We recently learned that Duke has a lemur center, and offers a variety of tours there as well. Lemurs are the most endangered mammals, and I wanted to learn more and support the Duke program. This program was founded in 1966 and has done quite a bit of work to help with the conservation of lemurs.

With more than 200 animals across 13 species, the DLC houses the world’s most diverse population of lemurs outside their native Madagascar.

There are many tours to choose from, and we decided on “Walking with Lemurs”, which is offered from May to September. You have to reserve ahead of time and there is a maximum of 8 people on these tours at a time, which was nice to have a small tour group.

The Lemur Center is in Durham, North Carolina. The website said that the navigation might be confusing, but we had no problems finding it.

There was plenty of parking right next to the Lemur Center.

The main building is small, but it offers bathrooms, a gift shop, and some other resources.

There are some cute photo op signs in front.

The gift shop has some really cute items.

I love that they sell lemur art!

We signed in when we arrived at the Lemur Center. We had a little bit of time to use the bathrooms and apply bug spray. If you don’t bring your own bug spray, they do offer wipes for sale.

We headed out on the trails with our tour guide, who was very knowledgeable.

We made our way to several different enclosures. You can get pretty close to the lemurs, but you cannot disrupt their activities or interact with them. We enjoyed just watching them in their habitats.

They were so cute, and we got to see them relaxing, eating, jumping between trees, and more.

This ring-tailed lemur got very close to us, and we even got to hear some neat vocalizations. There were also some young ring-tailed lemurs that were absolutely adorable!

The Lemur Center relies on donations and supporters, so we were glad to be able to support a good cause and learn more about lemurs. There are other types of tours available, so we may go back in the future!

Check out the Lemur Center at https://lemur.duke.edu/