Mongoose Lemur

I have been taking so few photos recently, so am now having to dig into my archives most of the time. The few times I have been out, I have either seen nothing or nothing that I can photograph. Now, there are very urgent things that need to be done, and I must put them first.

The Calgary Zoo has a male and a female Mongoose Lemur, though I don't know if they are actually a "pair". They are to be found in the Transalta Rainforest building. Usually when I see them, they are up in their tree, curled up into a tight ball of fur, but when I spent a few hours at the Zoo on 28 September 2014, this one did occasionally open its amazing eyes. The lighting is far from ideal in this large exhibit, and usually my photos tend to come out a little blurry, though this time, I did a little better. These animals are not in a cage, but in a large "room" that has a pond and is shared with a variety of tropical birds, big and small, all flying freely. Warning - they may be cute but they do bite! Their status is Critically Endangered"

"The Mongoose Lemur (Eulemur mongoz) is a lemur ranging from 12 to 18 inches long plus a tail of 16 to 25 inches. The Mongoose Lemur lives in Madagascar dry deciduous forests within Madagascar as well as in Comoros forests on the islands of Comoros. The Mongoose Lemur mostly eats fruit, though flowers, leaves and nectar also make up part of its diet. It is unusual in that depending on the season it is either diurnal or nocturnal.

The Mongoose Lemur is arboreal and lives in small family groups, usually consisting of a bonded pair and 1 to 4 children. These groups rarely encounter one another, but when they do, they are aggressive." From Wikipedia.

"Mongoose lemurs have soft grey-brown fur with a pale grey muzzle and black nose. The males have reddish-brown cheeks and may have a bald patch on top of their heads, caused by rubbing when scent-marking their territories. Females by contrast, have whitish cheeks." From www.bristolzoo.org.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongoose_lemur