Laughing Lemurs at Montecasino Bird Park Fourways, Johannesburg

Laughing Lemurs at Montecasino Bird Park!

What a special treat indeed it was to be able to walk amongst the Lemurs and interact with these amazing creatures. In the bigger Flight Avery we were able to feed them and they readily interacted with us. I was so very surprised as to how brave they were and they took the carrots right out of our hands. Their mouths are so incredibly gentle and soft, almost “velvety”. They even spent some time licking our hands.

I was immediately in love and enthralled with these endangered mammals. It is so sad to note that they are considered the most critically endangered mammal species in the world. I managed to find some really awesome information on them.

I was fascinated to find out that these strange looking little mammals, who along with lorises and bushbabies, belong to a group called prosimian primates, defined as all primates that are neither monkeys nor apes.

Lemurs live in the wild only on Madagascar; their ancestors likely rafted to the island on clumps of vegetation and trees more than 60 million years ago. The inspiration for the movie Madagascar must have be born from this!!

The scientists attribute the rapid worsening of the amazing little lemurs' status to destruction of their tropical forest habitat on the Indian Ocean Island of Madagascar, where political turmoil has increased poverty and accelerated illegal logging in the forest. To add to this challenge hunting has now emerged as a more serious threat to the animals than in the past. Madagascar's main tourist attraction is reliant on its biodiversity, however scientist have noted that a loss of lemurs would only exacerbate the many economic problems that are causing their demise.

I found some interesting facts about our little Lemur friends. Their name is actually derived from the Latin word, “lemurs”, which means “haunter” or “spirits” of the night. They are nocturnal primates living in trees. They are found in Madagascar and Comoro Islands of the Southeast coast of Africa.

These little guys are social by nature and will move in “troups” (groups) and within each of these “troups” both the male and female hierarchies are quite clearly defined. The social structure of the

Lemur is very interesting. They live in small groups that move around with each other. These family groups have females that are dominate over the males. It can be very difficult to tell the difference between the males and the females.

There are two methods of communication that the Lemurs utilize. They use vocalization and they use scent markings and boy do they know how to vocalize!! Low growls are used by the Lemurs to communicate. Sometimes that message is to get away or other times it is inviting.

The body of the Lemur is very fascinating. They are generally very small but they will vary in size depending on the species. Fully grown they can weigh anything from 6-7 lbs and their averages heights vary from 15 to 18”, their tails grow to a length of 22- to 25’. They can live up to 18 years!

They have opposable thumbs and they have nails. They don’t have claws like many people believe. Their noses are pointed and long which enables them to have a keen and acute sense of smell. They will use both their noses and their bushy tails to communicate with each other. Lemurs also rely on their senses to help them to communicate. They have excellent hearing that helps them to identify the various pitches of the sounds used for communication. They will actually track each other by both these sounds as well as by scents.

For most species of Lemurs the mating season is very short. This is usually less than three weeks per year. The female will likely only be in estrus for a few days annually. Such a small window is a huge problem for getting the number of Lemurs in the world to increase.

a mom with its baby on her back!!

Numerous species of lemurs are found and they come in a variety of colours from black, grey to a reddish brown. We saw two types at the Bird Park, black and grey with striped tails and the reddish brown ones with black faces.

We watched as they moved with such grace in-between the branches and learned that they swing from one another and this is particular movement is known as brachiating! They will move on narrow branches and can balance, cross gaps and move up or down inclines and this type of movement is called “arboreal” (because they live in trees they are called arboreal). There are however some of the larger species of Lemurs who do spend their time on the ground.

The Lemurs diet normally consists of various ferns, grasses, flowers, fruits and the leaves of trees. They are predominantly vegetarian but are known to occasionally eat insects and even small vertebrates when fruits are not in season.

The biggest lemurs are the “Diademed Sifaka” and the “Indri” which weigh in at 15 lbs and the smallest are the very cute little pygmy mouse lemurs which only weigh in at an ounce!!

Not much is known about the evolution of the Lemur. However, some basic information has come to light. For example it is believed that they broke from African 175 million years ago. This is why so many of the Lemurs are now found on Madagascar Island. I could not find any information as to why none are still found on the African continent, did this mean that they all floated across to Madagascar?

These little guys don’t have that many natural predators out there but they do need to look out for the Fossa, the main natural predator of the Lemur. The Fossa is a type of cat like mammal that is only found in the Madagascar Islands.

Lemurs are actually very intelligent animals and they rely on a variety of tools to help them get things done. I thought this was so cool!! They also use their mouths more than any other type of species of primate and they don’t actually use their feet to help them

Such a fantastic privilege and gift to have been able to share this experience with one of the worlds most critically endangered mammals. WOW!!

check how dark their tongues are!!

My son and I thoroughly enjoyed our Lemur experience at the Montecasino Bird Park and highly recommend that you pay a visit for a very special experience.