Ever since I was young, I was fascinated with lemurs and years ago learned about the Duke University Primate Center (as it was then called). The facility was founded in 1966 on the campus of Duke University in Durham, NC. As they state on their website, “the Duke Lemur Center (DLC) is a world leader in the study, care, and protection of lemurs—Earth’s most threatened group of mammals. With more than 200 animals across 14 species, the DLC houses the world’s most diverse population of lemurs outside their native Madagascar.” 
One of the first organizations I ever donated to as a ‘grown-up’ was the DLC and I adopted a ring-tailed lemur as part of their “Adopt-a-Lemur” program. I was sent material including a photograph of the lemur I adopted which the funds were used to help feed and care of the lemur. I was really excited to have done this even though at the time, for me, it was a stretch to send the funds. But I had been enthralled by lemurs from a young age and it was a cool way to support them. My best friend from high school also went to Duke, and I remember visiting him there and enjoying Durham and the campus so everything just lined up.
It took until this year for me to finally visit though and I took the Walking with Lemurs tour, which was really fantastic! In the past few years after Covid hit I had been researching actually visiting and was trying to line something up that coincided with a work shoot around the area but the closest shoots were either in New York City or Orlando so I decided to just book things and do it and was so happy that I did.
The DPC is a non-profit that does work that I support and I had only otherwise seen lemurs in zoos like locally here at the San Francisco Zoo. Taking the Walking With Lemurs tour is so great because you are taken on the tour by guides who detail not only the work the DPC is doing in lemur conservation and research, but you get to see lemurs up close and I mean that literally. The guides tell you to watch out and get out of the way of the lemurs as they may come right by you and that’s exactly what happened several times on our tour.
There were about eight or nine of us in our group (and there was another group with a separate guide with a similar number of guests) and we swapped enclosures with them to see different lemurs. First off we saw some ring tailed lemurs which were the ones that I first fell in love with and then we saw sifakas which are my new favorites. They all were just living their best lives on the property eating, resting and modeling for us (as you can see below!). [check out this Instagram post from DLC with some details and featuring some of our shots]
If you are interested in lemurs or animal conservation, DPC is one of the best organizations you can support (donate here!) – all the funds from the ticket sales of the tours goes back into the care and conservation of lemurs so it’s a win win all around. If you are in the Durham area of North Carolina, definitely make a visit – it’s a really unique, fun and educational way to learn more about these endangered primates and a rare opportunity to see them in person up close and personal!
