CINCINNATI – Love is really in the air at the Cincinnati Zoo.
Zookeepers announced even more baby animals Tuesday, this time in the form of lemur pups.
The zoo’s two female ring-tailed lemurs, who arrived in Cincinnati last year as part of a breeding program, gave birth within days of each other this week. Izze, 5, gave birth to a single pup on Friday afternoon. Willow, 3, produced twins late Monday.
Both lemurs are first-time moms and are doing a great job with their babies, zoo officials said.
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“I was excited to hear about the newborn ring-tailed lemur,” said Bob Lessnau, who spent years working with this species in the field before coming to Cincinnati to head up the zoo’s animal division. “The stability of ring-tailed lemur populations in zoos is crucial as wild populations endure dire straits.”
Once a threatened species, ring-tailed lemurs are now classified as endangered and numbers are declining, according to the zoo.
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Although widely distributed throughout the forests of southern and southwestern Madagascar, the charismatic creatures exist in only a few protected areas. They are the most easily recognizable lemur and the species most commonly encountered in zoos.
