First glimpse of new arrival at Fota Wildlife Park

If you’re looking for something to do this August Bank Holiday weekend, then Fota has a new arrival, if you can spot him! Here are the first released images of their new baby black and white ruffed lemur, the first to be born in the Cork attraction.

The animal is critically endangered with fewer than 500 left in the wild. The new baby has yet to be named and was born four weeks ago to mother Pudden and father Podge.

It spent the first three weeks in a tree nest which the mother started to build a week before the birth. Black and white ruffed lemurs are the only primate species that build a nest as the babies are carried around be fully developed when born therefore can’t cling onto its mother.

Ruffed lemurs are considered an evolutionary enigma in that they are the largest of the extant species of lemur yet they are the only primates that build nests for their newborns.. However the babies develop relatively quickly, travelling independently in the wild after 70 days and attaining full adult size by six months.

The black and white ruffed lemur is native to the island of Madagascar and is arboreal, spending most of its time high up in the tree canopy.

It is named for the long thick fur that grows around its head and body.

Fota is home to three of the 16 species of lemur in the world today and two of those varieties are the black and white and red ruffed species.

The park has also launched a new website www.fotawildlife.ie in the last few weeks. The site is full of details on all their animals and conservation work but also allows members of the public to put up comments, pictures and videos through their Fotabook page.