A lovely little ring tailed lemur lady is being cared for by animal care staff at the San Diego Zoo. Born on May 20 mum, Tweena showed strong mothering instincts and held the baby. Unfortunately four days later care staff became concerned as the infant looked weak. It was taken to the zoo’s nursery where it is now being cared for.
Currently the care staff is providing feeds every two hours to the baby who appears to be going well.
Janet Hawes, lead keeper said, “We hope that things will go really well with the baby and as soon as she’s strong enough we will reunite the two, and Tweena will get a chance to raise her own baby.”
Keepers are hopeful that the young lemur will be reunited with its parents soon. Due to the highly sociable nature of lemurs Twenna and dad, Matthew have also moved to the nursery. This means that they will all be able to smell and hear other which should make a re-introduction easier. To help strengthen the bond Twenna is even allowed to lick and groom the baby through the mesh.
Native to Madagascar off the coast of Africa ring tailed lemurs are listed as endangerd by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. They are hunted for food and taken to be pets.
Luckily San Diego Zoo Global supports the Madagascar Fauna group. They are working to conserve plant and animal biodiversity in Madagascar.
Ring tailed lemurs feed upon fruits, leaves flowers, herbs, bark, sap and insects.
The little lemur can be seen in the Children’s zoo nursery at the San Diego Zoo or in the video below.
Photo Credit: San Diego Zoo
