The Park said it’s delighted with the births.
Fota Wildlife Park has announced the birth of two black and white ruffed lemur babies.
There are less than 250 black and white ruffed lemurs remaining in the wild today and the species is marked as “critically endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The baby lemurs were born on 6 June after a gestation period of 102 days to mother, Cloud, who is 18 years old and eight-year-old Fota-born dad, Paraic.
The new arrivals also share their island habitat on the main lake at Fota with their older twin brothers, Nimbus and Cumulus, who were born in May last year.
Lead Ranger Teresa Power said that Fota Wildlife Park is delighted with the birth of the two lemurs.
“We are delighted to announce two new black and white ruffed lemur babies, and they seem to get on great with their twin brothers who love playing with them,” Power said.
“At first Cloud was very protective of the new babies, moving them from one nesting area to another as she would do in the wild but in recent weeks they are getting much more active and are beginning to climb trees and jump about by themselves, in fact when the Rangers go across the lake to their island to feed them twice a day, the babies are sometimes discovered sitting in their food dishes which is really cute.”
It’s unknown at this moment whether the babies are male or female and Rangers say it will be a while before they know.
The Black and white lemur is native to Madagascar and are also one of the main lemur species that inhabit the Madagascar Village in Fota Wildlife Park.
The park is now operating a pre-booking on-line system to help comply with social distancing requirements and is open to the public from 9am to 5pm.
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