Jersey Zoo welcomes ‘rockstar of lemur world’

A critically endangered type of lemur has arrived at a zoo, making it only the tenth wildlife park in the world to hold the species.

Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (DWCT), in Jersey, said a three-year-old male greater bamboo lemur, called Orsa, had arrived.

The trust said he used to live at Cotswold Wildlife Park, and the zoo had been selected as a place to safeguard and hopefully breed the species.

Georgia Gotts, deputy curator of mammals at Jersey Zoo, said: “Greater bamboo lemurs are like the rockstars of the lemur world, due to them being incredibly rare, full of character, and adored by everyone who meets them.”

She said the organisation was “beyond excited”.

The charity said it planned to introduce him to two female greater bamboo lemurs as well as a baby boy in the next month.

The species was once thought to be extinct until animals were found in the 1960s. The zoo said greater bamboo lemurs were a “rare sight” with only about 1,500 left in the wild.

The trust said: “Sadly, fossil evidence suggests that this species was once the most common lemur, with an estimated one million of them roaming Madagascar 90,000 years ago.”

“While they look like other bamboo lemurs, such as the Alaotran gentle lemurs also cared for at Jersey Zoo, greater bamboo lemurs are actually more closely related to ring-tailed lemurs.”

The zoo plans to put Orsa on show in the coming weeks.