Archive-name: lemur-faq/part6
Alt-fan-lemurs-archive-name: lemur-faq/part6
Last-modified: 1993/07/6
Version: 3.0

    Official USENET Alt.Fan.Lemurs Frinkquently Asked Questions
                  Part 6 of 6  -- Real Lemur Facts


------------------------------

                           The Questions

(1) Scientifically speaking, what is a lemur?
(2) What are some good books to read if I'd like to know more
     about lemurs?
(3) Where can I get lemur finger puppets?
(4) Who is Ali Lemer?
(5) Who is Rick Frink?
(6) Is "Frink" in any dictionary?
(7) Who's really to blame for the lemur craze that's sweeping the
planet?
(8) Where can I find .GIFs of Lemurs?
(9) Are there any drinks inspired by lemurs?
(10) How can I make my own Twinkies at home?
(11) Is Terry Chan in the alt.fan.lemurs FAQ?
(12) What's significant about Tob Wood?
(13) What _is_ Big K Grape Soda?
(14) What was alt.fan.lemurs/alt.folklore.urban Southeast?
(15) What was alt.fan.lemurs/soc.singles Southeast?
(16) Got any nifty factoids about lemurs to wrap things up with?

------------------------------

                            The Answers

(1) Scientifically speaking, what is a lemur?

A lemur is a primate, member of the same order of mammals that men and
apes belong to.  However, lemurs are thought to be less evolutionarily
advanced than men and apes and monkeys are, representing the stage of
evolution our ancestors would have been at several million years ago. 
Note that this does not mean that we are descended from lemurs. 
Ultimately, somewhere far back, we share a common ancestor.  Lemurs are
often lumped in with other somewhat less advanced primates known
collectively as "prosimians."  Other animals sometimes referred to as
prosimians include tarsiers, lorises, bushbabies, galagos, pottos, and
so forth.  None of the aforementioned animals are _lemurs_ per se:
lemurs are prosimians who live on Madagascar and the surrounding islands
and who belong to the superfamily _Lemuroidea_.  

Alt.fan.lemurs has its very own lemur researcher, Mr. Bill Sellers, who
recently finished his PhD. dissertation on the mechanics of lemur
leaping.  The following list of lemur families, genii, and species has
been run past him but probably still isn't 100% correct.   If it's
crucial that you know the exact status of lemur taxonomy, send email to
wis@liverpool.ac.uk... that's Mr. William I. Sellers, thankyewverymuch.
:)

Anyway: on to the lemur taxonomy:

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates

Primates can be divided into two suborders.  The older division was
between prosimians ("almost monkeys") and anthropoids ("man-like").  The
newer division is between Strepsirhini (wet noses) and Haplorhini (dry
noses).  This change results in tarsiers being grouped with monkeys,
apes, and humans as haplorhines; all other prosimians are strepsirhines. 
(Thus, tarsiers are not listed here, despite still being classed as
"prosimians".)

Suborder: Strepsirhini

Superfamily: Lemuroidea

  Family: Cheirogaleidae
    Subfamily: Cheirogaleinae
      Genus: _Microcebus_
        Species: _murinus_, gray mouse lemur
                 _rufus_, rufous mouse lemur
                 _coquereli_, Coquerel's mouse lemur
      Genus: _Cheirogaleus_
        Species: _major_, greater dwarf lemur
                 _medius_, fat-tailed dwarf lemur
                 _trichotis_, hairy-eared dwarf lemur
    Subfamily: Phanerinae
      Genus: _Phaner_
        Species: _furcifer_, forked-marked dwarf lemur

  Family: Lemuridae
      Genus: _Lemur_
        Species: _catta_, ring-tailed lemur
      Genus: _Eulemur_
        Species:  _macaco_, black lemur
                 _fulvus_, brown lemur
                 _mongoz_, mongoose lemur
                 _coronatus_, crowned lemur
                 _rubriventer_, red-bellied lemur
      Genus: _Varecia_
        Species: _variegatus_, ruffed lemur
      Genus: _Hapalemur_
        Species: _griseus_, gray gentle lemur
                 _simus_, broad-nosed gentle lemur
                 _aureus_, golden bamboo lemur

  Family: Lepilemuridae
      Genus: _Lepilemur_
        Species: _doralis_, (no common name)
                 _ruficaudatus_, red-tailed sportive lemur
                 _edwardsi_, Edward's sportive lemur
                 _leucopus_, (no common name)
                 _mustelinus_, (no common name)
                 _microdon_, (no common name)
                 _septentrionalis_, (no common name)

  Family: Indriidae
      Genus: _Avahi_
        Species: _laniger_, avahi or woolly lemur
      Genus: _Propithecus_
        Species: _verreauxi_, Verreaux's sifaka
                 _diadema_, diademed sifaka
                 _tattersalli_, Tattersall's sifaka?
      Genus: _Indri_
        Species: _indri_, Indri (aka babakoto)

Superfamily: Daubentonioidea
  Family: Daubentoniidae
      Genus: _Daubentonia_
        Species: _madagascarienis_, aye-aye

FYI, the _following_ critters _are_ prosimians, and _are_ strepsirhines,
but are _not_ lemurs, since they belong to a different superfamily and
don't live in Madagascar.  They are simply listed so you'll know what
other animals are currently considered to be prosimians.  (As above,
tarsiers are now considered to be more similar to apes and men than to
prosimians such as lorises and lemurs.)

Superfamily: Lorisoidea
  Family: Lorisidae
    Subfamily: Lorisinae
      Genus: _Loris_
        Species: _tardigradus_, slender loris
      Genus: _Nycticebus_
        Species: _coucang_, slow loris
      Genus: _Arctocebus_
        Species: _calabarensis_, angwantibo
      Genus: _Perodicticus_
        Species: _potto_, potto
    Subfamily: Galaginae
      Genus: _Galago_
        Species: _alleni_, Allen's bushbaby
                 _crassicaudatus_, thick-tailed bushbaby
                 _senegalenis_, lesser bushbaby
                 _inustus_, (no common name)
                 _demidovii_, Demidoff's dwarf galago
                 _elegantulus_, needle-nailed bushbaby

I hope this is getting to be more or less correct.  Bill Sellers tells
us that lemur scientists periodically regroup the genii, renaming the
genii and moving one genus into a different family as more is learned
about the animal, but that _species_ names tend to stay the same.

---------------

(2) What are some good books to read if I'd like to know more about
lemurs?

Two very good books that look at lemurs from a zoological and biological
standpoint, reviewing the entire gamut of lemurs from aye-ayes to
indris, are:

  Catherine Harcourt, _Lemurs of Madagascar and the Comoros : the IUCN red
  data book_  (This one has lots of black and white photos, and is the
  most recent of the two.)
  
  Ian Tattersall,  _Lemurs of Madagascar_  (This one is a little older but
  is the Bible of the lemur research field.)
  
Another book, somewhat broader in scope, is Napier and Napier's _Handbook of
Living Primates_, published by the British Natural History Museum. 

If you want books that talk about lemurs from an anecdotal standpoint, try
these two:

  Durrell, Gerald Malcolm, _The aye-aye and I: a rescue mission in
  Madagascar_  (Great descriptions of gentle lemurs and aye-ayes.)
  
  Adams, Douglas, _Last Chance to See_  (The author of _The Hitchhiker's
  Guide to the Galaxy travels to far-off spots to see animals that are in
  grave danger of extinction.  Very interesting stuff about aye-ayes.)
  
---------------

(3) Where can I get lemur finger puppets?

Rachel Perkins (rperkins@astro.as.arizona.edu) has a friend who makes them. 
As she put it: "they're fuzzy, light brown with ringtails, and big black eyes.
and they fit on your finger. buy one for yourself, buy one for each finger!
they each have their own handcrafted personality!!!"

The cost is $5 = $4 for the artist, and $1 for shipping. If you want to pick
up yours in person, it's only $4. Rachel isn't making any money on this.

To order, email Rachel at rperkins@astro.as.arizona.edu or phone her at (602)
622-3635.

---------------

(4) Who is Ali Lemer?

Take it from the horse's mouth:

>From: phoenix@startide.ctr.columbia.edu (Ali Lemer)
>Subject: Uh...you're not going to believe this, but...
>Organization: Columbia University Center for Telecommunications Research
>Date: Sat, 20 Feb 1993 21:50:16 GMT
>
>Wow...I think I finally found my netnews niche. Perhaps I could be the
>a.f.l.'s official mascot, for...
>
>...my last name is, LEMER (pronounced LEE-mer, as in our favourite 
>primate).
>
>Yes, believe it or not, folks. People always say to me, "Lemer? As in the
>monkey?" and I always have to say, "Yeah. <sigh> But with an 'e'."
>
>In fact, a kid in 10th grade called me, "Ali the Ring-Tailed Lemer from
>Madagascar" once...
>
>Well, there you have it, at any rate.
>
>-- Ali Lemer.

---------------

(5) Who is Rick Frink?

>Rick Frink                                              (513) 865-1645
>Mead Data Central                             Telecomm/Campus Networks
>P.O. Box 933                                       rfrink@meaddata.com
>Dayton, Ohio  45401                          ...!uunet!meaddata!rfrink

No one's told him yet of the unfortunate similarity of his name to the sound
commonly used by the average lemur for a wide variety of purposes, some of
them even printable in a family newsgroup.

----------------

(6) Is "Frink" in any dictionary?

Alt.fan.lemurs made another step upwards toward respectability when 'frink',
the Lemur verb of unknown meaning, was included in the latest release of the
Jargon File.  The Jargon File is the closest thing that the computer and
USENET world have to an unabridged dictionary.  I'd known for quite some time
that the editor, Eric S. Raymond, was planning to include 'frink', but I
didn't get to see the actual entry until Jargon File 2.9.12 was released on
May 10.

:frink: /frink/ v. The unknown ur-verb, fill in your own meaning.
   Found esp. on the USENET newsgroup alt.fan.lemurs, where it is
   said that the lemurs know what `frink' means, but they aren't
   telling.  Compare {gorets}.

The new release of the Jargon File, 2.9.12, is ftpable from prep.ai.mit.edu as
/pub/gnu/jargon2912.txt.z.  An updates file is also available as
/pub/gnu/jargon-upd.z.  

To uncompress them, you need to use the gunzip utility... these are not normal
.Z compressed files but rather gzipped files.  Consult the readme files on
prep for more info.

---------------

(7) Who's really to blame for the lemur craze that's sweeping the
planet?

To be honest, the blame falls on the shoulders of four Virginia
Tech denizens:

Ron Jarrell, jarrell@vtserf.cc.vt.edu; 
Todd Perry, todd@polaris.async.vt.edu;
Joel Furr, jfurr@polaris.async.vt.edu; and
Vance Kochenderfer, vkochend@nyx.cs.du.edu

These four people, and a few innocent bystanders, engaged in a
conversation on vtcosy.cns.vt.edu that inspired Joel Furr to
create first a lemurs "conference" and then go on to infect
USENET with lemur chat.  It's all Ron and Todd and Vance's fault,
as you'll see from the excepts below:

>Ed Chamberlayne (responding to someone's insult about Ed being
>in everyone's crosshairs):  Well...I'm in the crosshairs. Goody.
>Lamer.  Yes.  Lamer.  Probe a thesaurus??  Get real geekmeister.
>I certainly don't need to consult  reference books when compos-
>ing a message.  I guess you do, huh??

>Ron Jarrell (responding to Ed):  I still think a Lamer is a type
>of monkey.

>Joel Furr (responding to Ron):  No, that's a lemur.  The differ-
>ence is that Lemurs are not eligible for membership in Toastmas-
>ters International, being incapable of human speech.

>C. Carson (commenting to Joel): Not too mention the Mongo size
>Eyes...

>Joel Furr (blathering on):  Lemurs are actually primates, as you
>know.  The clever little fellas inhabit the island of Madagascar
>and some species are so shy that only one or two individuals of
>each species have ever been seen.

>Ron Jarrell (in an entirely different conversation):  Well, as
>of the nightly report last night we had processed 27,885 usenet
>messages, up from a normal high of anywhere from 9-11,000....
  
>Joel Furr (reviving the thread):  How many of them were about
>lemurs?

>Daniel Pawtowski (interjecting):  Probably fewer than there were
>about cows.

>Ron Jarrell (responding to Joel):  I haven't had the chance yet
>to run the artificial intelligent lemur detection routines on
>it.. Even the 5810's RISC chip can only do about 100 lemurs a
>second, so I didn't want to bog it down with 27,000 lemurs.
 
>Todd Perry (commenting to Ron):  Where did you get that figure? 
>Be careful with the Lemur benchmark.  Several manufacturers have
>rigged their compilers to detect Lemur benchmark code and opti-
>mize it to death, so you get a much higher lemurs/sec rating
>than you would in real life...

>Joel Furr (also commenting to Ron):  Well, that would only take
>270 seconds... four and a half minutes, and think of all the
>lemurs you could detect in that time.

>Vance Kochenderfer (coming in from out of the blue):  Anyone
>want to go out and do some lemur-tipping?

>Ron Jarrell (ignoring Joel and Vance and commenting to Todd): Oh
>really? I might have been getting psuedo-lemurs?  I'll see if I
>can find the real lemur count..

>Joel Furr (summing up): Inquiring lemurs want to know.
And it raged on from there.

---------------

(8) Where can I find .GIFs of Lemurs?

The following sites have lemur .GIFs in the following directories:

wuarchive.wustl.edu, /graphics/gif/l
compute1.cc.ncsu.edu, /mirrors/wustl/graphics/gif/l
plaza.aarnet.edu.au, /graphics/gif/l

The files are "lemur01" through "lemur11".

---------------

(9) Are there any drinks inspired by lemurs?

Yes.  Here are three.  Try them at your own risk.


  From: Spike the Destroyer <STDNCHGA%LMUACAD.BITNET@VM.USC.EDU>
  Subject: Screaming Lemur Recipe
  
  >Take one standard sized $8.99 bottle of reasonably cheap gin.  We
  >use Popov.  Purchase a package of Hawaiian Punch drink mix.  The
  >traditional flavor of choice is "Sharkleberry Punch", but a
  >reasonable alternative is Rock Island Red or some other silly
  >name.  Just as long as the hue of the drink is resembles the
  >intesine of a lemur. (light to medium pink) Mix the two together,
  >and ice heavily.
  >
  >That's it! If you proportion it correctly, it should be very
  >sweet with only a slight hint of gin aftertaste.  You may dillute
  >with sugar or water if you really need to. 
  
  From: Joel Furr (jfurr@polaris.async.vt.edu)
  Subject: Reeling Lemur Recipe
  
  >Ingredients:
  >3/4 glass of Big K Grape Soda
  >1/4 glass of "Aristocrat" vodka
  >Ice
  >
  >One or two of these will have the most well-balanced and upright
  >lemur staggering and reeling around the apartment.
  
  
  From: schumach@convex.com (Richard A. Schumacher)
  Subject: Recipe for "Sleepy Lemur"
  
  >1 oz. Kahlua
  >1 oz. creme de Cacao
  >1 oz. vodka
  >Balance skim milk and chipped ice
  >
  >Serve in a large truncated conical glass, or in a plastic rocket 
  >ship with a straw.


---------------

(10) How can I make my own Twinkies at home?

Sylvia Sotomayor (ciaran@netcom.com) tells all:

     This is primarily (but not only) for our British readers, who are having
     difficulties getting twinkies (tm).
     
     I got this twinkie recipe from a book Top Secret Recipes, by Todd
     Wilbur, published by Plume.  $10.  ISBN 0-452-26995-4.
     
     I didn't get permission to share this or anything, but then I work for
     Plume, so they better not mind.  Besides, this book has lots and lots of
     neat recipes in it, so it is worth buying anyway!
     
     Twinkie Recipe:
     
     You will need a spice bottle (approximately the size of a Twinkie),
     twelve 12 by 14 inch pieces of aluminum foil, a cake decorator or pastry
     bag, and a toothpick.
     
     Ingredients:
     for the Cake:  nonstick spray, 4 egg whites, one 16 ounce box golden
     pound (or sponge, whatever) cake mix, and 2/3 cup water.
     
     for the Filling:  2 tablespoons butter, 1/3 cup vegetable shortening, 1
     cup powdered sugar, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 1/3 cup evaporated milk, 1
     tea-spoon vnilla extract, and 2 drops lemon extract.
     
     Step 1:  Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
     
     Step 2:  Fold each piece of aluminum foil in half twice.  Wrap the
     folded foil around the spice bottle to create a mold.  Leae the top of
     the mold open for pouring in the batter.  Make twelve of these molds and
     arrange them on a cookie sheet or in a shallow pan.  Grease the inside
     of each mold with a light coating of nonstick spray.  (According to the
     diagrams in the book, a Twinkie is approximately four inches long, 1 and
     3/4 inches wide and about an inch or so tall.)
     
     Step 3:  Disregard the instructions on the box of cake mix.  Instead,
     beat the egg whites until stiff.  Combine them with the cake mix and
     water, and beat until thoroughly blended (about 2 minutes).
     
     Step 4:  Pour the batter into the molds, filling each one about 3/4
     inch. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until the cake is
     golden  brown and a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean.
     
     Step 5:  For the filling, cream the butter and shortening.  Slowly add
     the sugars while beating.
     
     Step 6:  Add the evaporated milk, vanilla, and lemon extract.
     
     Step 7:  Mix on medium speed ntil completely smooth and fluffy.
     
     Step 8:  When the cakes are done and cooled, use a toothpick to make
     three small holes in the bottom of each one.  Move the toothpick around
     the inside of each cake to create space for the filling.
     
     Step 9:  Using a cake decorator or pastry bag, inject each cake with
     filling through all three holes.
     
     Makes 12.
     
     End of recipe.
     
     They, of course, forgot to add Step 10:  Feed to thankful lemurs.
     
     Enjoy,
     
     Sylvia
     

Try it!


---------------


(11) Is Terry Chan in the alt.fan.lemurs FAQ?

Yes.  His address is twcaps@dante.lbl.gov.  Send him all the fan mail you
want.

---------------

(12) What's significant about Tob Wood?

Tob Wood, aka tob@cwis.unomaha.edu, was toasted with a special
birthday toast at AFU/AFL Southeast, held at Raleigh/Durham,
North Carolina, on March 27, 1993.  Basically, Tob couldn't
attend, since he's all the way out in Omaha, Nebraska, but since
his birthday fell on the 27th, he asked that we take brief note
of it in passing during the event.  A group of people, some of
whom had even posted to alt.fan.lemurs at some point in their
lifetime, took time out from their discussions of zeppelins and
alternate histories to have a toast of Big K Grape Soda to Tob.

---------------

(13) What _is_ Big K Grape Soda?

Big K Grape Soda is a brand of soda sold by Kroger supermarkets. 
Kroger is a fairly wide-spread chain with offices in Cincinnati,
Ohio and stores located in many U.S. states.  Kroger has, as most
supermarkets do, an essentially generic house brand of most
everything.  In the case of soda, the house brand is called "Big
K."  It usually sells for about 49 or 59 cents per 2 liter jug
and isn't all that bad.  Lemurs like it because of that great
generic taste.

---------------

(14) What was alt.fan.lemurs/alt.folklore.urban Southeast?

alt.fan.lemurs/alt.folklore.urban Southeast was a get-together held on March
27, 1993 in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, including people from
alt.fan.lemurs and alt.folklore.urban.  Since it was the first such event held
in the southeastern USA, the turnout was not massive, but attendance is
expected to rise in future years.  Attending on behalf of alt.fan.lemurs were
Joel Furr and Vance Kochenderfer; attending on behalf of alt.folklore.urban
were Bruce Tindall, Jim Cambias, and Diane Kelly.  Also attending was Dena
Barbee (a member of the great non-USENET world population) and three goats,
one cat, and infinite numbers of lemurs.  The featured attraction was a tour
of the Duke University Primate Center, located in Durham.  In addition to the
tour, the participants had lunch at a dim sum restaurant, beer at a brewpub,
and a relaxing evening of urban legend trading in Bruce Tindall's palatial
mansion in Carpenter, North Carolina.

---------------

(15) What was alt.fan.lemurs/soc.singles Southeast?

It's a long story -- the soc.singles newsgroup had been planning a big "boink"
as they called it in Durham, North Carolina, during the June 18-19-20 weekend
of 1993.  Louise Perry, an alt.fan.lemurs reader who studies in England yet
who was visiting her family in the USA, was also going to be in Durham for a
DUPC visit as she had adopted a red-ruffed lemur named Diphda.  Since there
were all these people in the Durham area I knew vaguely, I went down too! 
When all was said and done, we had a group of some fifteen people going around
the standard DUPC tour.  We got to see some of the animals we'd adopted, but
not up close and personal since the educational coordinator who would have
arranged that was not on duty that day.  Louise did get to meet Diphda and
pose for photos, and I got to wow everyone with my encyclopedic knowledge of
lemur trivia.  We also got to see the new DUPC noctural animals facility,
which was crammed with adorable little mouse lemurs and lorises and tarsiers. 

This time around, the people present were as follows.  There were three
alt.fan.lemurs readers there and three associated hangers-on; the three
readers were Joel Furr, Louise Perry, and Timothy Satterfield (a Durham-area
resident).  Louise had brought along her boyfriend, Jim Parberry of Norfolk,
England, and Tim had brought along two friends from the locality, Cheryl and
Jared Murphy.  We were accompanied into the Primate Center by someone who'd
unexpectedly shown up as well: Dena Barbee, the friend of Bruce Tindall's who
participated in AFL/AFU Southeast yet missed the lemur tour through unexpected
circumstances.  Dena was back to do the tour for the first time and
coincidentally was there the same day as AFL/SS Southeast.   Our contingent
from soc.singles consisted of Beth "Diamond" Abrams, Paul Wallich, Seth
Breidbart, and Eleanor "Piglet" Evans.  There were apparently dozens of other
soc.singles-ites wandering around Durham that day that we only glimpsed
lolling at a picnic table on the DUPC grounds as we were finishing our tour.

---------------

(16) Got any nifty factoids about lemurs to wrap things up with?

Sure.  We can't tell you everything there is to tell about lemurs because
there's so much to know, but the books listed earlier will help you get
started.  To wrap up the FAQ, here're a few factoids about some lemur species
that you might like to amaze your friends with.  (Thanks, Bill, for your
contributions.)

Ringtailed lemurs:  Ringtails have black and white circles around their tails,
and a black masklike area on its face around their eyes.  Ringtails are often
very friendly, but also very acquisitive.  Don't leave your car keys lying
around where this lemur can find them.  If you have laserdiscs of Japanese
cartoons, the lemur will be your friend for life.

Grey gentle bamboo lemurs:  These lemurs are small, soft, friendly-looking,
and not at all menacing in appearance.  But wait: grey gentle bamboo lemurs
are actually known for their temper.  If you meet a lemur, and the lemur
sneaks up behind you and takes a swipe at you with well sharpened fingernails,
odds are you've spotted a Gentle Lemur; Gentle Lemurs have been seething for
generations over being stuck with such a silly designation and are out to
prove that they are anything but gentle. If the lemur does not attack, but
instead sits down and chews on a nice clump of cyanide-laden bamboo leaves,
you're seeing another interesting quality of the bamboo lemurs:  bamboo lemurs
can ingest cyanide in quantities that would kill primates several times their
size.  When British conservationist Gerald Durrell was in Madagascar
collecting specimens for breeding, he kept a well-fed and well-cared-for
collection in an adjacent hotel room, and noticed that among their repertoire
was a popping sound not at all unlike the sound of a champagne bottle being
uncorked.  A roomful of these creatures, of course, would sound like a
cocktail party.

Sifakas:  Sifakas are white of fur, with extremely long arms and legs and with
black faces.  Sifakas are among the largest of lemurs.  Sifakas (pronounced
Shi-fahks or Shi-falks) are a variety of lemur that has proved to be
exceptionally hard to keep in captivity due to their preference for heart-
shaped beds and Magic Fingers boxes instead of green-walled enclosures with a
few pipes projecting out for them to climb on.  Consequently, they've become
very skilled at outwitting their human captors, picking locks (I'm NOT making
this up) and devising ways to get extra food despite the presence of electric
shocks around the food trays.

Aye-ayes:  Aye-ayes are small and rodent-like, with a long, skinny middle
finger ending in a hooklike nail?  Aye-ayes are especially feared by the
Malagasy natives because of a local superstition that aye-ayes can curse
people to gruesome deaths simply by pointing their long middle fingers at you. 
Aye-ayes are generally killed on sight by the natives.  Efforts to breed them
in captivity are paying off bit by bit, as the first aye-aye born in
captivitity was born last year at the Duke University Primate Center: Blue
Devil.  Aye-ayes live off insects, which they dig out of rotten wood with
their long hook-tipped middle fingers.  When they were first discovered, they
were thought to be rodents, and it was not until much later that they were
identified as primates.

Black lemurs:  Interestingly, black lemurs have brilliantly blue eyes, and are
in fact the only primate species other than man that has blue eyes.  The
females are golden-furred and the males are black-furred.  This difference in
color between the sexes is known as "sexual dimorphism."  Partly because
blue-eyed lemurs look so glamorous, the Duke University Primate Center names
them all after movie stars such as Judy Garland and Robert Redford.

Dwarf lemurs (Cheirogaleidae):  These are the small, sneaky, steal your
twinkies before you notice them lemurs. They are mostly a rather nondescript
brown (all the better for you not to see them) except for the fork-tailed
(forked?) lemur (furcifer) which has a striking black fork shaped mark running
from the base of it's tail to its head. Some of them (the fat-tailed lemurs)
have (you guessed it) fat tails. This is where they store their twinkies in
the off season. Probably the cutest (and certainly the smallest) is the mouse
lemur. These are prime espionage agents, weighing in at approx 60g - mouse
size. Just imagine a mouse that can leap 2 metres, and has little grasping
hands, and tickles like crazy when running around inside your T-shirt.

There's much more to know about lemurs, and alt.fan.lemurs is the place to
start.  Welcome aboard!

    ------------------------------------------------------------------
      Revised April 5, 1993 by Joel Furr, jfurr@polaris.async.vt.edu
      Revised July 6, 1993, by Joel Furr, jfurr@polaris.async.vt.edu
