Is That Why Lemurs Always Look So Shocked?

A very interesting article, and probably a good thing for the lemur in question--but who wants an endoscopy??

Pediatrician Treats Lemur's Chronic Allergies At National Zoo

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Why Each Year Brings Me Closer to an Apogee of Misanthropic Sentiment

(If there is one.)

The scene: A family (straight-couple parents, three boys) on the zoo path outside the Small-Mammal House on a Saturday morning. A boy of about 11 heads towards the doors of the building.

The father (calling): Hey, I thought you wanted to see the big cats!

[Because god forbid, in a zoo, you see more than one kind of animal.]

The boy ignores his exclamation and continues towards the entrance of the Small-Mammal House.

The father (authoritative, a command): No, Sebastian, we’re not going in there—it’s boring. It’s, like, marsupials.

—Need I say more?

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The Best Holiday Ever

[personality check: which pumpkin was carved by Annie and which by me?]

There’s nothing better than Halloween, a day full of a darkly joyous appreciation of the macabre and chilling! Halloween, a celebration of the end of the year that has evolved from its violent roots—full of symbolic or less-symbolic killings to guarantee a plentiful harvest and the eventual return of the sun—to now require from us no more significant a sacrifice than our tooth enamel as we gnaw our way through bags of candy corn and “fun size” Snickers bars.

And speaking of gnawing, below are some photos (taken last year but different from the ones I posted last year) of the zoo’s lemurs discovering and enjoying their “enrichment” items of pumpkins and jack-o’-lanterns:

#1 [red-fronted brown lemur:] Inspection:

...Followed by scent-marking:

#2 [ring-tailed lemur:] Introspection:

["whence came this curiously shaped manna?"
--it seems to ask.]

#3: The Discovery, Investigation, and Decision:

Happy Halloween!

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Another Caption Challenge (#2)

[For further information, see this post]

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The DC Conversation

A good friend of mine who’s lived in DC for a couple of years now told me that, inevitably, three topics come up in a true DC conversation: IKEA, the Peace Corps, and yoga.

I was unable to find wildlife photos that would illustrate all three, but in honor of the favorite themes of the District I am posting a photo of lemur yoga:

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Oscar, Oscar, Oscar

The Academy Awards are on tonight, and to celebrate I thought I’d post photos in honor of some of the nominees:

Winter’s Bone:


The Fighter:


(The flamingo in the lower-right corner is Amy Adams.)

The Kids Are All Right:



127 Hours:


(If Aron Ralston had been a starfish like this one, he wouldn’t have worried so much about having to lose an arm—not just because he’d still have so many more, but because the arm would regenerate, as would a new body from the severed arm.)

The Social Network:


Who needs Facebook when you're in each other's faces?

True Grit (or at least true dirt):


...this lion cub has just seen Inception:


…And finally, a movie that wasn’t nominated but should have been, Get Low:


There’s a certain resemblance to Robert Duvall, wouldn’t you say?

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Battle of the Charismatic Macrofauna

“Charismatic macrofauna,” as some of you may remember, is the term used by biologists (at least, the ones I spend time with) to describe those species of animals that are large (or larger than the majority of animal life on the planet, such as insects, parasites, krill, etc.) and considered cute by almost everybody. These species are often used as poster animals for conservation causes, since most people have greater emotional interest in saving an adorable bear than a lichen. –But this is all peripheral to the subject of today’s post.

I happen to have a number of photos of a few species of the zoo’s charismatic macrofauna, and while I will probably post entries about all of these species at some point, I wanted to ask you, my readers, which you’d like to see first.

So, would you prefer a post, with plenty of pictures, about:

Pandas?


Ring-tailed lemurs?


Asian small-clawed otters?


Or red pandas?


(Bear in mind that the quality or cuteness level of these particular pictures does not represent the general cuteness level of the photos I have for each species; in fact, I’m deliberately tantalizing you with my less-than-best images of these guys.)

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A Thousand Words

No, I’m not renouncing prose, but I’m in a less-than-literary mood at the moment, so I thought I’d share a few images that either don’t need narrative or inspire you to imagine your own.

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Happy Halloween!

The zoo knows how to celebrate this most important of holidays, and in the weeks leading up to Halloween, many of the exhibits and enclosures have been enlivened by jack-o-lanterns (unlit, of course, after last year’s incident with the pyromaniac prairie dog). Many animals’ diets have been enlivened by these tasty pumpkin treats, too; in fact, the small-mammal house looked a bit like a Squash Horror Show this week, with jack-o-lanterns lying on their sides, eyes and mouths nibbled on, heads gnawed.

I was lucky enough to reach Lemur Island just as the lemurs discovered their new decorations/taste sensations. First, of course, they had to investigate them, one at a time:


Or all at once:



Then they ate the carved bits out of them:


And then, truly getting into the spirit of the season, the Vampire Lemur returned!


That’s right: no squash is safe from the fangs of this ravenous primate! Mwahahahahaha!!!!

Ahem.

Yes, well. Whether you choose to celebrate by dressing up, giving out candy, re-watching Arsenic and Old Lace, or snarfing up a pumpkin—have a happy Halloween, everyone.

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The Small-Mammal House Revisited

Once I established that the malodorous haze I’d associated with the small-mammal house was an artifact of either winter or my first visit, I’ve visited the exhibit a number of times. In most of these visits my interest has been focused on a few specific species: the elephant shrew, with its impossible nose; the meerkats, because they pose so well; and the small primates, because they look at once so like and unlike us. (And also because the golden lion tamarins have such lovely auburn fur.)

I love the tamarins’ clever hands, agile movements, gorgeous fur, and funny expressive faces reminiscent of Animal from The Muppets.


Within moments they can look wise and pensive,


then cute and curious,


then languid and dreamy as a pre-Raphaelite figure.


I also really like the red-ruffed lemurs’ wide, round green eyes that make them appear perpetually surprised—even shocked—by the world around them.

[Has this lemur heard about the success
of the “Tea Party” candidate
in the Delaware primary?]

But my newest Fascinating Primates are the pale-faced saki monkeys, who look remarkably like my vision of medieval monks (at least, the pale-face males with their suggestion of a tonsure do).


The females, interestingly enough, are not pale-faced. In fact, I took a picture of one without reading its identifying placard and was convinced that it was a member of a different species entirely. I was also kind of convinced that it was really one of the monkey-gods I’d read about in a long-ago children’s book (one that was based extremely loosely on Chinese stories and myths).


There’s something about her look and movements that reminds me of fairy-tale creatures, the ones that eat magic herbs and transform themselves or who give the heroine a walnut out of whose shell bursts a glittering ball-gown.


Although a small part of me feels it’s disrespectful to the animals to create stories about them that are so clearly not about them, most of me is thrilled at the possibilities these muses open up for me in terms of tales of magical women, shaggy-haired and dressed in long hooded robes, who travel the mountains dispensing advice and help in exchange for kind thoughts and exotic fruits.

Since I’m still working on my novel (one unrelated to monkeys of any kind), it’s unlikely that I’ll get past the brainstorming stage with this idea. But I don’t know; these small mammals have turned out to be more inspiring than I thought. Maybe another couple of visits will provide me with the plot for an entire story about these mountain-dwelling monkey-women. (And of course, any suggestions would be appreciated.)

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Leaping Lemurs!

What I like best about lemurs is their capacity to appear scandalized.

And then completely bored:



I don’t know much about their behaviors or personality, since I rarely see them, and when I do, they’re almost always sleeping in the shade of their little huts-on-stilts in their enclosure.

I did see one being active once:


But maybe that was its year’s-worth of energy expenditure, because I haven’t seen anything like it in the months since.

[the end]