Close encounters with ring-tailed lemurs

Family

8 April 2019

Family

Close encounters with ring-tailed lemurs

To surprise my nephews, with a few clicks I booked a special experience at the Parco Zoo Punta Verde in Lignano Sabbiadoro online: a close encounter with lemurs!

I booked it with Elena, the educator at the educational department of the zoo, who arranged our meeting with these little animals that have become popular thanks to the cartoon Madagascar. She explained to us that nowadays lemurs are a threatened species due to the devastation carried out by man in the forests where they live and that the proceeds of the ticket for this close encounter will be entirely allocated to an association committed to rebuilding these habitats.
After a brief introduction, Elena immediately puts us to work: our task is to prepare their food enrichment, a method that keeps these animals, which live in captivity, active. It involves fruit, particularly appreciated by lemurs, hidden in small branches, which are then left for the lemurs.
We prepare the food enrichment with grapes and pieces of apple. We realise that our presence is noticed by the conspiracy of curious lemurs coming closer towards us at the gate.

We enter and immediately many tails in the shape of a question mark approach us. They are not afraid of us because they are used to the presence of humans and they know that they are going to receive some real delicacies!
After positioning the food enrichments, we sit on some tree trunks resting on the ground. The lemurs immediately start to eat: they climb, do somersaults and eat while looking at us with their yellow eyes... they seem to appreciate our gift.
Some lemurs play, others perch happily close to us and Elena explains all their habits to us. We are lucky enough to see one of these in particular close to us. In a few seconds, the hairy conspiracy of lemurs moves towards a sunny area of the enclosure, where they all comfortably sit with their tails stretched out on the ground.
They are sunbathing: lemurs are used to basking in the sun and sitting in a position that recalls those of yoga. They do this to warm themselves and eliminate moisture from their soft fur, but to us it seems that they are indulging in beneficial meditation after lunch.