Happy World Lemur Day – 29th October!

In October, two of our rangers travelled to over 300 miles to Scotland to rescue five animals that needed a new home. Once the animals had travelled back and were settled, we were delighted to announce to the public what they were – Black and White Ruffed Lemurs and Ring-Tailed Lemurs!

Lemurs are endangered

Lemurs are primates, the same as our Barbary Macaques.

Ring-Tailed Lemurs have an ICUN status of endangered and Black and White Ruffed Lemurs have an ICUN status of critically endangered. It is evident that both these species need protecting as their population in the wild is dropping significantly.

Did you know?

Lemurs are herbivores and eat a diet of fruit and vegetables, they are native to Madagascar and found only in that part of the world. They are very sociable animals and live in large groups where the females are dominant over the males. They communicate often and even use scent as a way to communicate.

Ruffed lemurs build their nests in trees and are the only primates to do so.

Our lemurs were rescued and both species lived together before they came here, so we have kept them together. Both species get on well and our rangers have observed that the Black and White Ruffed Lemurs have dominance over the Ring-Tailed Lemurs.

The group had a poor diet before they arrived here, being fed high calorie food that’s not suitable for them. As a result they are overweight and our rangers are working on getting them adjusted to the right food and bringing their weight down naturally as they explore their massive new enclosure.

Creating a Madagascan home

If you have visited us recently you may have noticed that our Butterfly House has been closed with lots of developments happening inside and out. This is for our lemurs!

The Butterfly House will become a Madagascan exhibit with our lemurs and other Madagascan species coming soon such as frogs, birds, and butterflies! Our famous goldfish, that were in Spiderman Far From Home (but cut from the final take) have been living in our Butterfly House for quite some time and will remain.

We can’t wait to open our Madagascan exhibit to show you the fantastic work our grounds team have done and our new species. We need to wait a bit longer to make sure our lemurs are happy and adjusted before we allow the public in, but we hope to open the exhibit for the start of 2022.

Visit us 363 days a year

With this and so much more coming soon, why not become a member and visit 363 days of the year? You’ll also receive discount at our catering outlets, free activities all year round and discount at other local, leading attractions such as Banham Zoo and Africa Alive!

Find out more about our membership by clicking the link below.