Copenhagen Zoo, December 2009
I have always been very intrigued by the sign at the cage of the ring-tailed lemurs that says that the young ones can come and go as they please -just don´t try to touch them, you visitors, thank you very much!
I never saw this happen until last Sunday when I visited the zoo (and my camera battery had run out of power...). I was amazed as the young lemur getting out of the cage was it was at least half the size of the grown-ups. Possibly bigger - the tail was almost the size of the grown-ups, anyway.
I always thought that the small lemurs that could get out of the cage were babies. I looked for some bigger hole in the mesh than the 5 x 15 centimeters that I estimate the rectangles in the mesh to be. But when the young lemur went back into the enclosure he/she just casually snuck in between one of those 5 x 15 centimeter rectangles.
I guess these creatures must have a very "agile skeleton" (is that understandable English?)... I mean bones that must be very bendable... I have seen mice disappear having about 3-4 millimeters of height at their disposal, this was sort of a similar experience.
Today when I visited the lemurs did not show up at all, it was probably far to cold for them. But in the future I will surely spend a lot more time by this cage in the summertime than I have used to do...
PS
Is this a common practise in zoos? What is it about lemurs in particular that makes this possible?
