Lemurs are primates, and have the prime primate traits in terms of hands and placement of eyes. They're related to us, but more distantly than monkeys and of course apes are. They're an interesting peak into earlier mammal evolution, being limited, at least in the wild, to the off-Africa island of Madagascar.
Relatedly the Denver Zoo has just seen the birth of a new aye-aye, which is a species of lemur. And a birth in captivity is still better than none. The parents are named Smeagol and Bellatrix, which is delightful. The baby is named Tonks, which is weird because Nymphadora Tonks was sorted into Hufflepuff House, even though she's Draco's cousin.
Relatedly the Denver Zoo has just seen the birth of a new aye-aye, which is a species of lemur. And a birth in captivity is still better than none. The parents are named Smeagol and Bellatrix, which is delightful. The baby is named Tonks, which is weird because Nymphadora Tonks was sorted into Hufflepuff House, even though she's Draco's cousin.
2 comments:
I don't know if you remember this but for a number of years while we still lived in Portland we donated regularly to the Duke University Lemur Center and their program to re-wild lemurs to Madagascar. We even got regular pictures and letter about a black and white ruffed lemur called Praesepe who we adopted. They are very beautiful creatures and it's sad to imagine them losing their place in the world.
It's good to know there are ongoing programs to save the species at places other than Duke. Here's a picture of another Aye-Aye you might like to see.
Interesting story about Nymphadora Tonks - I don't think I made it that far in the series.
The Duke program sounds like a very worthy project and I can see why you were attracted to it. Hopefully it's still doing well. It's best overall if their habitat is intact and they can enjoy it.
If you only looked briefly at the picture you might think that Lucrezia was a bat. Needless to say, she's adorable. Her handlers, if that's the word, must have gotten quite attached.
I didn't really make it that far either. Luckily there's a fair amount of information on the Internet about it.
Post a Comment