Maryland Zoo welcomes two new lemurs: Coquerel's sifakas

Baltimore- The Maryland Zoo has announced the arrival of two Coquerel's sifakas, an endangered lemur that the zoo has not had since 2021.

The zoo plans to breed the male & female sifaka to help increase its population. The male was transferred from the Duke Lemur Center while the female was brought in from the Mesker Park Zoo in Evansville, Indiana

General curator Margaret Rose-Innes said "we've been working on getting sifaka back for almost 2 years."

The zoo expects to breed the pair once they see how they get along, and the male is more mature, Rose-Innes said.    

The animals, which are a type of lemur, are endangered due to deforestation which resulted in habitat loss causing a major threat to the species.

The sifaka have a brown & white coloration, they tend to stand out more from your average lemur. One way they stand out from the rest is the way they can easily leap more than 20 feet in the air, the zoo said. 

Conquerel's sifaka are only found only in the sparse dry area & deciduous areas of Madagascar.