With this lovely video, I will say farewell to 2014 and welcome to 2015. Also best wishes for a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous year for all our Forum and Gabfest friends as well as all our feathered friends, especially EJ and Odin and their 2015 family.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rtajxo8d7js
COUNTDOWN FOR EJ'S RETURN TO LOCH GARTEN NEST
66 days till Wed March 25th
A tiny wee creature from an email
Aww, how sweet! Is that fully grown?
Birdie's DU Summaries 2018 https://www.imagicat.com/
SheilaFE, what you see is what you get. :) I have no information about the photograph, but my guess is that it is a baby something. If we knew what it is, we'd have a better idea as to its age or stage of life. The striped tail and sharp claws are good clues. Lemur comes to my mind. .
My curiosity now aroused, I went to my trusty Wikipedia. Seems my instincts were correct when "lemur" kept coming to me.
The Wikipedia article is quite extensive, giving more detailed info than I wanted to know.. If anyone else is interested, the article can be found HERE.
A quick scan revealed a couple of interesting facts.
"Many lemur species are threatened with extinction due to habitat loss and hunting. Although local traditions generally help protect lemurs and their forests, illegal logging, widespread poverty, and political instability hinder and undermine conservation efforts. Because of these threats and their declining numbers, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) considers lemurs to be the world's most endangered mammals, noting that—as of 2013—up to 90% of all lemur species face extinction within the next 20 to 25 years"
"Lemurs vary greatly in size. They include the smallest primates in the world and, until recently, also included some of the largest. They currently range in size from about 30 g (1.1 oz) for Madame Berthe's mouse lemur up to 7–9 kg (15–20 lb) for the indri and diademed sifaka When recently extinct species are considered, the size range extended up to that of a gorilla at 160–200 kg (350–440 lb) ."
65 days till Wed March 25th
My small local zoo does a lot of conservation breeding and exchanges with other international zoos. One of their specialties is lemur and they have quite a range in size, but none the size of gorilla! They are highly endangered. There is a success story here.
SheilaFE, Congratulations on having a GOOD zoo near you. I am quite proud of our Cincinnati Zoo for the good work they do with the wild species of the animals of this earth. Now I am wondering if they have any lemurs and if I can find this info.
You will note in the above Wikipedia article that the gorilla size lemur is now extinct, the largest current size being 20 lbs.
It seems that Cincinnati Zoo does have several species of lemurs and two successful births. Here are some pictures and a link to this article.
SheilaFE I expect our zoos are in communication, sharing notes and techniques for preserving this wonderful animal.
More pictures all from the Cincinnati Zoo pages. The ring-tailed lemur is 15-18 inches, 5-8 lbs.