Bon Voyage, Magellan!

We said goodbye to Magellan this week as he transitioned into the next chapter of his life at Dickerson Park Zoo --- fatherhood (hopefully!). I can't wait to see him in his new environment so hopefully one of these days, I'll plan a trip out to Springfield, MO. Bon voyage, Magellan!

BUT WHY IS MAGELLAN LEAVING THE DUKE LEMUR CENTER?

According to the Duke Lemur Center, Magellan's mother and brothers were acting aggressively towards him.

This is actually a natural phenomenon. Lemurs are "kicked out" of their natal group at a certain point of their life, and this is induced by aggressive behavior towards the lemur individual. This is a common mechanism for animals that dispersal. Literally getting the boot from the group. There are no helicopter parents in the lemur world. Ruffed lemurs live in a fission fusion group, so generally both sexes are kicked out of the group.

COLOR VISION STUDY

Magellan was one of my research subject at the Duke Lemur Center. Along with his brothers (AJ and Rees) and mother (Kizzy), they participated in my color vision study last summer and fall.

Mine! Mine! Mine! MINE! Kizzy and her boys (AJ, Magellan, and Rees) can't seem to get enough of my apparatus. SMARTA or Subject-Mediated Automatic Remote Testing Apparatus is what I used to train and test these ruffed lemurs. I will post about why I am training these lemurs to touch the red square tomorrow. Stay tuned. Any questions in the meantime? Ask away. Photo by @prancingpapio #dukelemurcenter #lemurs #lemur #lemuria #lemurian #animaltraining #positivereinforcement #primate #primateofinstagram #primates #ruffedlemur #blackandwhiteruffedlemur #varecia #variegata #colsci #color #colorvision #colorscience #psychophysics #psychophysiology #psychology #anthropology #primatology #SMARTA #prancingpapio

A photo posted by Duke Lemur Center (@dukelemurcenter) on Jun 30, 2015 at 4:03pm PDT