Black-and-white ruffed lemur born at Calgary Zoo, very first in 36 a long time

A brilliant-eyed, black-and-white ruffed lemur will soon be witnessed bouncing close to the Calgary Zoo.

The toddler lemur is a single month aged, born on April 7 to mom and dad Eny and Menabe. It really is the first of its species to be born at the zoo since 1987.

“The effective birth of this newest addition is specially enjoyable and critical for Eny and Menabe’s species,” explained Dr. Typhenn Brichieri-Colombi, conservation exploration and method advisor, in a new launch from the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo.

 ”With black-and-white ruffed lemurs currently being critically endangered in the wild. This pup by now performs an significant job in the survival and well-getting of its species.” 

The zoo hasn’t identified the sex of the child. Personnel will likely wait around till the pup receives its very first vaccines — which comes about at about 10 weeks aged — to do a entire assessment. 

Then, they’ll figure out how they want to give the toddler its name.

Menabe arrived at the Calgary Zoo in 2017. The zoo functions with other accredited zoos and aquariums using portion in a species survival system (SSP) to obtain the suitable breeding partners for animals, supporting at-possibility species. Eny arrived from a zoo in the Czech Republic in 2021.

So considerably, the little relatives is starting to bond. 

“[Eny’s] just accomplishing these kinds of amazing mothering conduct. So she’s cleansing it. She’s cuddling it. She’s keeping it heat,” claimed Colleen Baird, interim associate director of animal care and welfare at the zoo, in an job interview with The Homestretch.

“They’re not like a gorilla or other primate species, wherever [babies] cling to the back or the entrance of the mother. The mother … she has these nests significant up in the cover, and she’ll travel with this pup in her mouth, transferring it from nest to nest as she forages and feeds.”

Hear | Colleen Baird clarifies why and how they acquire animals from other zoos:

Black-and-white ruffed lemurs are native to Madagascar. Habitat loss, agriculture, mining, deforestation and weather improve have led to their decrease, in accordance to Baird.

The zoo performs to secure a few species of lemur in collaboration with the Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership and the University of Calgary, the release says, aiding communities to develop reforestation actions, plant future habitats and increase local livelihoods.

They also do the job to educate people on why lemurs are so significant. 

“In some cases they eat food items with berries or seeds, and then they poop all those seeds around. They are really planting seeds in sites for trees to increase,” Baird said. 

“This species is rather significant for diversity in Madagascar, and if we just overlook them, then we shed some of people exclusive moments.”

The lemur walk-by way of at the zoo will be reopened on Might 19, but the new child will not join the conspiracy — what a group of lemurs is called — just yet. Baird suggests the pup wants to get more powerful, initially, but it might be seen later in the summertime.