Adorable Snoozing Lemurs Are Teaching Scientists The Secrets of Hibernation sciencealert.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sciencealert.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Cheirogaleus medius) does hibernate in the wild. However, once in zoos
they have adopted a winter lifestyle much like the rest of us, impeding study. Now for the first time in captivity, researchers at Duke Lemur Center have persuaded some of them to shut their bodies down for winter, much as they do at home.
Humans aside, primates tend to be creatures of the tropics. Only Japanese macaques have established themselves in places where it is cold enough for frequent snows, making for little evolutionary pressure to develop hibernation. The reverse possibility – that some innate incapacity to hibernate keeps primates tropical – was refuted by the discovery fat-tailed dwarf lemurs shut down for 3-7 months each winter. Pygmy slow lorises have also been reported to hibernate, but for less than three days, which given their normal abhorrence of moving, who can tell.
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Why Scientists Are Excited An Unusual Creature Is Coming Out of Winter Hibernation in Captivity
Duke Lemur Center recreates the seasonal swings of native habitat, helping to unlock the secrets of hibernation.
The fat-tailed dwarf lemur is our closest hibernating relative. Researchers at the Duke Lemur Center have been changing up their care to more closely match the seasonal fluctuations they experience in the wild.
Photo by David Haring. If you binged on high-calorie snacks and then spent the winter crashed on the couch in a months-long food coma, you’d likely wake up worse for wear. Unless you happen to be a fat-tailed dwarf lemur.