Rare lemurs come to San Francisco

  • 2016-08-23
The Primate Center at the San Francisco Zoo gained new residents last Friday, August 19, when an exhibit featuring two sifaka lemurs opened.

However, before the habitat was revealed, zoo officials had to take precautions, since this species of lemur is able to leap as high as 30 feet.

Thanks to their extraordinary agility, they could not be put in with other lemurs in the existing exhibits, but had to have a special enclosure built for them. The space gives them freedom to run and jump, and it also allows visitors to watch their distinctive walk.

The sifaka lemurs walk by bouncing along, a method referred to as ‘beatling’. Joe Knobbe, the zoo’s Director of Primates, described the walk as both ‘comical’ and ‘graceful’.

The San Francisco Zoo is only the 10th zoo to house lemurs, which are natives of Madagascar. They are also the most critically endangered species in the world, according to an article on the LiveScience website. The article reported on a workshop held in 2012 in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, which found that of the 103 known species of lemurs, 91% are threatened, with 23 of the species labeled as ‘critically endangered’.

The two lemurs who just took up residence in San Francisco are a breeding pair, so the zoo could have a baby lemur in the future.

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