It’s been an exciting winter here at LCF as we introduced our youngest red ruffed lemur, Frezy, to his family’s forest home! To the surprise of our staff, this forest introduction has taken much longer than we typically expect for one BIG reason- Frezy is scared of trees! He is scared of the sound of wind through the leaves, he is scared of the sight of the leaves and branches moving in the wind, and he is even scared of the sight of his parents climbing the trees!
Luckily for Frezy, he has a very supportive family group. When startled by something, Frezy retreats though the overhead tunnel to the safety of the indoor shelter where he grew up. He then vocalizes his displeasure and one of his family members usually returns to reassure him. Sometimes, however, they do take the ‘tough love’ approach and leave him to muster up the courage to re-enter the forest alone.
Frezy is slowly growing more confident with his new circumstances, and we can’t wait to see how he progresses to a full forest lemur. Trees and all.
