Baby lemurs and flamingos on Necker Island
It’s baby season for the animals of Necker Island. This Earth Day, I’m delighted to share that Beatrice, the female ringtail lemur who suffered a fractured neck during Hurricane Irma, but lived to tell the tale, has given birth to two beautiful pups.
As you can see in this video, the mothers and babies have a special bond, and they cling to their mums during their infancy. To begin with, the hold on to their fronts, making them quite difficult to spot. As they get more adventurous they hop onto their mother’s back, before eventually exploring off by themselves.
We first introduced lemurs to Necker Island due to their diminishing numbers and habitat in their native Madagascar. Experts believed Necker would have the perfect environment for them to breed, and the program has been very successful, with species ranging from ringtails to mongoose lemurs, red-collared browns to panda lemurs, all thriving.
Lemurs are not the only species doing well on Necker Island. We love watching our new puppy Tofu playing with his pal Miso. And one of my daily joys is to watch the flamboyance of flamingos flying around the island around dawn and dusk – and there will soon be more joining the flock. After the hurricane, the flamingos didn’t breed, but this year a whole new group of baby flamingos have been born.
There are more than 140 species on our 72 acre island, making it one of the most diverse and unique in the world – a real haven for wildlife. Our conservation team here on Necker and Moskito are doing a wonderful job supporting the animals, and long may it continue.