World Lemur Day is celebrated on the last Friday of October. It’s a global call to action to bring together zoological institutions, conservation NGOs, supporting organisations, educators, and the public. Funds raised through World Lemur Day (and the World Lemur Festival) help to save these incredible, unique primates from extinction.
Though World Lemur Day celebrations can come in many forms, it’s very often celebrated within zoos and wildlife parks to promote conservation and teach guests about lemurs and Madagascar. We caught up with staff from three zoos that celebrated last year to talk about their events — Jessica Deville from Audubon Zoo in Louisiana, Allyson Coleman from Brandywine Zoo in Delaware, and Colleen Cavanaugh at the Houston Zoo in Texas.
Want to get involved? Check out our World Lemur Day web page for ideas!
Audubon Zoo in Louisiana
At Audubon Zoo in New Orleans, World Lemur Day was celebrated with an interpretive station set up near their Black and White Ruffed Lemur habitat. On the first day, this stand was visited by over 600 guests, including many school groups.
Use Resources from LCN and other Lemur Conservation Organizations
The Audubon Zoo’s interpretive station included many LCN resources, including the seed dispersal card game, lemur colouring sheets, Top 10 Lemur Facts, and several Ako Project books.
These were displayed alongside information about their resident lemur family, and cool lemur biofacts (including handprints, footprints, and a “bone clone” skull!).
Make it Interactive
The interactive nature of the stand was a big hit! Kids particularly enjoyed the cards and biofacts, and were quick to draw comparisons between a lemur’s features and their own.
The Audubon Zoo’s Guest Engagement Coordinator, Jessica Deville, said:
“There are so many amazing resources out there. You can start small and grow a little bit each year; you can celebrate for the whole week, one day, or one hour – any amount of awareness can make a difference. Even if you only talk to one guest about World Lemur Day, that’s one more person who has now learned about how amazing lemurs are.”
Coordinate with Staff Across the Zoo
Coordination between the animal staff and education staff was also important to the World Lemur Day celebrations, allowing the teams to make the most of their unique skillsets.
While discussing the importance of guest outreach, Jessica referenced a famous quote by Senegalese conservationist Baba Dioum:
“In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we are taught.”
Brandywine Zoo in Delaware
At Brandywine Zoo in Delaware, World Lemur Day is celebrated throughout the last week of October with lemur-themed activities, crafts and keeper talks.
Get Creative with Education Resources
“We had keepers stationed at the Madagascar exhibit and featured lemur trivia, lemur videos and other educational materials,” said keeper Allyson.
“I utilised quite a few educational materials provided by the Lemur Conservation Network.
Our education department also hosted a lemur-themed story time followed by an opportunity to take photos with our lemur mascot, Ringo. We were lucky that we already had a lemur mascot suit and someone willing and available to wear it!”
Work Together to Celebrate
Allyson also highlighted that she couldn’t have done this without the help of the Brandywine Zoo Education and Retail staff, along with Delaware Zoological Society staff.
When we asked if she had advice for other institutions looking to celebrate World Lemur Day, she answered, “I would definitely recommend working together with anyone willing to participate from other departments for a well-rounded event.”
Start Planning Early and Be Flexible
She also pointed out that it’s never too early to start planning; the first meeting for the Brandywine World Lemur Day events was in January!
As many of us know all-too-well, the weather in October can be fickle, which can present a challenge when planning for World Lemur Day. As a precaution, the team at Brandywine Zoo put up monitors that displayed training sessions with the resident lemurs, just in case it was too cold for the animals to be out in their habitat.
Houston Zoo in Texas
We spoke to Colleen Cavanaugh at the Houston Zoo, who had this to say about their World Lemur Day celebrations. (The rest of this article was written by Colleen in her own words.)
World Lemur Day at the Houston Zoo is a fun and enriching experience for our guests, our staff, our lemurs, and for the Zoo Crew teen program participants who lead the activities. Modeled after the World Lemur Festival that is celebrated in Madagascar every year at the end of October, the Houston Zoo celebrates World Lemur Day with a festival of their own.
The festival is planned, organized, and facilitated by teens in the Zoo Crew program with support from staff in the Primate department. The Zoo Crew teens lead a variety of lemur themed games such as Lemur Olympics where guests can test their athleticism against a lemur’s, the Aye-Aye Grub Hunt where they have to pull grubs out of a mock tree stump using a long finger attachment made out of pipe cleaners, as well as a mining simulation activity that educates guests on the harmful impacts the mining of sapphires in Madagascar has on lemur habitats.
Dancing, Enrichment and Parades!
Dance and Art Competitions
The festival in Madagascar includes dance and art competitions. To replicate that here in Houston, the teens host a dance party that gets kids and adults excited about lemurs. In previous years we’ve had teens choreograph their own dance that they then taught to all their fellow Zoo Crew teens and performed at the festival. The dance party usually includes hula hoops, bubbles, noise makers, and other fun activities to encourage guest participation. The festival also includes an art exhibition showcasing lemur artwork from both staff and Zoo Crew members.
This past year we partnered with Rice University students who are conducting field work in Madagascar. These students also exhibited their artwork to highlight the diversity of lemur species as well as the conservation efforts they are working to implement in Madagascar through their field work.
Extra Enrichment for our Lemurs
The Primate Department has supported the World Lemur Festival celebrations through the years by providing extra enrichment to our lemurs with decorations celebrating World Lemur Day. They also organize extra keeper chats throughout the day at our crowned lemur, ring tailed lemur and sifaka exhibits.
Each year, both in Madagascar and in Houston, the World Lemur Festival culminates in a parade. At Houston Zoo, the Zoo Crew teens dress up in lemur costumes and provide guests with hand-made lemur masks and shakers made out of recycled materials. The teens parade guests around the Zoo’s reflection pond with hand painted banners chanting “We love lemurs!”
Led by Zoo Crew Teens
World Lemur Festival is often the highlight for the Zoo Crew teens. I think what’s important when you are looking to inspire youth to get involved in conservation is to give them the opportunities to lead the efforts. As the program manager, my role is to guide and mentor the teens, but I really leave a lot of what the program entails up to what the teens are most passionate about and let them take the lead.
The whole reason the Zoo Crew started World Lemur Festival at the Houston Zoo is that in 2017 a group of them had the opportunity to meet the world-renowned lemur conservationist, Dr. Jonah Ratsimbazafy. Dr. Jonah told them about the festival in Madagascar and the teens were so inspired by him and his work with lemurs that they wanted to be able to celebrate lemurs here in Houston.
And so, we brought this group of teens together to plan out what a World Lemur Festival at the Houston Zoo could look like and involve. They created the activities, planned out the schedule, and recruited fellow Zoo Crew members to facilitate the activities. The first festival was a hit!
A Powerful Partnership: Dr Jonah Ratsimbazafy
The Houston Zoo has had a strong relationship with Dr. Jonah and GERP for many years. And this relationship is truly a partnership.
Dr. Jonah has visited the Houston Zoo many times to meet with and provide support and guidance to our staff and our education program participants. He has previously taught week-long courses to our college program interns on the importance of community-based conservation. He has given presentations to our teen program participants and even participated in our Camp Zoofari summer camp activities with the kids.
It’s because of our close partnership with Dr. Jonah that World Lemur Festival was started. While Dr. Jonah was visiting the Houston Zoo in 2017, he met with a group of our Zoo Crew teens where he told them about his work in Madagascar and how the community comes together each year at the end of October to celebrate lemurs through a festival. The Zoo Crew teens were so inspired by this that they decided they wanted to host a World Lemur Festival of their own.
Since then, Dr. Jonah has visited the Houston Zoo several more times. Last year he just happened to be visiting at the end of October and so the Zoo Crew teens hosted World Lemur Festival during his visit. He was able to observe and participate in the festival activities which was a real treat for the teens to be able to show off all their hard work. During that time, the Primate Team was also fortunate enough to meet with Dr. Jonah.
In addition to his participation in World Lemur Festival, he did a Facebook live alongside the Primate keepers in front of our Sifaka exhibit and he participated in keeper chats with the keepers during World Lemur Festival. The Primate Team will be working alongside the Houston Zoo’s Conservation Department on hosting continual conversations between GERP and the Houston Zoo to further strengthen our partnership.
Take-Home Resources from the Lemur Conservation Network
- Check out our PDF activity guide, Lemurs card game, and teaching resources! Our 41 page activity guide has 10 activities including a board game, trivia, coloring sheets, and masks, as well as a fun facts flyer to display at your event.
- See our World Lemur Day page for frequently asked questions, an event calendar, social media guide, participation guide and more.
- Visit out our World Lemur Day shops on TeeSpring and RedBubble for merchandise to promote these highly threatened primates.