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With lemurs being just as cute as red pandas I figured they deserve their own thread as well. Lemurs are the primates of Madagascar. All 113 currently known lemur species live on that island. You probably know ring-tailed lemurs from the animated movie "Madagascar".  Lemur by Mathias Appel, auf FlickrThat movie is A DISGUSTING LIE though because they got everything wrong about King Julien. Ring-tailed lemurs always have a female that leads the group with the other females living in a strict hierarchy and the males are just there. They got nothing to say. If they try to eat first or go to the place where they sleep first they get beaten up. The males become very aggresive towards each other during mating season. Offspring is also often killed by accident as the females try to rise up in rank. Why do I find them so cute again? Anyway. Another species are the black and white ruffed lemurs.  Lemur by Mathias Appel, auf FlickrThere are also red ruffed lemurs, an entirely different species.  Lemur by Mathias Appel, auf FlickrThose live in small family groups, high up in the trees. Ruffed lemurs are actually the biggest known pollinators! They climb onto the traveler's palm, rip open the flowers and reach deep into them to slurp the nectar. The pollen gets stuck to their "beard" and they carry it to the next tree. The working theory right now is that these trees and ruffed lemurs actually co-evolved. Ruffed lemurs are critically endangered though. If they go extinct it is very like that the traveler's palm will go with them... They also like to dangle while eating:  Red-Ruffed Lemur by Mathias Appel, auf FlickrAnother common species in zoos are crowned lemurs. These actually show sexual demorphism, females and males look different. Femals are mostly grey:  Crowned Lemur (female) by Mathias Appel, auf FlickrAnd the males have orange and brown fur:  Lemur by Mathias Appel, auf FlickrLemurs are the most endangered group of mammals. Of the ~113 known species 90% are endangered. Many of them critically. For example, from 2003 to 2016 the population of ring-tailed lemurs dropped from between 200.000 to 700.000 individuals in the wild (700.000 was known to be a VERY optimistic guess, the truth is probably closer to 200.000) to just about 2.500 indiciduals in the wild! The main causes are deforestation (as always...) and the illegal pet trade. There are many conservation networks that try to protect lemurs. Like the Lemur Conservation Network, the Lemur Conservation Foundation and Lemur Love Inc. The last one is a small non-profit organization with the goal of protecting them through research projects aimed at finding trafficing hot spots. They regularly travel to Madagascar to collect lemur poop! They extract the DNA of the lemurs with the goal of creating a genetic map of Madagascar. So when they find a lemur that is being kept as a pet they can find out where it came from through a DNA sample and then station rangers there to prevent further wildlife trafficing! It's a pretty ingenious idea if you ask me! In zoos here in Europe it is pretty common to see free raning enclosures for lemurs. They just run around among the visitors! They are incredibly curious but they usually aren't capable of opening zippers or bags like other primate species. They are also very friendly towards visitors. Most of the time you have them sitting on your stuff:  Ring-Tailed Lemur by Mathias Appel, auf FlickrIf you are very calm and if they are in the right mood they might decide to hang out with you. Or on you.  Lemurs aren't pets though! Critically endangered animals should never be kept as pets. Well coordinated breeding programs like those of the EEP (European Endangered Species Programme) are needed to help these species. They are really smelly, too. So not pet material. Just ask this guy! Are you smelly?  Ring-Tailed Lemur by Mathias Appel, auf Flickr"Sure am!"  Ring-Tailed Lemur by Mathias Appel, auf FlickrIf you haven't noticed yet, the males also have really big balls that will make you feel inadequate. And the females get really big and droopy vaginas that look like a penis when they get older. Which is actually pretty interesting because this tricks the males into not trying to mate with them. That way old female ring-tails can focus on helping the younger ones with raising their young. Nature sure is smart! And kinda gross. All of the photos in here are mine. If you want to see more, here is a link to my lemur album on Flickr: https://flic.kr/s/aHsk5imsno Mattis fucked around with this message at 19:46 on Jul 7, 2018 |
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Jul 7, 2018 19:43
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I love lemurs. I didn't realise they were all only on Madagascar though!
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Jul 8, 2018 01:37
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I didn't know I had a favorite lemur until I read about the red-ruffed lemur
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Jul 8, 2018 12:48
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Yes, they are endemic to Madagascar. There are also common brown lemurs on the little island of Mayotte near the north of Madagascar but it is most likely that they were brought there by man. Red ruffed lemurs are amazing! The way they jump through the trees is really cool to watch  I took a video of some red ruffeds in a tree with their babies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxmrCpFHEtU When they are little they are just too drat cute... By the way, many zoos do allow direct contact with them. You are obviously not allowed to just grab them or to run after them. But if they choose to come to you on their own (and ONLY then) no one is gonna complain if you touch them a little bit. Ruffed lemurs can actually be pretty cuddly if they are used to visitors and if you know the right spots (under the arms because they have scent glands there and behind the ears for example). Naturally this still depends on the zoo though! Many of them are part of breeding programs with the goal of putting them back into the wild. The zoo I always visit has a pretty relaxed and super friendly group of ring-tailed lemurs. Above is the phot of one of them sitting on my knee, but this happens when they get really curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAVqB5YoeB0 And I actually befriended their black and white ruffed lemurs. They have two 22 years old females who come running to me when they see me in the morning and they actually started grooming me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4spHh24C1s This is Athene. The lemur in my avatar is Andora. At first I thought they are after the salt because thanks to my dad's side of the family I sweat a lot... But lemurs also have a tooth comb. A highly specialized set of incisors. They are long, thin and angled to the front. Lemurs use them to groom themselves and each other. In the video at around 25 seconds you can see how she is using the tooth comb to clean my eyebrows. And Andora always tries to get off the mole over my right eye... She grabs my face and gets frustrated because she can't get it off. She must think that I'm the most dirty lemur ever  And Athene can be super cuddly, often just lying on my lap like this:  She is very nervous because she had a stroke due to a lot of stress while she had an ear infection. She is afraid of the wind, birds and easily gets spooked by sudden movements. One day she started to get closer to me, she seems to trust me a lot I never fed them or baited them in any way. I just sat down, stayed calm and they started to come closer. Took about three years to gain their trust like that. Even though they are so friendly they are still not pet material though. They pee everywhere, they mark everything with their scent, they can be a little destructive and Athene always tries to steal my headphones. I love them and they are my little buddies but I am perfectly fine with just visiting on the weekends :P
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Jul 12, 2018 18:56
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Excellent post. I am now much more aware of lemurs and I am a better person for it!
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Jul 13, 2018 12:33
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Wroughtirony posted:Excellent post. I am now much more aware of lemurs and I am a better person for it! Absolutely. Lemurs make everything better. But then sometimes they take a dump on it because they can be little monsters And they do not mess around! "Come at me!"  MAP_3734 by Mathias Appel, auf Flickr"Who you lookin at?!"  MAP_3546 by Mathias Appel, auf Flickr MAP_3546-2 by Mathias Appel, auf FlickrI think the best thing about lemurs is that their relaxed attitude rubs off on you. When you just sit there and when they are being calm and a little curious it's just so very relaxing. Well, most relaxing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jitrLrcX4aA Ruffed lemurs are among the loudest primates so occasionally it can go from relaxed to children fleeing in panic! Which is also amazing! One time there was a a young married couple with their daughter who looked really nervous. Andora was sitting on my lap and they told me that their daughter is scared of dogs. With their long nose ruffed lemurs do kind of look like doggos so I can understand why she was sketched out by them. When I noticed that Andora was starting to get a little twitchy I knew that she was gonna start screaming but right as I tried to warn them they both started to scream at full volume! Their daughter was absolutely terrified and booked it, her mother running after her. It was amazing, her face was a mix of pain and absolute terror!
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Jul 13, 2018 20:24
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I'm a biologist and I knew nothing about lemurs. Your photos are amazing. I sat in a lemur-stare induced trance before my academic curiosity kicked in and I started reading the Wikipedia Article.dear god help us posted:Until shortly after humans arrived on the island around 2,000 years ago, there were lemurs as large as a male gorilla.
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Jul 14, 2018 09:49
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lizard_phunk posted:I'm a biologist and I knew nothing about lemurs. Your photos are amazing. I sat in a lemur-stare induced trance before my academic curiosity kicked in and I started reading the Wikipedia Article. Thank you! Those must have been amazing! I wonder if they were friendly... Although friendly is probably the wrong word. Ring-tailed lemurs are the most opportunistic animals I have ever met. They just take advantage of people When they had two juveniles at the zoo I always visit they sat on my lap all the time to have the high ground against their ruffed lemurs. When they got too close they started squeaking and waving at them to shoo them away. And one time one of them tried to hide behind me when the ruffed lemurs started screaming XD One of the most interesting things I have learned about them is that they have two tongues.  Lemur by Mathias Appel, auf FlickrThe white bit sticking out under this red-bellied lemur's tongue is the sublingua. A rudimentary second tongue they use to clean their tooth comb!
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Jul 19, 2018 19:43
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Mattis posted:By the way, many zoos do allow direct contact with them. You are obviously not allowed to just grab them or to run after them. But if they choose to come to you on their own (and ONLY then) no one is gonna complain if you touch them a little bit. The Nagasaki Bio Park has a free-range lemur exhibit where you can buy food out of vending machines to feed the lemurs (as well as monkeys, capybaras, kangaroos, and a bunch of other animals): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKoGkI2kA78 I've been thinking about going to Japan eventually, but the problem is that almost everything else I'm interested in (Akihabara, Tokyo Disneyland, unique arcade games and vending machines, pachinko, animal cafes, Robot Restaurant, other robot-related stuff) is in Tokyo.
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Jul 23, 2018 01:11
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Cockmaster posted:The Nagasaki Bio Park has a free-range lemur exhibit where you can buy food out of vending machines to feed the lemurs (as well as monkeys, capybaras, kangaroos, and a bunch of other animals): I'm not a fan of parks that allow you to feed their animals. It invites morons to feed them with other stuff the animals aren't supposed to eat. I see that argument a lot. "If people feed them when they aren't supposed to just allow feeding with food that is being sold in the facility!" It doesn't work that way. Why pay for food for animals when you have perfectly fine gummy bears in your pocket? You don't feed animals in zoos. Period. It is much more rewarding when they come to you on their own 
Mattis fucked around with this message at 14:37 on Jul 25, 2018 |
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Jul 23, 2018 15:52
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Some people have really weird looking kids.   
Mattis fucked around with this message at 19:43 on Jul 23, 2018 |
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Jul 23, 2018 18:33
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yay lemurs! long story short, I just went on holidays in Madagascar and lemurs were one of the reasonos! here are some pictures i took: greetings if you can tell me what species they are!       
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Aug 26, 2018 11:15
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Mattis posted:By the way, many zoos do allow direct contact with them. You are obviously not allowed to just grab them or to run after them. But if they choose to come to you on their own (and ONLY then) no one is gonna complain if you touch them a little bit. Are there any good zoos for that in Germany, ideally in or near Munich? Edit: Or Karlsruhe? Cockmaster fucked around with this message at 03:42 on Sep 3, 2018 |
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Sep 1, 2018 04:11
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Cockmaster posted:Are there any good zoos for that in Germany, ideally in or near Munich? Sorry for the late reply, I wasn't home much and didn't have time to post! I actually talked to someone from Munich recently and they didn't know any zoos where they have enclosures like that. No idea about Karlsruhe. I'd suggest you just look at the websites of the zoos around you, usually they show on their sites that they have walkthrough enclosures like that. Almost every bigger city here in Germany has a zoo and all of those have a website. Also, what on earth is this nut?!  Lemur by Mathias Appel, auf Flickr
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Sep 17, 2018 19:07
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Crowned lemur baby photos! Lemur by Mathias Appel, auf Flickr Lemur by Mathias Appel, auf Flickr Lemur by Mathias Appel, auf FlickrHer dad  Lemur by Mathias Appel, auf FlickrAnd her mom  Lemur by Mathias Appel, auf FlickrNever tell a male crowned lemur he looks like his mom.
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Sep 17, 2018 20:02
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Mattis posted:Also, what on earth is this nut?!
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Sep 18, 2018 04:19
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Ring tail lemurs are my favorite animal. Two zoos near me do open lemur enclosures. I haven’t gone yet though, maybe I am afraid I will cry if they don’t like me. I just love how they sit on their fat butts.
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Sep 29, 2018 02:53
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skoolmunkee posted:Ring tail lemurs are my favorite animal. Two zoos near me do open lemur enclosures. I haven’t gone yet though, maybe I am afraid I will cry if they don’t like me. You should go. They are just too awesome Put down your bag (preferably one they can't open) and they will come to look at it.Visit them regularly and they may just come closer to you on their own, if the zoo's staff allows it. Most of them do these days, lemurs are curious so just let them be curious. Just be sure to ask the staff before you do something that might not be allowed. Also, mating season is in full swing in the nothern hemisphere right now. That's always fun because that's the time when they are the most active  What? (Ring-tailed lemur) by Mathias Appel, auf Flickr
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Oct 7, 2018 20:37
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