Sifakas are here!

How many people remember the pogo-stick, a fad of decades long gone that allowed children to bounce their way up and down America’s sidewalks like spring-loaded kangaroos? Well, if you can, imagine living high up in the tropical forest canopy and still being able to pogo-stick your way from tree trunk to tree trunk. If you could do that – Boing! Boing! Boing! – what animal would you be? Chances are you’d be a sifaka.

Never heard of such a creature? That isn’t surprising. First of all, you’re probably not saying its name right, since it doesn’t quite sound like it is spelled. The first two letters – si – are pronounced shee, the fak in the middle sounds more like fok, and the a at the end is silent. So, what we end up with is shee-FOK, with the emphasis on the second syllable. This is the sound made by some of the world’s most peculiar primates - the large arboreal, acrobatic lemurs of Madagascar.

There are nine living species of these long-limbed, long-tailed, vertical clingers and leapers, ranging in size from the eight-pound golden-crowned sifaka to the largest member of the group, the beautiful diademed sifaka, which can tip the scales at close to 20 pounds. Somewhere in between is Coquerel’s sifaka, named for a 19th century French naval surgeon and entomologist, Charles Coquerel, who collected insects in Madagascar and on neighboring islands.

This is one of only two species of sifaka currently maintained in captivity in North America. The seminal colony was established in the early 1980s at the Duke Lemur Center in Durham, North Carolina, and two descendants of these founders have recently arrived here at the Houston Zoo. A five-year-old male, Dean, has come to us from the Los Angeles Zoo and a six-year-old female, Zenobia, recently arrived from the Saint Louis Zoo. Together they will take up residence in the Wortham World of Primates.

In nature, home to Coquerel’s sifaka is northwestern Madagascar, specifically the lowland dry forests to the north and east of the Betsiboka River. This is the infamous river seen from space by astronauts and described as bleeding its red, soil-eroded waters into the Indian Ocean. The sifaka’s range is not very broad and its numbers are not very large, thus this lemur appears as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In the forests of the Ankarafantsika National Park, one of only two protected areas in which it occurs, tourists can readily observe groups of three to 10 animals that range over 10 to 20 acres in search of leaves, buds, flowers, and fruit. In the wild, this species typically gives birth in June or July after a gestation of about five-and-a-half months. Infants cling to their mother’s chest for the first month or so, but then transfer to her back and ride her more like a horse. At six months they achieve their independence. At about a year of age they reach adult size.

Our two new residents will be an unqualified hit with Zoo visitors, who we encourage to spend some time observing this animal’s unique and unusual mode of locomotion. We also encourage Zoo members to join us for a tour to Madagascar in 2008, during which we will see Coquerel’s sifaka and many other lemur species in their natural habitats. Be sure to check out our travel page.