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Lemur Trio Special Delivery for Zoo

Posted on: Friday, 12 August 2005, 18:00 CDT

The koalas may be leaving after this week, but the Tulsa Zoo has three other cute, cuddly reasons to visit.

Maddie, Bekily and Leemee are the newest black-and-white ruffed lemurs at the zoo. The female triplets, born June 20, recently went on display with their parents, Chloe and Petou.

Zookeeper Sarah Risley said two names came from the Internet.

"I looked up all these words from Madagascar (where lemurs are from) and put them on the board and let the other keepers pick the ones they liked," Risley said.

Risley's husband came up with Leemee.

"It's for 'lemme alone,'" she said.

The new lemurs are more than just a cute addition to the zoo. The babies and their parents are valuable to the Species Survival Plan, a breeding program for endangered animals.

Pat Murphy, curator of the primates and small mammals at the zoo, said lemurs are critically endangered.

"Their numbers are down to the thousands in the wild, due primarily from deforestation," Murphy said.

That is why Petou and Chloe are so important for breeding.

"(Chloe) is the daughter of wild lemurs," Risley said. "(Petou) was born in Madagascar. He's straight from the wild."

In 1996, the government confiscated him from someone who was keeping him as a pet and sent him to the United States to go on display in a zoo.

"We want to put as many of those wild-born genes into the captive population (as possible)," Murphy said.

Petou has fathered other litters that now live at other zoos, but this was Chloe's first time as a mother.

"She seems to be doing all the right things," Murphy said. "She was real attentive when they were born, and she's taking good care of them."

"They're really great (parents)," Risley said. "Petou has been a really good dad. He'll sit and watch the babies if she's off doing something else."

The whole lemur family is on display during the morning hours in an exhibit next to the bear enclosures, but because of the summer heat, zookeepers take the triplets back inside the den each afternoon.

Risley said the parents have to go in first before a keeper can get to the triplets.

"I could not walk out there with her and the babies," she said.

"She would attack me, and the dad would attack, too."

Murphy said the new family is separated from the other lemur family in the Conservation Center because the animals become aggressive if they are housed together.

"Lemurs live in family groups," Risley said. "It's one of the few groups where the female runs everything."

The three lemur babies stay primarily in a nest in the shade, but they are getting more active as they get older.

"They grow really fast," Risley said. "They're starting to play with each other and groom each other."

"They've been climbing, and they're beginning to eat solid food," Murphy said. "You see them wander off from Mom more and more."

Murphy said the triplets will stay with their parents for two or three years before they go to other zoos.

"They get a lot of socialization and develop behavior," he said. "It may give them the opportunity to see siblings born.

"They might help with the care of the siblings, and when they become parents, they'll be good parents."

Source: Tulsa World

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