and I have lots of links that I think will interest you! And some new ideas for my blog!