PRESS RELEASE For immediate release | September 14, 2015 Media contact: Gigi Allianic, Alissa Wolken 206.548.2550 | woodlandparkzoopr@zoo.org
Woodland Park Zoo shows some lemur love Zoo celebrates popular primates with contest and special events
WHAT: Woodland Park Zoo celebrates their leaping lemur species with a two- week contest culminating in a day with special keeper talks. The contest will run from Monday, September 14 to Sunday, September 27 and will give one lucky winner the opportunity to enjoy an up close encounter for four with the ring-tailed lemurs. The contest will be topped off with a day of keeper talks on Saturday, September 26 for all lemur lovers. The day will highlight the two lemur species currently living at the zoo, ring-tailed and red ruffed lemurs.
WHEN: Lemur Love contest: Monday, September 14 to Sunday, September 27
Lemur keeper talks: Saturday, September 26 Ring-tailed lemurs: 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Red ruffed lemurs: Noon and 3:00 p.m.
Contest winner announcement: Week of September 28
WHERE: Enter Woodland Park Zoo through the West Entrance at Phinney Ave. N. between N. 55th & N. 56th Sts. or the South Entrance at N. 50th St. & Fremont Ave N.
INFO: Woodland Park Zoo is celebrating its two lemur species with a contest and day of keeper talks. The talks will feature both lemur species living at the zoo, ring-tailed lemurs and red ruffed lemurs. Visitors can enter to win an up close encounter for four with the ring-tailed lemurs by filling out a Lemur Love contest entry form, available at the zoo’s West Entrance and South Entrance, and turning them into either ZooStore between Monday, September 14 and Sunday, September 27.
Woodland Park Zoo recently welcomed ring-tailed lemurs back for the first time in nearly 20 years. The all-male family, Reese, 8, and his four sons, Cash, 2, Tamole and Tahiry, 1, and Bucky, 11 months old, was introduced to their exhibit in the zoo’s award-winning Tropical Rain Forest exhibit this summer.
Ring-tailed lemurs belong to a group of primates called prosimians. They inhabit the African island of Madagascar and some tiny neighboring islands where they can be found in thinly wooded regions or in treeless, dry rocky country. These lemurs measure up to 40 inches long and have about a 20-inch body and a 20-inch tail. They
are unmistakable with their long, distinctly striped, black-and-white tail.
Ring-tailed lemurs are very mobile animals that walk on all fours and jump effortlessly using their long tails for balance. They also spend a lot of time on the ground, an unusual behavior among lemur species, sunning themselves and sitting in such a way that maximizes the exposure of the white fur on their belly, which reflects the heat of the sun.
The new ring-tailed family lives next door to the zoo’s other lemur species, the red ruffed lemurs. Red ruffed lemurs are the largest members of the Lemuridae; both sexes average 43-47 inches in length including a bushy, 22-25 inch tail. Adult males weigh 7-10 pounds. Females are usually heavier. Slender bodied and long legged, red ruffed lemurs have a narrow, foxlike snout and small ears that are hidden by a ruff of hair. The soft, woolly body fur is a deep rusty red while their extremities, forehead, crown, belly and tail are black. Red ruffed lemurs lack extensive digit coordination, so they groom themselves and each other with their teeth. Red ruffed lemurs have scent glands on their rump used for group identification. They also have acute senses of smell, vision and hearing.
Red ruffed lemurs are considered critically endangered and scientists estimate that only 1,000 to 10,000 red ruffed lemurs remain in the wild. Because the red ruffed lemur has a small geographic range and low numbers of wild specimens, it is one of the most endangered of the lemur species. Ring-tailed lemurs are endangered, largely because the sparse, dry forests they love are quickly vanishing. Both ring-tailed and red ruffed lemurs live on the African island nation of Madagascar. Woodland Park Zoo supports a conservation project that protects biodiversity in Madagascar through the Wildlife Survival Fund.
To learn more about Woodland Park Zoo and their conservation efforts, visit www.zoo.org.
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