Wild kingdom: the secret life of lemurs

September 19, 2003 9:20 PM

Lemurama - chances are you didn't know much about lemurs. I know certainly didn't. Learn lemur lore and more in this fascinating look into the secret lives of these winsome critters. (flash alert! ~ via pya)
posted by madamjujujive (14 comments total)

I knew Joey.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 10:09 PM on September 19, 2003

Yay lemurs! Here are more facts about lemurs. The gorilla-sized Archaeoindris must have been an amazing sight before it went extinct.
posted by homunculus at 10:09 PM on September 19, 2003

Who is this mysterious 'certainly didn't' of whom you speak ?
posted by zeoslap at 10:22 PM on September 19, 2003

Aw yeah...

You know what's really soothing? Saying "lemur" and drawing out the "e".

leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeemur.

I feel better already.
posted by Katemonkey at 10:27 PM on September 19, 2003

Cyril Connolly wrote of two lemurs he owned in The Unquiet Grave and there once was a lemur page online that had the passage. I tried to look it up in my Connolly post, but like so many past, it fires a blank now. I don't like that for so many reasons, but in this case, it's just as well--it's heartbreakingly sad. One dies of pneumonia--Connolly writes that he and his wife didn't realize he was ill and had been scolding ihirn when he coughed. And one took poison bait intended for a rat and climbed a tree and ate it despite thier protests and pleas.

But he also speaks of how delightful and intelligent they are. That sure shows a gulf between his then and our now--it's impossible to think of them as pets now. I did not realize they only come from Madagascar until just now.
posted by y2karl at 10:38 PM on September 19, 2003

Here is a passage from From Ring of Bright Water, by Gavin Maxwell, wherein he speaks of one day in Harrods I found a Ring-Tailed Lemur, lately the property of Cyril Connolly, not even the price of seventy-five pounds could discourage me from my folly.
posted by y2karl at 10:43 PM on September 19, 2003

I love lemurs -- they're best when they're fried and sprinkled with parmesan cheese.

Kidding, kidding! They really are adorable. My daughter has a stuffed animal lemur, and it practically looks alive. Cute as a button.
posted by davidmsc at 10:44 PM on September 19, 2003

John Cleese did a nifty program on lemurs.
posted by lobakgo at 11:51 PM on September 19, 2003

Adopt-a-lemur at the Duke University Primate Lab.
posted by pitchblende at 12:16 AM on September 20, 2003

All I know about lemurs I learned on PBS Kids...

At least I didn't make a wisecrack about dead lemurs...
(Scroll down to the "Crow" section for "You can't swing a dead lemur on Ebay with out hitting one of these." Sometimes, Google is a bitch.)
posted by wendell at 12:16 AM on September 20, 2003

lemurs. i approve of lemurs. they have my full approval of all their endeavours and achievements. i wish them every success and hope they remain extant for as long as the universe. perhaps longer. however if they ever turn against mankind and try to destroy him, i won't approve of that.
posted by mokey at 4:51 AM on September 20, 2003

"....I did not realize they only come from Madagascar until just now." - y2karl: only recently.

FYI, the original inhabitants of Madagascar, were the remnant population - of a vanished ( but once great ) civilization - who fled from the catastrophic destruction of the continent of Lemuria (which marked the end of the Second Age).

If not for this cataclysm, humans would now be living in zoos and cages.
posted by troutfishing at 6:36 AM on September 20, 2003

lemur, lemur, lemur, lemur, lemur, lemur, lemur, lemur! cantaloupe! cantaloupe!
posted by quonsar at 12:39 AM on September 21, 2003

Look out! There are Llamas Lemurs!
posted by dg at 4:36 PM on September 21, 2003