Audubon Zoo is celebrating the births of two critically endangered Black-and-White Ruffed Lemurs. The youngsters, both male, are named Kallisto and Galileo and were born in April. In additional to being active and adorable, their names are out-of-this-world: Kallisto is inspired by Callisto, Jupiter's moon, and Galileo is named after the astronomer, Galileo Galilei.
This is the second successful litter for lemur parents six-year-old Masiaka and 17-year-old Gascar. They were recommended to breed by the Species Survival Plan (SSP), a collaborative effort between AZA Accredited Zoos designed to maintain a healthy, genetically diverse and stable population of animals for the future.
Kallisto and Galileo have one-year-old siblings named Dipper (male) and Andromeda (female).
Black-and-white ruffed lemurs are the largest lemur species and like all lemurs, can only be found on the island of Madagascar. They live in rainforest canopies and are exceptional pollinators, as they eat, pollen sticks to their fur and is distributed throughout the rainforest.
Black and white ruffled lemurs are currently listed as Critically Endangered, which is one step before Extinct according to the IUCN Red List. They are threatened by hunting and habitat loss and fragmentation caused by logging and mining.
Kallisto and Galileo, their siblings and parents can be found in the World of Primates at Audubon Zoo. Their keepers say you can tell the youngsters apart because Galileo has wider set eyes, Kallisto has more brown fur along his back.
