New Zealand zoo more than doubles its population of endangered lemurs

 A ring-tailed lemur sits on a fallen tree branch at the Berenty Reserve in Toliara province, Madagascar, February 11, 2022. Picture taken February 11, 2022. REUTERS FILE PHOTO

WELLINGTON — New Zealand’s Wellington Zoo has more than doubled its population of endangered ring-tailed lemurs after its four females gave birth to twins, the zoo’s primate manager said on Tuesday.

Ring-tailed lemurs, endemic to Madagascar, are on the endangered list. Wellington Zoo has only had ring-tailed lemurs for 18 months and got Zeus, their male, at the beginning of 2022 with the hope they might be able to add to their population.

Primate manager Lisa Ridley said given all four adult female lemurs were first-time mums, they were not sure whether they’d have success with breeding them.

“We’re very, very excited that we’ve had four sets of healthy twins and they’re doing well,” she said.

The first set of twins was born in August and the final set was born last week.

The population of ring-tailed lemurs, made famous by King Julien in the 2005 movie “Madagascar”, is declining in the wild. One of the challenges is female ring-tailed lemurs are only sexually receptive for one or two days a year.

“The window is literally 24 to 36 hours – that was all the time our male had to do his job,” said Ridley. “Zeus is a really, really nice male. He’s laid back. He is very respectful of the females and he understands his position within the mob.”

Ridley said the zoo was not sure of the sex of the young lemurs as they try not to interfere with them until they are older.

Once they mature, any new males and Zeus would likely be separated to create a bachelor group, as would naturally occur in the wild.

Zeus would be used for breeding for a few more years before being replaced to prevent the genetic pool from becoming too small, Ridley said.

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