NEW PROGRAMS Duke’s research | conservation | education Alternate Winter 2013 COME LEARN WITH US! Mascot: Inside the The Duke Lemur Center is excited to introduce Mind of the two new programs to our Education Depart- Lemur ment. This winter and spring join us for our By Joel Bray, Duke student “Prosimians for Preschoolers” early childhood programs featuring two exciting parent- guided How do lemurs see the world? It’s a question I ask as classes, Lemur Play! and Junior Observers. an undergraduate researcher in a cognitive psychology These classes are designed for those little lemur lab at Duke, but I have also had the opportunity to do enthusiasts between the ages of three and five. so from a second, more unusual perspective. To find out more about the classes please visit our website (http://lemur.duke.edu/tours/ My first year at Duke, I tented with the Cameron prosimians-for-preschoolers/ ). If you would Crazies and, when given the opportunity, enthusiasti- like to ensure a space for your child, please call cally donned a Coquerel’s sifaka suit at the Duke vs. 919-401-7240. UNC basketball game. It was a hit and spawned a series of appearances on campus over the following We will also kick off our new summer camp years. The journey of that lemur culminated last spring, program this summer, July 15-19 and August when I was part of Tent #1 in Krzyzewskiville. With 5-9! This camp will be geared for upcoming 5th my group’s blessing, the lemur stood front and center to 8th graders. More details will be posted on for all of Cameron Indoor Stadium to see. An unusual our website, e-letter and social media accounts sight, even famed sportscaster Dick Vitale came over to over the next month. Please stay tuned! greet the Lemur. After the game, however, it was de- cided to let the sifaka end its career on a high note and lemur.duke.edu Lemur Play! pass into retirement. January: 9, 16, 23, 30 ink. soy with and free chlorine processed paper, recycled pcw 100% using printed was publication This February: 6, 13, 20, 27 In its place came Maky, the Lemur Center’s new mas- Designs Hilliker by Design • Photographer & Editor Haring, David March: 6, 13, 20, 27 cot, a ring-tailed lemur. With a soft coat and bold stare, Duration: 9:00- 10:15 Maky has left giant lemur-sized footprints all over Cost: $25/per child (Chaperone free). campus. After making appearances at Duke’s activities Second child $20 fair and an early-season football game, I was asked by Location: Lemur Landing classroom/ a member of the team to support them at their match DLC campus against UNC. Duke wanted to go “bowling” and Class Size: 8 children needed Maky by their side. Junior Explorers Arriving just past the half, I was ushered to the front of January: 11, 18, 25 the stands to repeated chants of “LEMUR!” In addi- February: 1, 8, 15, 22 tion to several appearances on the stadium’s jumbotron, March: 1 8, 15, 22, 29 Duke’s official Blue Devil mascot paid Maky a visit Duration: 11:00-12:15 to cheer the team to its stunning, last-minute victory Fee: $25/per child (Chaperone free). over the Tar Heels. In the post-game rush of the field, Second child $20 Maky was mobbed by enthusiastic, lemur-loving fans. Location: Lemur Landing classroom/ A father asked Maky to hold his newborn child for a DLC campus photo-op, and one student remarked that Maky should Class Size: 8 children be the new school mascot. Durham, NC 27705 NC Durham, I wouldn’t want to step on another primate’s toes, but Road Erwin 3705 I’m honored by the request. The reception from stu- Center Lemur Duke dents and the Duke community has been wonderful, University Duke and I look forward to running around campus in my red-ruffed final semester. Let’s Go Duke! 3911919-693600 VOLUNTEER Mad sifaka SPOTLIGHT About By Niki Barnett Mouse Spencer Ziegler Lemurs How long you have been volunteering They are the world’s smallest may look awfully similar, but different species of at the Center? primates, weighing in at about Microcebus are signaling their species’ identity I’ve worked at the DLC since August, 2012 60 grams and easily fitting into to each other via smell and sound. Hence only the palm of your hand. They are by studying their genes can the tale of their long New What is your favorite part of the DLC? pretty much everywhere in Mada- isolation from each other be revealed. Through What I truly love about volunteering at the gascar, from the north to the south, these studies, there is so much to learn about the Beginnings Center is seeing the fascination on the faces from the east to the west, and they process of speciation, and the many ways that By Andrea Katz, Curator of our young guests as they meet the le- can be found in just about any species boundaries, once formed, are maintained murs. Their engagement and appreciation little scrubby patch of forest that and reinforced by ecology and behavior. It’s an As the year comes to an end, the staff at the DLC provides me with the energy to run the tour. you happen to stroll into. And if exciting time to be a lemur biologist with an ob- is thinking about new beginnings. New infants you happen to make that stroll at session for mouse lemurs! that is! The holiday season brings us sifaka What is your favorite lemur? night with headlamp on, you will infants, and the first, a healthy female, was born My favorite lemur has to be our Aye-aye, see their bright golden eyes twin- But the excitement goes far beyond the arcane just today (19 December) to a 5 year old female Endora. They’re just an evolutionary smor- kling in the bushes as they leap at obsessions of a lemur evolutionary biologist. named Rodelinda. This is Rodelinda’s third gasbord, with this captivating collection of at- lightning speed from tiny branch The biomedical community is also beginning to infant (not many five year old sifaka females tributes thrown together. Whenever I bring a to tiny branch. I have to tell you; sit up and take notice of mouse lemurs, and what can say that), and all have been females! Sifaka tour around, Endora is always hopping around it is one of my favorite sights. these animals can tell us about the aging process. infants are the bright lights of the DLC’s winter, with her surprising agility, drawing oohs and It turns out that mouse lemurs tend to develop and three more pregnant females (Drusilla, 19.5 ahhs from the visitors. I have been in a state of scientific plaques and tangles, just as humans do when in years old; Pia, 13.5 years old; and first time mom The Duke obsession about mouse lemurs the clutches of Alzheimer’s disease. Investiga- Irene, 5.5 years old) will give birth between now Lemur (Microcebus) for nearly 15 years tors from around the world, well aware that all and mid-February. With a total population of Kay Welser Center is so now. When I first began study- DLC research projects are strictly non-harmful, only 55 animals in captive breeding programs (all much fun. I ing lemurs as a group (we won’t are focusing their energies on developing non- owned by the DLC), each infant is a treasure. love seeing say how long ago that was!), the invasive techniques to study the aging process in How long you have been the lemurs scientific world thought that there mouse lemurs. At this point, the mouse lemur Most diurnal lemurs breed in the fall/winter, volunteering at the Center? jump and were only two species of mouse genome has been sequenced to a level of detail play. I think and give birth in the spring. Sifaka (Propithe- I have been volunteering at the DLC since lemurs: a grey form in western that nearly rivals that of the mouse and the hu- they are cus coquereli) are our only diurnals to breed in August 2012 Madagascar, and a reddish form extremely man. Over time, we will be watching our mouse the summer, and with a gestation of close to 5 in eastern Madagascar. Indeed, interesting. lemurs closely, monitoring their health and ½ months, birth season runs from mid-Dec to What do you do? they were thought to be so gen- their aging process, as we also characterize their mid-Feb. An infant weighs about 100 grams at I am a NCSU Zoology graduate who current- eral, and so widespread, that the genomes in fine detail. Ultimately, we hope to birth and clings tightly to its mother from the ly works at Southpoint Animal Hospital. I Duke School IUCN was ready to declare them identify those genes that correlate with healthy moment it’s born. Our technicians and veterinary am a volunteer tour guide and technician fifth grader non-threatened. A lot has changed aging versus those that signal a predisposition for staff monitor each sifaka infant very closely to assistant at the DLC since those days! With a process Alzheimer’s-like symptoms and other signs of be sure it’s thriving, observing nursing behavior beginning in 1994, and rapidly age-related pathologies. And the beauty of it is, and mother-infant interaction, and weighing the What is your favorite part of the DLC? gaining momentum since then, -Rebecca K.