This is one of my favorite enrichment items for lemurs. We hang these small bags on the branches and put just a few pieces of dried fruit in each one. It’s quite cute to watch them go through the bag. I tried to get a picture of each of our 6 lemurs using their enrichment.
Lycus
Satyrus
Cassandra
Cynthia
Iris
Here’s my favorite, Iris photo-bombing Jethys picture
If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.
If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.
We recently had a Lemur Tracking Drill. Sherry informed us that two “lemurs” were hidden around campus and we had an hour to find them. Off we went…
Me, Sarah, Kent, and Aaron begin Lemur tracking
Sarah picking up a strong signal behind the Donkey/Goat yard
Aaron went into the woods between alpaca and pigs to see what he could pick up on his tracker
Duck was curious about Aaron in the woods
As was Max
We then decided to go out to the parking lot since our signal was pointing us in that direction.
Quickly there after, we found the first lemur in a tree.
The first lemur was found in a tree
After feeling successful about finding the first lemur so quickly we decided to split up at the boardwalk. Sarah and I headed to Explore the Wild and Aaron and Kent headed to Catch the Wind. Shortly there after, the guys radioed us to meet them at the Into the Mist exhibit. Kent had spotted the second lemur on top of an umbrella!
With both lemurs found we headed back to the building
Successful Tracking
Kent looks thrilled about getting cuddled by Aaron.
If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.
If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.
After lunch everyday we head out to our respective areas and do afternoon checks. The ring-tailed lemurs have been enjoying their outside exhibit. I snapped some pictures during check recently. Sometimes all they do is sleep and sometimes they are climbing trees this is what they were doing on this particular day…
All 3 ring-tailed lemurs resting on top of their climbing structure
Still hanging out on the structure, just further apart
Lycus stands up…
for a nice stretch!
And sits back in a buddha pose for some nice sunbathing
Satyrus and Lycus, checking out some browse
Here you can see Satyrus in the back sunbathing while Lycus lays in the front
If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.
If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.
“Hello, Watson? Come here; I need you!”
I can hear the ocean.
Bummer….Kimberly’s frozen fruit popsicle treat is all gone!!
If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.
If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.
The red ruffed lemurs have been off exhibit since December. We have just a couple of weeks left until it is warm enough for the ring tailed lemurs to be outside during the day and the red ruffed lemurs to move upstairs, on exhibit. Here is where we were last time I updated about training- click here.
While our focus was going to be crate training we also added the behavior of station. Station is a way to 1) separate the lemurs if necessary 2) keep a lemur in one spot while working with the others. The red ruffed have access to three stalls. In each stall we have a shelf attached to the door. These shelves are where we would like the lemurs to ‘station’. But how do they know which one of them should station on which shelf? Great questions- we hang up symbols on the doors, above the shelves. Each lemur has their own specific symbol. Stationing is going great!
Crate training is also going well. The door has been shut on Cynthia and we’re very close to shutting the door on Jethys and Iris.
The ring tailed lemurs are still doing great with their crate training. Dr English will visit in the next few months and our oldest lemurs Lycus (almost 28) and Cynthia (almost 32) will have to be crated and brought to the building to get their eyes checked out.
Jethys symbol for station is a star
Iris’ symbol for station is a moon
Cynthia symbol for station is a diamond
If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.
If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.
Check out the Duke Lemur Center’s blog featuring a documentary called Madagascar, Lemurs, and Spies which focuses on silky sifaka and learn a little more about habitat destruction.
If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.
If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.
If you are a regular visitor you may have noticed a change at lemurs. The ring tailed lemurs are now in the inside exhibit and the red ruffed lemurs will spend their estrus cycle off exhibit. We made the switch on one of our closed Mondays. In terms of animal stress it was minimal. All lemurs spent a lot of time exploring their new areas. I snapped several great pictures of the ring tailed lemurs checking out every square inch of their new exhibit. They climbed on everything they possibly could! I stayed up there with them to monitor their exploration, making sure they didn’t get hurt during their excitement. Now that their exhibit is no longer novel, they have been enjoying snuggling up together in a lemur ball on the ground. Look down and to your left if you don’t immediately see them. Click here to see how the red ruffed lemurs are doing off exhibit.
If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.
If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.
I recently mentioned we’re now working on crate training the red ruffed lemurs. It’s been quite awhile since they have worked on this behavior. The last couple days have been very successful. All three lemurs have gone all the way into their crates. 
This is just the beginning so check back soon for updates.
Keeper Marilyn and I training the three red ruffed lemurs
Iris going into the crate
Iris is going into the top crate at the same time that Jethys is going into the bottom crate.
If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.
If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.
It’s been awhile since I’ve updated and we’ve seen a lot of progress. My last post was about Cassandra exploring the vet room. We allowed her to do this once more and it went about the same as the first time. I believe the second time, she took longer to come down, seemed like she was enjoying exploring too much. Before that I wrote about crate training, which has been my biggest goal with the ring-tailed lemurs. (now it’s our biggest goal with the red ruffed lemurs too, check back for future posts about that)
Their physicals were way back in September, on that particular day I was only able to crate Cassandra. The boys both went into their crate but then bounced right back out, Sherry said catching them was very easy that day. We also changed where the lemurs wait for sedation. We started using a metal cage located in the vet room. It’s roomier which makes it easier to get the lemur out of.
Cassandra just outside the cage we use in the vet room
This is an added part of crate training. I bring the lemurs into the building and then open this cage and their crate door and ask them to go inside. I have also been practicing this behavior with the lemurs down at the lemur house. We took an extra vet room cage and placed it inside their holding space in the lemur house. It’s big and silver and makes a lot of noise when the jump on it, but the good news is, this behavior is working. They are not afraid of it and have no problems climbing all over and inside of it, making their visit to the vet room much less stressful.
About a week later we needed to get blood work on Cassandra again. It was very easy to crate her using training which made everything run smoother. Then in November I noticed Lycus was holding his left hand across his chest. It seemed like a shoulder injury. Dr V came in to check him out and decided she wanted to do hands on with him. This meant getting him into the crate and bringing him to the building. Using training it was super easy. I still practice crate training a couple times a week. It has helped the process of vet visits tremendously and it’s something I want to continue working on. Next challenge is crate training the red ruffed lemurs.
Many many Kudos to all your lemur training (and also to all the other keepers)!!! The lemurs seem so stress free with their physicals…more like an outing in a cool playground!!
Thanks so much DJ!
If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.
If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.
We clean the lemur house everyday but once a month we get a little crazy! We call this super-cleaning. I took some step-by-step photos from last month’s super-clean. I started this super-clean on a closed Monday afternoon and finished the next morning with Keeper Jessi.
First we remove the mulch from inside viewing. This is where the Red Ruffed Lemurs hangout during the day. Basically, we shovel the mulch out, I used a laundry basket this time.
It get’s dusty!!!!
We wear gloves as typical lemur house protocol, and a mask and goggles because it gets super dusty plus we spray cleaner all over.
These are the stairs leading up to inside lemur viewing. I hauled about 6-7 laundry baskets down and about 10-11 mulch bags up!!! Even though it was cold, I got hot and didn’t have a hair tie so I used the next best thing, a zip-tie!
Used a zip-tie to put my hair up
The next step is to use the leaf blower, I must admit I’m not very good at this step! There was dust all over me, even found mulch later while washing my hair.
Here comes the cleaner, it gets very sudsy! Lots of scrubbing involved as well.
It was after hosing this out that I text Aaron to ask for help looking for my radio, we wear walkie talkie type radios and mine was missing. He brought Katy for an extra set of eyes. After A LOT of searching we finally found my radio under a pile of mulch that I had dumped! Oh my!
The next morning Jessi and I headed down to lemurs to finish up.
The next step involves a lot of maneuvering. We have long branches, a tall ladder, and two people. We take branches down and rearrange the placement. Lots of bungee cords, zip-ties, and carabiners.
And sometimes a tiny saw is necessary!
Here Jessi is securing bowl holders for lemur food
Now we cover the floor with lots of mulch
And once everything is ready and we’ve cleaned up our mess, we put food out for the lemurs and let the girls up. They climb up through a trap door in the floor.
And then we do a similar super-clean downstairs in the 6 stalls the lemurs use at night. The only difference is there’s no mulch so I don’t have to use the leaf blower again
You can also use the end of your glove at the wrist as a hair tie!
hahaha sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do!
Every time I use zip ties, they slip off
If your hair is coarse enough, a pencil works too. I can show you sometime if you’ve never tried it.
If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.
If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.
I like the Cynthia no hands approach.
Cynthia’s going head deep LOL