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<< Back Black and White Ruffed Lemurs are extremely difficult to breed in captivity. This fact is compounded even more by the fact that Echo is still a very young and totally inexperienced at motherhood. In the wild and in captivity, young Ruffed Lemurs mothers are notorious for not only abandoning their offspring; but also for delivering still born infants. Fortunately for us this was not the case. Echo not only delivered a healthy 98-gram live baby, but also showed fantastic maternal behaviors. She immediately groomed and nursed the infant and did not leave her nest box for 3 days! Echo barely ate and did not defecate at all during this time. This is typical Ruffed Lemur maternal behavior so Dave and I new she was right on track in her care of the infant. By day 4, the infant gained 20 grams, so we new Echo was lactating properly and that the baby was being properly nourished. This is a very important fact because quite often-1st time mothers (especially young mothers) do not produce enough milk to properly nourish their infants. This was also great news in the fact that David and I did not have to ?PULL? the infant for hand raising. For obvious reasons, pulling infant primates from their mothers is always a last resort. Not only does it require extremely species specific hand rearing procedures and feedings every 2 hours 24/7; but also takes away a vital learning experience for the infant. Especially female infants. Although most female primates possess great maternal instincts, allot of technique and effectiveness is a LEARNED BEHAVIOR. What this means is that a female infant parent raised by their maternal or same species surrogate mother in turn becomes a better mother herself. You will notice that throughout this website in our Chronicles, Educational Videos, and extensive pages of Educational Content, that Dave and I pay close attention to stimulating as many ?Natural Behaviors? of the Sanctuaries residents as possible! The primary ways in which we achieve this is via, LARGE NATUALISTIC, enriching HABITATS, not cages! This combined with proper species specific social structures, a high quality nutritous diet and veterinary care, insures a mentally and physical fit animal. Nothing validates this fact more then successful captive breeding of a species. On this note, I would like the mention that David and I do not strive to captive breed all the animals at the Sanctuary! On the contrary, we try very hard to keep most of the large felines from breeding. The reason for this is twofold. First, the majority the big cats housed at the Sanctuary do not possess valuable genetics to effectively help the SSP (Species Survival Plan) designed to properly help save the tiger from extinction. Secondly, big cats require big habitats, big feed bills and even bigger veterinary bills. The felines housed at the Sanctuary are here to create an interest and desire to protect the remaining animals and wild places in which they live, especially in children and young adults! Ok, back to the baby lemur. It seems I started ?Rambling?, which I am so often accused of doing J! At the time of this writing, we do not know the sex of the infant. As stated above, David and I were thrilled that Echo showed such fantastic maternal behaviors and was producing enough quality milk to properly nourish the infant. For this reason, and to avoid any undue stress to both the infant and mother, we chose to minimize manipulating the baby as much as possible; including a thorough lookski between the hairy legs to establish gender. We will be posting pictures and another ?BABY NAMING CONTEST? on the website soon. Remember to enter only non-gender specific names. The winner will receive a copy of one of the Sanctuaries videos from our ?Educational Video Series?. By the way, congratulations VAL for her creative naming the infant Ring-tail Lemur. Val submitted the name ?Catta?, which is the scientific name for Ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta). Thanks Val! David and I loved it! Many of our really observant visitors have commented that Echo has not been observed in her normal habitat. The reason for this should now be obvious. To maximize the chances of Echo not abandoning her infant, David and I placed her in a smaller private habitat with multiple nesting spots (Remember, Ruffed Lemurs are the only primate to specifically make nests for the purpose of delivering their young) and nesting materials. We also installed a small closed circuit surveillance system and heat pads in the nesting areas. One thing about Ruffed Lemurs is that they are notorious abandoners of their infants if the babies get cold. In some rare cases, the infants can be removed, warmed, and then reintroduced, but this is rarely successful. For this sole reason, we make sure the infant stays at the proper temptur. The observation system let?s us keep an eye out on the progress and development of the infant with out actually having to disturb Echo or the baby. Now I want to make something clear. A few sentences ago I mentioned that we moved Echo into a ?Smaller Habitat?. ?Smaller Habitat?, is a phrase you will almost never hear David and I use in a sentence as a positive thing. In this case however it is! The reason for this is that a ?Smaller Habitat? forces the mother to stay in close proximity to her infant and avoids long wondering behaviors often resulting in her return to a cold infant. So in this rare case, a smaller habitat is a good thing. Just thought I would add that info. Rambling again! Keep an eye out over the next few weeks as we may start slowly
acclimating Echo and her infant back into the group. This process
will most likely start by placing Echo and baby in a ?Howdy
Habitat?. A ?Howdy Habitat? is a habitat set up in close proximity
to another for the purpose of slowly and safely introducing
animals to each other. This is used even with familiar animals
that have been separated from each other for a period of time. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Story by: Jason and David
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