A three-month-old Black
Lemur born at the United Kingdom’s Drusillas Park has made an unlikely
friend: a Ring-Tailed Lemur named
William.

Photo Credit:  Drusillas Park

The baby and his adopted “Uncle
William” have a unique relationship, with William being very protective of the
little Lemur.  As the baby becomes more
independent, he spends less time with his mother and more time playing with
William.

Zoo keepers recently
confirmed that the baby, born in April, is a male. Now that they know the baby’s
gender, keepers will soon give him a name.

The gender of a Black Lemur
becomes evident over time due to the strong sexual dimorphism in this species.
Males are all black with striking orange eyes, and females are brown with long
whitish ear tufts. After weeks of speculation, there is now no doubt that the
baby is a boy.

In the wild, Black Lemurs
are native to the Island of Madagascar, where they live in the forest regions of
the north. Although they are primates, they are not considered monkeys or apes;
instead they are prosimians, which means ‘before the monkey’.

The population of Black
Lemurs is declining in the wild due to habitat destruction and hunting. They
are listed as Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

See more photos below the fold.