EASTER is a time for sweet things and they don’t come much sweeter than a pair of baby lemurs born over the weekend at the award-winning Yorkshire Wildlife Park.
The cute ring-tailed lemur twins made their surprise arrival on Good Friday to proud parents Humbug and Tink, and will be a new rare treat for visitors to the wildlife walkthrough park.
The pair - yet to be named - have already been exploring their new home, clinging tight to Humbug as she jumps through the trees at their interactive Lemur Woods reserve.
“The babies are doing well and Humbug is an experienced mum, having had many babies over the years at the park,” said Simon Marsh, animal manager of YWP. “The babies cling on to their mum while she moves around and even jumps through the trees so it is quite an adventurous start to life.
“We weren’t expecting the Easter arrival but they are very active and curious and will soon be up to mischief around the reserve.”
Ring-tail lemurs are endangered in the wilds of their native Madagascar and their arrival comes just days after the park, at Branton, near Doncaster, welcomed two rare Red-Bellied Lemurs to join the established troop of 15 ring-tail lemurs among the trees in the one-acre woods.
“It’s always very lively at Lemur Woods and now there is even more action than usual,” added Mr Marsh. “I’m sure the new lemurs will be a big hit with the visitors and their arrival is a great Easter present for everyone.”
The YWP Foundation supports lemur conservation projects, through the AEECL (Association Europeenne pour l’Etude et la Conservation des Lemuriens) in Madagascar, such as a £15,000 three-year grant to establish and run a protected reserve in the north-west of the country for blue-eyed black lemurs whose numbers in the wild have been reduced to less than 1,000 by slash-and-burn agriculture and hunting.
The project, run by a consortium of European zoos and universities, carries out a range of work including educating local communities, developing eco-tourism and promoting research and studies of the animals in the wild.
