Top Photo: Lemur yard with a visitor (within the circle).
Hearing the lemurs give their alert call, I headed over to the Lemur House to see what was troubling the prosimians (before there were monkeys there were prosimians). Nearly every museum visitor I saw on the way asked me who was making the loud noise and why.
The lemurs were both loudly howling and barking.They were warning everyone or anything within earshot that danger was near. This is usually the result of a nearby predator.
And sure enough, as soon as I walked up to the Lemur Overlook a family who had been watching the lemurs also spotted a gray fox just beyond the lemur yard fence. A few of the lemurs were walking up to the fence tempting the fox who lie just out of reach of the lemurs. Two fences and an electric wire between them.
The foxes frequent this area, not just for the lemur views they get while passing by, but the outside of the fence is part of their established travel routes.
The fox finally retreated into the woods and disappeared from view. The lemurs quieted down after several more barks. Besides the fox and any coyote in the area, local hawks sometimes elicit this kind of response from the lemurs.
The lemurs’ calls can be heard for quite a distance so the next time you’re out on the Explore the Wild and Catch the Wind loop and you hear loud raucous calls coming from, what sounds like, a deep dark jungle, it’s probably coming from the lemurs reacting to a predator, a fox walking by or a hawk flying overhead or landing within the enclosure.
Ranger Greg