Favourite lemur species

TZDugong said:
I never said it wasn’t? An animal name can have English words and also non-English words in it, I’m not sure why you’re so surprised by this.
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I'm not surprised - I'm simply making an argument for why Association Européenne pour l'Etude et la Conservation des Lémuriens' Sportive Lemur is an English name and not a French one.
 
CheeseChameleon2007 said:
Yeah, I feel like all lemurs sometimes get overshadowed by monkeys and apes. However, they are becoming a little more popular with movies, (Madagascar as someone said), documentaries, and zoos actually play a part in popularizing an obscure animal like the Aye-Aye. Sportive lemurs diet might play a part here, but just speculating. Prove me wrong if you can, but maybe some of the native leaves and flowers is an inconvenience to the zookeepers, as the food they need is only exclusivly found in Madagascar.
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I've observed the opposite on a few occasions in zoos with people seeming to be far more interested in lemurs like ruffed and ringtails than in monkeys.

I think in some cases it may have been due to monkeys being in caged enclosures whereas there were walk through lemur enclosures (which I think are a brilliant idea to raise awareness of these animals conservation and to generate interest in them generally).

Yes, you are right that the diets of some lemur species make them especially difficult to keep in captivity but unfortunately this can be the case for many monkey species too.

Dassie rat said:
Is the Wright's sportive lemur named after Patricia Wright (Patricia Wright, Natural World Hero - Natural World Safaris) who discovered the golden bamboo lemur? I met her at a prosimian conference at Chester Zoo.
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It must have been an incredible to have met her and talked with her !

I've met people who discovered new species of amphibians, insects, plants and archeological sites but I've never met someone who has discovered a new species of primate.
 
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Nod said:
I have worked with a couple of individuals in captivity, only briefly though. They were quite fantastic to observe and I particularly enjoyed the times where they got filled with energy and would bounce from the ground to the trees to the ropes etc.
I think its that, that makes them my favourite lemur!
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I can imagine ! , they sound like they were such fun to work with :D.

I think when you work with a species in captivity or the wild you get to see a fuller picture of the animal and it is sort of inevitable that it becomes a firm favourite.

At what zoo were these lemurs being kept ?

Tim May said:
Yes, Wright's sportive lemur is named after Patricia C. Wright.

The book The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals (Beolins, Watkins & Grayson) is a useful reference work for answering such questions
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Do you have a favourite lemur species @Tim May ?
 
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Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
I've observed the opposite on a few occasions in zoos with people seeming to be far more interested in lemurs like ruffed and ringtails than in monkeys.

I think in some cases it may have been due to monkeys being in caged enclosures whereas there were walk through lemur enclosures (which I think are a brilliant idea to raise awareness of these animals conservation and to generate interest in them generally).

Yes, you are right that the diets of some lemur species make them especially difficult to keep in captivity but unfortunately this can be the case for many monkey species too.



It must have been an incredible to have met her and talked with her !

I've met people who discovered new species of amphibians, insects and archeological sites but I've never met someone who has discovered a new species of primate.
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Indeed, having walk through Lemur exhibits is a lot more immersive. I dont recall ever being through a walk through lemur exhibit (Unless if Omaha counts), and I dont believe there being that many in the U.S. I guess the thought of people being more interested in monkeys is courtesy of my mother, because her favorite animals are monkeys.
 
CheeseChameleon2007 said:
Indeed, having walk through Lemur exhibits is a lot more immersive. I dont recall ever being through a walk through lemur exhibit (Unless if Omaha counts), and I dont believe there being that many in the U.S. I guess the thought of people being more interested in monkeys is courtesy of my mother, because her favorite animals are monkeys.
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I think that the "lemur walkthrough" concept is a brilliant one. Whenever I've seen them at zoos they seem to be immensely popular features for the general public.

I really think these areas in zoos help visitors to feel a sense of connection and allow for a stronger emotional identification with these animals.

I just hope that this interest helps lemur conservation in some practical way in terms of fundraising / support for a zoo's in-situ conservation work etc.

It seems that the "walkthrough concept" is gradually being extended to other primates too. I've noticed that monkey walkthroughs (with either colobus or smaller neotropical monkeys) are becoming more common as features in zoos in Europe lately.
 
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Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
I think that the lemur walkthrough concept is a brilliant one and whenever I see them at zoos they seem to be immensely popular features for the general public.

I really think these areas in zoos help visitors to feel a sense of connection and identify emotionally with these animals and I just hope that this helps lemur conservation in someway.

It seems that the walkthrough concept is being extended to other primates too and I've noticed that monkey walkthroughs (with either colobus or smaller neotropical monkeys) are becoming more common as features in zoos in Europe lately.
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Sadly in america all we seem to get is kangaroo walkthroughs. Which is fine, except usually the kangaroos are not that social. I would personally like to see a walkthrough exhibit with draco lizards. That would be cool:p. I like giraffe feedings because I have some great experiences feeding the giraffes, and I've noticed a lot of other people have too.
 
CheeseChameleon2007 said:
Sadly in america all we seem to get is kangaroo walkthroughs. Which is fine, except usually the kangaroos are not that social. I would personally like to see a walkthrough exhibit with draco lizards. That would be cool:p. I like giraffe feedings because I have some great experiences feeding the giraffes, and I've noticed a lot of other people have too.
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I'm pretty sure that there are lemur walkthroughs (and I think I've seen pictures in the zoochat gallery of monkey walkthroughs) in zoos in the USA.

I couldn't name any specific zoos in your country off the top of my head that have these features but I am sure there are more than a couple out there.

Maybe some of the USA based zoochatters could point out some of these ?

I think there are positives and negatives to these kinds of immersive exhibits but ultimately it is very hard to ignore all of the positives generated in terms of these being important moments for the public and the way that this kind of interaction at close quarters helps shift perceptions of wildlife and the natural world.
 
CheeseChameleon2007 said:
Sadly in america all we seem to get is kangaroo walkthroughs. Which is fine, except usually the kangaroos are not that social. I would personally like to see a walkthrough exhibit with draco lizards. That would be cool:p. I like giraffe feedings because I have some great experiences feeding the giraffes, and I've noticed a lot of other people have too.
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Although many people say they're overused, I actually like the idea of kangaroo walkthroughs most of the time. I feel that they allow for easier viewing (even if they aren't social), because there's no barrier.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
I'm pretty sure that there are lemur walkthroughs (and I think I've seen pictures in the zoochat gallery of monkey walkthroughs) in zoos in the USA.

I couldn't name any specific zoos in your country off the top of my head that have these features but I am sure there are more than a couple out there.

I think there are positives and negatives to these kinds of immersive exhibits but ultimately it is very hard to ignore all of the positives generated in terms of these being important moments for the public and the way that this kind of interaction at close quarters helps shift perceptions of wildlife and the natural world.
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No worries. I just hadn't been to any lemur walkthroughs as far as I can remember.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
It must have been an incredible to have met her and talked with her !

I've met people who discovered new species of amphibians, insects, plants and archeological sites but I've never met someone who has discovered a new species of primate.
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It was good meeting people who liked prosimians. I set next to a man who worked at Perth Zoo. I also had a talk with Ian Tattersall, whose name appears in the specific name of the golden-crowned sifaka (Propithecus tattersalli).

It's surprising how many new species of prosimians have been named since that conference. When I visited Madagascar, there was one species of avahi. Now there are several species and I have seen at least 2 of them.
 
Dassie rat said:
It was good meeting people who liked prosimians. I set next to a man who worked at Perth Zoo. I also had a talk with Ian Tattersall, whose name appears in the specific name of the golden-crowned sifaka (Propithecus tattersalli).

It's surprising how many new species of prosimians have been named since that conference. When I visited Madagascar, there was one species of avahi. Now there are several species and I have seen at least 2 of them.
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Incredible ! The golden crowned sifaka is one of the more beautiful of the lemurs IMO.

Yes, I agree, it seems like every other year there is a new species of mouse lemur that is discovered through DNA barcoding.
 
Tim May said:
I would probably choose aye-aye as my favourite lemur species. I was very excited the first time I saw the species at Vincennes Zoo (Paris) in 1987.
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That comes as quite a surprise.

For some reason I was expecting that you would say a sifaka or gentle lemur species.
 
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birdsandbats said:
I'm not surprised - I'm simply making an argument for why Association Européenne pour l'Etude et la Conservation des Lémuriens' Sportive Lemur is an English name and not a French one.
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You didn't claim "sportive lemur" is an English common name, you said "Association Européenne pour l'Etude et la Conservation des Lémuriens'" Sportive Lemur is an English common name, which is only 22% correct in the English part and 0% correct in the common name part :p

The word 'bastard' is an English word so I now declare that the German name for Roan Antelope is now an English name ;)

~Thylo
 
ThylacineAlive said:
The word 'bastard' is an English word so I now declare that the German name for Roan Antelope is now an English name ;)
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Technically speaking I think it's originally French actually :p the Old English equivalent is actually "git" or "get"

That said, Bastard Gemsbok was always English, it just fell out of fashion.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
I'm pretty sure that there are lemur walkthroughs (and I think I've seen pictures in the zoochat gallery of monkey walkthroughs) in zoos in the USA.

I couldn't name any specific zoos in your country off the top of my head that have these features but I am sure there are more than a couple out there.

Maybe some of the USA based zoochatters could point out some of these ?

I think there are positives and negatives to these kinds of immersive exhibits but ultimately it is very hard to ignore all of the positives generated in terms of these being important moments for the public and the way that this kind of interaction at close quarters helps shift perceptions of wildlife and the natural world.
Click to expand...
No, there are not. For legal reasons, there are few (if any) lemur walk-throughs in North American zoos. IIRC there are two at most.
 
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