The Free Lemur (Photos)
"Admit it. You want to pet me don't you?"
I won't bore you too much with words this post. However, there is a brief but quite informative movie at the end you should most certainly watch. For now, here are some wonderful lemurs and just a few words to go with each. Enjoy.
Lemurs have territories and they don't always like to share those territories. This golden sifaka is wearing a very fashionable radio collar, so scientists can keep track of what territory he and his family are in.
You might like a tasty hamburger, but lemurs are vegetarians. And most of them love fruits most of all. This one is quite literally going out on a limb for some delicious juicy fruit.
And when the fruit is all gone, they simply leap from limb to limb until they find some more.
Look, Mom! That teddy bear's alive!
This brown wooly lemur is a night owl. Well, not an actual owl, but you get the point.
Like most lemurs, the brown wooly lemurs live in a group. Their groups are small though: just mom, pop and the kids.
These indri lemurs are special for lots of reasons. For one thing, instead of long tails, they have stubby thumb-sized tails. For all the other things, play the movie at the bottom of the post.
"Wait! I think I hear humans."
"Where are they?"
4 comments:
HI
Josephine and Heloise collected 22 books in French for you and the kids.
I like the pictures of the lemurs!
Bye
Hi Lemur Watcher!
Halle and Denali are thinking deeply about the movie, "Madagascar," and how it's filled with misinformation about lemurs.
You made Gabe think about what he already knew about the history of Madagascar, the country.
Emma Rose is dying to know what the "long story" is about dirt!
Evan wants to know which fifth grader (Adria or Izzy) would be the same size as the typical indri lemur.
We miss you and love your reading your blog. Keep the movies coming!
- Ms. Kirby's 5th grade
We really enjoyed listening to those noisy lemurs.
Olivia wants to know if the lemurs are endangered.Trish wants to know if the lemurs howl like that all day long. Zak wants to know how monkeys and lemurs are different. Kate wants to know how many different kinds of lemurs live in Madagascar.
Julie wants to know if the lemurs are common, like squirrels are here. Simon wants to know if lemurs live in any other countries.
Alexandra P. wants to know why the indri die when they are captured. Julia wants to know if the lemurs howl at night. Alex S. wants to know where you videotaped the lemurs and if it's far from your house. Pete wants to know if lemurs are related to sloths.
It's rainy and cold here. we'd like to be in Madagascar with you and the lemurs.
Mrs. Schwimmer's fifth graders
Dear Josephine and Heloise,
Thank you so much! The kids will love the books. I can use them to practice French too.
Ms. Schwimmer's Class:
Dear Olivia,
Yes. Lemurs are endangered and many have gone extinct. There use to be some the size of gorillas. Most of their precious forest is being cut down for farms, mines and money.
Dear Trish,
The indri mostly call like that in the mornings, but they can start howling anytime.
Dear Zak,
Lemurs are older than monkeys in the way that monkeys are older than us. Monkeys came from lemurs. Physically, I don't know all the specific differences, but I would say that monkeys are a bit smarter and more social than lemurs. I will try to do some research on this and get back to you. Good question.
Dear Kate,
There are about 60 different species and sub-species of lemurs, but they are still finding new ones. Some are the size of rats, so it is hard to find and identify them.
Dear Julie,
Sorry, you won't find lemurs anywhere else. Like the movie said, monkeys took over stole all the lemurs land and food, so everywhere else in the world the lemurs croaked. And they used to be common here, but you really have to go to national parks or private reserves to see them. Most of their habitat has been destroyed, so they aren't just running around everywhere like squirrels (even though that would be terribly cool).
Dear Alexandra P.,
I don't know all the reasons, but they do not eat well. They don't usually survive even if you move them from one place in the wild to another place in the wild. That is why protected where they live now is so important to making sure they don't become extinct.
Dear Julia,
Nope. Indri sleep and night. Though if they had a bad dream about giant lemur-eating fruit getting their revenge maybe they might wake up screaming.
Dear Alex S.,
It was in several parks near Andasibe. It is about 3 hours east of here. It is an area of mid-altitude rain forest.
Dear Pete,
Believe it or not. Sloths are lemurs are only very, very distant cousins. They are just as related to a bat, so it really isn't that close. You are much more related to a lemur than a sloth is. You and a lemur are both primates at least. Wonderful question though.
Dear Ms. Kirby's Class,
Halle and Denali: I wish I could be there to do a lesson on all the true and false things in the movie "Madagascar".
Gabe: The history of this island is fascinating. It is the oldest island on Earth. It has been separated from a continent longer than any place else. That means the animals have had lots of time to themselves to evolve into all kinds of crazy shapes and colors and such.
Emma Rose: The long story about eating dirt. Well, it all begins with breakfast. Lemurs can't eat bowls of Total cereal in the mornings (what with all the jumping around it just sloshes and splashes everywhere and it's terribly hard to get whole milk out of their fur). So where are they supposed to get there precious vitamins and minerals? Well, the fruit and leaves give them a lot, but not all. Some of the much needed minerals are right there in the dirt. Remember, dirt is decomposed organic material and tiny pieces of rocks. And rocks are made of minerals. Therefore, lemurs eat clumps of dirt.
Evan: Stop being so picky. Let's say Izzy wearing high heels and a cowboy hat.
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