The Duke Lemur Center introduced three of their newest baby lemurs to the public Thursday morning.
On May 19, a fat-tailed dwarf lemur named Java Chicken gave birth to three healthy infant lemurs: two boys named Sora and Cooper and one girl named Swift.
The DLC said all fat-tailed dwarf lemurs born at the center are named after birds.
Sora shares his name with a small waterbird. Cooper is named after a bird of prey, the Cooper’s hawk. Swift shares her name not just with pop superstar Taylor, but also a migratory bird that spends most of its life airborne. All three namesake birds are native to North America.
All dwarf lemurs at the DLC are provided with a wide variety of nest boxes, including PVC tubes, wooden boxes and suspended enrichment boxes—all suitable for sleeping and raising young.
Mothers give birth in the nest boxes and generally will keep their infants hidden inside these shelters. If they need to move their offspring, they do so by carrying them in their mouths. Dwarf lemur offspring of up to three weeks of age are transported by their mother in this fashion.
Java Chicken built her nest out of a recycled Coke box, filled with fresh plants provided by her keepers.
The DLC said if you symbolically adopt fat-tailed dwarf lemur Raven through their Adopt a Lemur program, you’ll be excited to learn that these are her newest grand-lemurs!
Learn more about how you can support the care and conservation of lemurs through the DLC’s symbolic adoption program at lemur.duke.edu/adopt.