ZooBorns

Twycross Zoo's Baby Crowned Lemur Snacks on a Little Grass

Keepers at Twycross Zoo are celebrating the arrival of a baby Crowned Lemur, born on April 11. Experienced mom Rose is doing a superb job. Infants are initially carried on the mother’s front but as they grow heavier they are moved onto her back. The father takes and active role in parenting as well. Tony Dobbs, Section Head of Primates, said: “The baby arrived a few days earlier than we had expected but both mum and baby are doing very well. While Rose is looking after the newborn, the father, Rik, has taken on the role of the proud, protective father.”

In the wild the Crowned Lemur is confined to a small patch of forest in Madagascar and listed on the IUCN Red List  as Vulnerable. There their population is decreasing because their habitat is in rapid decline principally due to heavy mining, illegal logging and hunting for food.

 

Photo Credit: Phillipa Dobson

Zoological Director, Sharon Redrobe, added: “The Crowned Lemur, like all the lemur species, is under threat in the wild and therefore the role of the captive population is becoming more and more important. A successful birth such as this is a huge boost to the conservation of this species.”

You can get a glimpse to the baby tucked into mom's hip on this video:

Read more about the baby's family at the zoo and find Crowned Lemur facts, after the fold:

Hello World, Meet Hiddleston and Poots!

The Duke Lemur Center is proud to announce the births of two Blue-eyed Black Lemurs, one male – Hiddleston – and one female – Poots. Like many species in this genus, these lemurs are sexually dichromatic, meaning the the males and females are different colors (black and reddish brown respectively).

Named for actor Tom Hiddleston, Hiddleston was born to mother West and father Hopkins on March 24, 2013. He weighed a healthy 82 grams at birth. Poots, named for Imogen Poots, was born on March 27, 2013, to parents Margaret and Tarantino. Poots weighed 92 grams at birth. West and Margaret are first-time mothers, and both are doing a fantastic job with their new little ones.

The successful births of Hiddleston and Poots contribute a great deal to the conservation of this species. The Duke Lemur Center currently houses North America’s only breeding females of Blue-eyed Black lemurs: West, Margaret and Foster. These females hold the key to the conservation of this species of lemur because of dramatic habitat loss in the wild and the limited breeding population in captivity. With expert care (and some very handsome Blue-eyed Black Lemur males), DLC is hoping for many more babies in the future to continue to preserve these rare, beautiful lemurs.

Photos of Hiddleston (the reddish little guy) by David Haring. Photos of Poots (the lighter little guy in the first and last photos) Fallon Owens

Lemur On White!

The Zoological and Botanical Park of Mulhouse is pleased to announce the birth of 'Dimbi' on the 8th of March. The male Blue-eyed Black Lemur baby is an ambassador for his critically endangered species. For the last 25 years, the park has worked to prevent the final extinction of this species. Less than 2000 individuals remain in the Madagascan wild. Special thanks to Life on White for these outstanding images.

Photo credits: LifeOnWhite.com

See many more pictures below the fold...

Hold On Tight, Baby Sifaka!

Meet Beatrice of Swabia, the newest addition to a noble line of Coquerel’s Sifakas at Duke Lemur Center. She has a close-knit family: a five-year-old mother, Rodelinda, an eight-year-old father, Marcus, and an older sister, 23 month-old Bertha of Sulzbach. (Duke Lemur Center is certainly proud of their Sifakas: the whole family is named after Roman Emperors.)

Photo credits: David Haring / Duke Lemur Center

Beatrice of Swbabia—Beatrice for short—is a healthy little heir. She weighed a respectable 107 grams at her birth on December 19^th, and has since been growing in leaps and bounds.  She clings tightly to her mother, another sign of good health, but also spends some time with her father and sister who hold and groom the new baby.

Sifakas are named for their distinctive “shif-auk!” call.  They are known for their graceful sideways leaping across the ground, a dance that they share with ten other diurnal members of the lemur family Indriidae.

 

“Sifakas are really one of the Lemur Center’s flagship species,” says Andrea Katz, the Duke Lemur Center animal curator. The Duke Lemur Center was the first to ever successfully breed Sifakas. Only 56 Coquerel’s sifakas live in captivity. The Lemur Center owns every single one and manages them either on-site or through cooperative breeding loans with 9 other institutions across the United States. 

“We’ve learned a lot over the years about sifaka behavior, breeding behavior, mother-infant behavior… I think it’s fair to say that the Lemur Center is really viewed as the expert on Sifaka breeding management.”

Take a leap across the fold!

Twin Ruffed Lemurs Born at Mogo Zoo

Found only on the island of Madagascar, Black-and-White Ruffed Lemurs are critically endangered.  But twins born at the Mogo Zoo on October 6 offer a glimmer of hope for the species.

The yet-to-be-named and sexed twins are being expertly cared for by their parents.  According to Animal Operations Manager Paul Whitehorn, “Tame’ and Itasi are being great parents, and the youngsters are becoming so active and a delight to watch.”  Though the twins are still nursing, they are already enjoying healthy fruits and veggies as part of their daily diet.

Unfortunately, the future for wild Black-and-White Ruffed Lemurs is bleak.  Classified as Critically Endangered, these primates are threatened by habitat loss due to slash-and-burn agriculture, logging, and mining.  Additionally, they are hunted by poachers for their meat. 

Black-and-White Ruffed Lemurs are the only diurnal primates to build nests.  Australia’s Mogo Zoo participates in the Species Management Program to ensure the genetic diversity of the captive population.

Photo Credit:  Mogo Zoo

One of the Rarest Primates in the World Born at Linton Zoo

On March 29, Harriet, one of the White Collared Lemurs at Linton Zoological Gardens, gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Jako, one of the Malagasy words for monkey. Every lemur has its own distinct personality, and with Jako being such an energetic, playful, comical little bundle of fun, they thought ‘monkey’ was a very apt name.

There are only 13 White Collared Lemurs in captivity in Europe, nine of which are at Linton. This mischievous new baby lives with his Dad Jeepster, mom Harriet and sister Mirana, born last year. This species has been listed as one of the top 25 rarest primates in the world; every captive birth will help to ensure it does not become completely extinct!

The White Collared Lemur (Eulemur cinereiceps), also known as the Grey Headed Lemur, is from the South West of Madagascar, and highly threatened in the wild. Despite being protected, it is still hunted for food and continued habitat destruction and alteration is a major problem. It has a total remaining habitat area of less than 270 square miles (700 km²), which is very fragmented and partly shared with the Red Fronted Lemur. This has resulted in hybridization between the two species therefore lowering the genetic diversity of the wild population.

Photo Credits: Linton Zoological Gardens

Baby Mouse Lemur Season Finale!

Back in July we brought you Duke Lemur Center's first batch of wriggling baby Mouse Lemurs! Today we officially bring the season to a close and what a successful one it's been! A total of twenty infants, ten males and ten females, have been born this summer with the last birth on August 10th. The oldest mouse moms were four year olds Oleander and Calendula and the youngest was 10 month old Nettle. 

As an added bonus, Duke Lemur Center has also shared photos of their tiny Fat-tailed Dwarf Lemur babies, marking the first successful birth of this species since 1987! This unique animal is the only tropical mammal as well as only primate anywhere known to hibernate. Unlike cold weather hibernators, the Fat-tailed Dwarf Lemur appears to enter periods of dormancy during drought. While hibernating, this lemur lives off of stores of fat in its tail. Despite having a name that's a mouthful, this species is one of the smallest of all primates.

Photo credits: David Haring / Duke Lemur Center

Welcome to Baby Mouse Lemur Season!

The Duke Lemur Center is smack-dab in the middle of baby Mouse Lemur season with seven little ones, born to four mothers, in the month of June alone. Four more Mouse Lemur females are pregnant so there are more of these feisty little guys on the way. The first photo shows a set of frantic Mouse Lemur triplets who arrived on June 5th. The second photo and video show a much calmer singleton. These four are named Bluebell, Blackberry, Pipkin and Dogbane.

Gray Mouse Lemurs are among the world's smallest primates, weighing only about 1/8th of a pound as adults At night this species hunts alone, leaping between thin branches in the treetops. By day they curl up in tree holes with up to fifteen other Mouse Lemurs to sleep in a furry heap. There are seventeen different species of Mouse Lemur, but they all look nearly the same, making research challenging. Only through genetic testing can scientists be sure of what species they are observing. 

Photo credits: Duke LemurCenter / David Haring

Three Little Lemurs Thriving at Duke Lemur Center

Red Ruffed Lemur triplets were born May 10 to mom, Pyxis, and dad, Hunter, at the Duke Lemur Center at Duke University in North Carolina. There are two males and one female and they are all healthy and well.  Whereas last week Pyxis was still carrying them in her mouth, and on nice days might take them to a high shelf on her outdoor habitat,  they are now at the stage where they are making their first independent, albeit clumsy, forays away from their mom and the laundry basket that has served as their nest.

Hunter has been locked inside from free-ranging and is living in an adjacent area. He has been introduced to Pyxsis and their offspring. While he doesn’t interact with them much, he does appear to stand guard over them on the rare occasions when Pyxis leaves to eat. Male guarding behavior in Ruffed Lemurs is fairly common.

Photo Credit: Duke Lemur Center

Wide-eyed Lemur Triplets for Binder Park Zoo!

It’s triplets at Binder Park Zoo! Phin and John, the Zoo’s pair of Black and White Ruffed Lemurs, have their hands full. On Sunday April 29th, Phin, a 7 year old female, gave birth to three healthy Black and White Ruffed Lemur babies.This is a significant birth for this endangered species and is only the second time in 35 years that Binder Park has welcomed baby Ruffed Lemurs. Black and White Ruffed Lemurs have a gestation of around 3 months and usually have twins but can have up to six babies at once.

Ruffed Lemurs are from Eastern Madagascar and live in evergreen rainforests. In the wild, female lemurs usually build a nest 60 to 80 feet high in trees. Phin was given the choice of several man-made nest boxes in her indoor holding area. She routinely moves the babies from nest to nest, as she would in the wild. The babies are fully mobile and do not cling to their mother as many other lemur infants do. The babies will stay in the nest for several weeks but mature rapidly so they can travel with their mother in search for food. 

Ruffed Lemurs eat lots of fruit, but will also eat leaves, nectar, flowers, fungi and even dirt! Fathers take no part in child care, but the triplets are old enough to be introduced back to their father, John, and they should be a compatible social group.