One recent drizzly afternoon several families stood in front of a large cage at the Duke Lemur Center enjoying the antics of four Coquerel's sifakas. The brown-and-white animals were in constant motion, bounding from platform to rope swing to cage wall while children shrieked with delight and adults snapped photographs with cell phones.A visitor shouted, "Look! A baby!" as a well-camouflaged infant clung to an adult's back, sticking like Velcro through the jumping.
The Coquerel's sifakas they were watching are lemurs, a type of primitive primate. During the hour-long tour, the group saw about 15 kinds of lemurs, bushbabies and lorises. These animals are all prosimians, primates that evolved before monkeys or apes ("prosimian" means "pre-monkey").
The last stop on the tour was the nocturnal house, where lights are kept on at night and off in the day. There, the group saw the cute yet bizarre aye-aye lemur, with its huge ears and fluffy tail; the slow-moving, slender loris; and the world's smallest lemur, the mouse lemur.
Touring the Lemur Center
A pygmy slow loris at the Primate Center. (Photo: Chris Hildreth)
No drop-in visitors. Hours are M-F 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Saturdays, seasonally dependent.
Tours: Call in advance to schedule. $7 for adults; $4 for 3-12 year olds; $1 for 1-2 year olds; $4 for senior citizens; $5 for college students with IDs. Contact: Lemur Center website
The Lemur Center offers scientists at Duke and other institutions an unparalleled opportunity to do non-invasive research with lemurs. But researchers aren't the only ones who benefit.
"The Lemur Center allows the public to have an up-close and personal encounter with rare, endangered, fascinating creatures from the other side of the planet," says Anne Yoder, director of the Duke Lemur Center and professor of biology at Duke. In the wild, lemurs live only in Madagascar, an island 250 miles off the southeast coast of Africa.
About 15,000 people visit the Lemur Center each year, including school groups, scout troops, senior citizen groups, families and individuals from places as far away as Sweden and China. Visitors need to call ahead to arrange a tour, which are scheduled year-round in response to demand. In spring and summer, tours occur as often as six times daily, and visitors are advised to call about two weeks ahead.
"Most people have never seen a lemur before, at least in person, and they tend to be intrigued by the characteristics that are similar to humans and apes and monkeys," says tour coordinator Heather Thomas.
The Lemur Center houses about 230 animals — most of whom were born there — representing 15 species of lemurs, and four species of lorises and bushbabies.
"The only other place you will find that many lemurs is in Madagascar," Yoder says.
She calls lemurs "evolutionarily unique" because there are at least 50 different species that are astonishingly varied in size, coloration and habit. No other group of primates shows this much diversity. Unfortunately, because of deforestation in Madagascar, most lemur species are endangered.
The Lemur Center is located in Duke Forest, and in the warmer months many of the lemurs live in the forest in outdoor enclosures. They are trained to come in response to noisemakers, so staff can gather them for feeding or to bring them indoors.
Taking care of hundreds of animals and guiding thousands of visitors through the center is a gargantuan task, and the center relies heavily on volunteers.
Anna Myers, an art and design major at N.C. State University, began volunteering at the Lemur Center as a student at Riverside High School in Durham four years ago. She grew up visiting the center on school and Girl Scout field trips.
Did You Know?
While living lemurs range in body size from that of a small mouse, up to the size of a medium-sized dog, there were also giant lemurs that went extinct only very recently (within the last 1000 years). The largest of these giant lemurs was nearly the size of a female gorilla.
While she was there with her AP Environmental Science class, the tour guide mentioned that the center needed volunteers, and Myers signed up.
"I enjoy teaching people about these incredible animals," she says. In addition to leading tours, she has designed and painted several murals and educational signs at the Lemur Center.
Myers is one of about 25 volunteers who lead tours and do light office work, and the center always can use more. Five volunteers work in the animal department; these are highly sought-after positions and are often filled from within the ranks of the tour guides. Volunteers range in age from 16 to 82, and Thomas says the education department plans to begin a junior docent program for children under 16.
In the future, Yoder hopes, the Lemur Center will have a visitor center with regular hours of operation so that people won't have to schedule visits. (In the meantime, drop-in visitors are welcome at the Museum of Life and Science on Murray Avenue in Durham, where nine lemurs from the Lemur Center are on permanent loan.)
The way Yoder sees it, the Lemur Center and Durham are lucky to have each other.
"It's nice to be in a community that understands that education and environmental stewardship and biodiversity are really important missions," she says. And, she adds, "The lemurs love Duke Forest."