Twins again: Lemur Center welcomes its 2nd pair of red-ruffed lemur infants this birthing season

Courtesy of Duke Lemur Center
Courtesy of Duke Lemur Center

It’s been a busy season at the Duke Lemur Center, with two sets of critically endangered twins being born within roughly a week of each other. 

The newest set was Mae and Judith, critically endangered red-ruffed lemurs, born May 14 to parents Pandora and Comet—just days after the Center welcomed twin black and white ruffed lemurs. 

As is par for the course for red-ruffed lemurs, the pair of infants also earned cosmic names—Mae for the first black female astronaut Mae Jemison and Judith in honor of Judith Resnik, an astronaut who died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, according to a press release

At Duke’s Lemur Center, red-ruffed lemurs have developed an adaptation in response to North Carolina’s snake population. They have their own call when they spot copperhead snakes, even though no copperheads exist in Madagascar, the only place red-ruffed lemurs are found in the wild.  

Red-ruffed lemurs have a very limited range, even within the island of Madagascar—they only reside in the forest along the Masoala Peninsula and near the Bay of Antongil in the northeast. 

The twins' species is critically endangered, and it faces challenges in the wild because of deforestation and natural disasters.

Mae and Judith are crucially important for the long-term survival of the species, the Lemur Center noted.

Along with other members of their species at conservation centers around the world, the pair creates a "genetic safety net" for the species in order to sustain a "healthy and genetically diverse population" in the long-term, the release stated.


Ben Leonard profile
Ben Leonard

Managing Editor 2018-19, 2019-2020 Features & Investigations Editor 


A member of the class of 2020 hailing from San Mateo, Calif., Ben is The Chronicle's Towerview Editor and Investigations Editor. Outside of the Chronicle, he is a public policy major working towards a journalism certificate, has interned at the Tampa Bay Times and NBC News and frequents Pitchforks. 

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