Randuwa II

Saturday, October 3, 2020

Lemur Countdown: Black and White Ruffed Lemurs

I'm going to share a dozen species of Lemurs as a count- down to the opening of the Brandy- wine Zoo's new Lemur Habitat in Wilming- ton, Delaware.

Begin with the Black & White Ruffed Lemur. One of the most common species found in zoo's throughout the United States. It's is also critically endangered in the Wild. between 1997 and 2001 an attempt to reintroduce animals into the wild failed. It is incredibly important to maintain a genetically diverse, viable, and vital captive colony in the hopes that conservation in Madagascar will turn a corner and become more robust in order to provide a platform from which to successfully reintroduce these unique animals back into the natural habitats.

Chances are good you've probably encountered them if you visited any of these zoos.

National Arboretum, part two

From the meadow trails, we drove on over to the Asian Gardens area and were delighted to see that it was open! We spent our time in the Japanese Woodlands and Chinese Valley. By now, Romeo was "shooting blanks" but still wanted to pretend pee on everything. I was still keen on finding flowers. At one point we traipsed down the switchback walkway to the flood plain along the Anacostia River. Romeo was eager to see everything, although the hike back up the ridge from the river was an effort at times. He's such a good boy.

Hey, Romeo! Are you up for the walk down to the river? He says, "Let's Go!"

THE ANACOSTIA RIVER

Someone did NOT like that the little dock is a floating "moving!" dock...

National Arboretum, part one

Took Romeo for a romp at the National Arboretum today. We began at the area of the 50 State Trees. Normally we would have used this as a starting point for a walk down and up Fern Banks, but alas, Fern Banks is not open to the public... So we did the road next to it and then the adjacent meadow, looking for flowers and opportunities to pee on things! We each have our interests.