By Catherine Wolf, KWMU
St. Louis, MO –
The Saint Louis Zoo announced Monday the birth of a rare baby lemur. The baby was born February 16 and is on view in the primate's house with its mother. Its species, Coquerel's sifaka, comes from Madagascar and is endangered.
The zoo's primate manager Joe Knobbe says lemur groups have lost a large portion of their habitat and have become separated from each other.
"Even though in some areas the numbers may seem to exist, if animals are isolated from one another then they're not a healthy population because they can't interbreed or intermix."
Knobbe says it took about a year for the lemur's parents to mate.
"This new pair are so compatible. And the father is a particularly playful animal. He loves to interact with the visitors at the glass and so we're all very excited just to see this infant grow up with his or her father as that role model."
Knobbe says zoo keepers won't be able to identify the baby's gender and give it a name until it stops clinging to its mother's stomach and begins riding on her back.
The Saint Louis Zoo is home to seven sifaka lemurs. It is one of eight U.S. zoos to house the species.