About gentle lemurs

Hi everybody!

In my last blog I told you more about 5 of our 6 lemur species at Durrell, so now it is finally time to introduce the Alaotran gentle lemurs to you!

Alaotran gentle lemurs belong to the taxonomic genus Hapalemur, within the family Lemuridae. There are five different species and three subspecies of hapalemur. Most of them mainly eat bamboo in the wild, hence their common name ‘bamboo lemurs’. Our Alaotran ones however don’t live in bamboo forests and don’t eat this in the wild, so that’s why I’ll refer to them as gentle lemurs. Gentle lemurs are small, round-shaped brown lemurs with a short muzzle and furry ears. They live only around the papyrus and reed beds of Lake Alaotra, the largest lake in Madagascar. Living in reed beds basically means that they never go on the ground, because they live above water! They have no problems with this, their enormously strong hands and feet are perfectly adapted to cling on to the vegetation they live in.

A wild gentle lemur in the reed beds around Lac Alaotra
(photo L. Woolaver )

Gentle lemurs live in family groups of up to 12 members and travel around to find the best food items, such as fresh shoots. Each group lives in a territory and when they meet another family they’ll do anything to chase them off. In the wild, young gentle lemurs are born between September and February. They are being carried on the back and after a couple of weeks the mum starts ‘parking’ them. She’ll place the youngster in dense vegetation, goes out to feed and then picks it up later. 

Unfortunately, the threats to this amazing species are incredibly big. Madagascar's human population keeps growing and of course, everybody needs to eat. In a country that has very infertile soil, a place like Lake Alaotra where rice can grow, is a bit like a nice cake; everybody wants a slice. However, if the reed beds around the lake are being burnt down at the current unsustainable rate, erosion will cause the lake to get more and more shallow and the whole habitat will disappear. This would mean no home for the lemurs and the birds that inhabit the lake and its surroundings.

Durrell has been working in Madagascar for over 30 years. This means that, even though we are a small organisation, we can make an impact because people trust and respect the organisation. 

In my job, I look after 8 of these amazing gentle lemurs and dream of the day that they will no long be endangered. By telling people about the problems in Madagascar and the threats the lemurs face, I hope that I'll inspire at least one person to do something good for the planet, because everybody can be a conservationist!