Big Cat CARE now has lemurs. They got a really nice enclosure built by some companies called 84 Lumber and Triple B Builder and a lot of volunteers. There are five lemurs and they are named Mort, Akisa, Ruth, Rita and K.J. I want to meet K.J. since she has my initials only backward.

According to the website “Lemurs,” (http://www.lemurs.us/basics.html) they said this: “Lemurs are small primates known as “prosimians,” which, roughly translated, means “pre-primates” or “before monkeys.” Native only to the island of Madagascar and the neighboring Comoro Islands, lemurs resemble the oldest ancestors of primates which existed tens of millions of years ago.”

I remember when I was a little kid I liked the movie Dinosaur by Disney and there were lemurs in it. It’s kind of funny to think of lemurs being such an old species. We always thing about how old tortoise, crocodile or shark species are but we don’t always think about mammal species being old.

I just went today (Sunday, 1-29) to Big Cat CARE. My friend Sean and I got to have an encounter at the new exhibit. I wasn’t allowed to actually touch the lemurs but they are allowed to crawl all over me. They didn’t crawl on me because they thought I was extra-nice, or anything. They crawled on me because I was holding pieces of banana. Sometimes when they walk past me I can feel their long tails rub against my face. They were very soft. Their hands and feet are both just like hands for gripping and such which allowed them to climb on top of my mom’s head at one point. I really enjoyed this encounter. It’s sort of a strange mix to have all those big cats and little, fluffy lemurs. I bet the lemurs like their new digs and I bet all the cats are curious about this new smell they are encountering.

My friend Sean really liked this place, too. He said it was neat to be able to see all the personalities of the cats. He also thought the staff at Big Cat CARE were all very cool, too. They knew each cat by name and little stories about each. Heidi and gang at Big Cat CARE all rock!

Big Cat CARE always needs donations so think about giving to them to help support animal education and making sure that these animals retire with dignity.

CARE will be starting a lemur encounter in March. The cost of the encounter will be $50 for 1 hour. CARE will have more details about it soon. Check out their site at http://bigcatcare.org to find out more details.

Also, check out my video of my encounter on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkQ7ADGM1nw