It's feeding time

Meet little Tivalo, a baby crowned sifaka lemur, at the Vincennes Zoo in Paris. A veterinarian had to feed it because its mother had problems nursing the infant.

Interestingly, the term "lemur" is derived from the Latin word "lemures", meaning "spirits of the night" and refers to the large, reflective eyes, which many of the nocturnal lemur species have.

Lemurs are found naturally on the island nation of Madagascar and some smaller surrounding islands, including the Comoros (where it is likely
they were introduced by humans).

Fossil evidence indicates that they made their way across the ocean after Madagascar broke away from the continent of Africa. Lemurs range in size from the tiny 30g Pygmy Mouse Lemur to the 10-kg Indri.

The larger species some of which weighed up to 240 kg
all become extinct when humans settled in
Madagascar. Since the early 20th century, the largest
lemurs reach about 7 kg. Typically, the smaller lemurs
are nocturnal while the larger ones are diurnal.

These small primates are generally omnivores, eating a variety of fruits, flowers and leaves as well as insects, spiders and small vertebrates. The remainder of the lemurs, the lemuroids are primarily herbivores, although some species supplement their diet with insects.

Lemurs have opposable thumbs and long grasping toes but their tails are not prehensile. They have nails rather than claws. Lemurs depend heavily on the sense of smell, hence have large nasal cavities and moist noses.

All lemur species have a tapetum, the reflective layer over the retina. In fact, they are thought to have limited colour vision.

Incidentally, this picture was also featured on the National Geographic website.

Source: wikipedia