Our visit to Wellington Zoo allowed me to practise my action photos, and made me realise I still have a lot to learn about fast animals as I snapped the lively Ring Tail Lemurs.
The ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) is a medium- to larger-sized strepsirrhine (wet-nosed) primate
Four lady Lemurs – called Felana, Volana, Ravioli and Mawusi, arrived in May 2021 and spent some time in quarantine (after moving from Hamilton Zoo) before they were released into their purpose-built habitat here in Wellington.
Ring-tailed Lemurs are highly social primates and live in large groups run by a matriarch. They have several different calls that they use for communication, including an infant purr, a meow, a bark and even a howl.
Wellington Zoo
They were joined later by a gentleman lemur as part of a successful breeding programme.
Lemur Did You Know
Did you know there are 100 different kinds of lemur on the island of Madagascar?
All Lemurs are categorised as endangered on the *IUCN Endangered List (which is a salutary read itself) so the Zoo is thrilled to help keep the species alive and growing.
Fast Animal Challenge
It may take you a moment to figure out what is going on in the next photograph.
One smaller Lemur is sunbathing while a second seems to leap dramatically over their head. I was almost ready so the lemur is aaaaalmost sharp but, honestly, they are so fast! I was using Aperture Priority on my DSLR (I should have been using Shutter Priority and a higher ISO), but you get an idea of how lively and agile these amazing creatures are.
The whole troop seem to be relishing the higher summer temperatures here in New Zealand.
Established in 1964, The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species has evolved to become the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species.
Great shots. I never realized how long their tails were.
Me neither! They are amazing.
Lemurs are so amazing, you did a great job.
Wow, those lemurs sure do have L O N G tails!! Those images all turned out well, s[despite what you told us.
I am just about hopeless at trying to get ‘action’ shots of anything! (Even when using the sport mode on my real camera.)
Wonderful photos of one of my favorite animals! Thank you for sharing, Marjorie!
They are SO adorable!
You captured them perfectly and they reall are so, so adorable!
Brian’s Home
We LOVE Ring-tailed Lemurs. Well Mom Carol does. She neglected us many times to go to the Bronx Zoo to photograph THENM (instead of us) which we think showed poor judgmeent on her part but she said she couldn’t help herself. We can. understand your admiration of them and loved seeing your “Ringtail Community” shots. Well Mom Carol did. We furballs are against all pictures of animals which are not us….but oh, those striped tails. We never could understand how they didn’t get tangled up in their own tails….
MOL OK You two, I guess Mom was a bit adventurous but YOU TWO are the tops – right?
these are great shots Marjorie !! , so very sad how many species are on the endangered list now…
I see the one in the bottom left !!! 🙂 ♥♥
Marvelous photos!
Beautiful pictures of beautiful creatures!
Wow, just look at that stripy tail. A lovely shot, and I’m sure next time you will have the best priority set. Not that we could have told the difference.
Thanks for a great post, and lovely pictures.
ERin
Wow, just look at that stripy tail. A lovely shot, and I’m sure next time you will have the best priority set.
Thanks for a great post, and lovely pictures.
ERin
Those are lovely photos of the lemurs, and a great action shot.