Leaping Lemurs Day

So many zoos and aquariums are celebrating Leap Day with frog-themed materials, so I thought I'd just shake it up a bit and highlight some of my favorite lemurs, the sifakas of Madagascar (one species of which, Coquerel's sifaka, can be found in American zoos).

Sifaka exhibits provide a great opportunity for some simple, inexpensive interactive fun by encouraging visitors - especially kids - to see how good their jumping skills are compared to these leaping lemurs.  At the cheapest all you need is some really soft substrate for the inevitable falls.  If you wanted to go fancier, you could have screens playing videos like the one above to really demonstrate how acrobatic these guys are.

Giving kids (and older kids, up to whatever age they decide that is for themselves) the chance - and encouragement - to bounce around does more than make for a fun photo op or burn some calories before taking the kids home for the night.  Play - especially pretending to be something else, putting yourself in their shoes or, in this case, paws - can be very helpful in building empathy.  Once your kid has pretended to be a lemur (or a flamingo, standing on one leg, or a gorilla, walking on their knuckles, or whatever), they'll be one step closer to being able to see animals as beings that are worthy of our compassion, our understanding, and, most importantly, our protection.