There’s more than one way to see a lemur…
Despondent and heartbroken at failing to get Mom a lemur sighting in Africa, I found a place not too far from us here in Florida that offered animal encounters.
I surprised Mom with one final road trip for our Marathon Tours adventure… Madagascar by way of Wild Florida.
And it turned out to be one of the better presents I’ve given her.
Lemurs, Lemurs, Lemurs (Part 2)
We wound up with a private encounter with Luke and Sebastian Lemur… with matriarch Lola looking on from her private suite. Lola had surgery the day before but she’s recuperating nicely, thank you very much. Jen, our guide and animal expert, was amazing and clearly loved what she did… and the lemurs loved her.
Despite it being off-the-menu in Madagascar, the cute ring tailed lemurs absolutely loved craisins. Can’t say I blame them — I love ’em, too — but they were very poor about sharing, scarfing down the sweet bit of nature’s candy like I do a bag of, well, craisins… or tortilla chips… or peanut butter… or ReddiWip… or, well, a whole lot of things that I tend to stuff my face with when given half a chance.
I wasn’t sure what to expect as when I emailed the facility during our return layover in Atlanta, it sounded like we couldn’t hold the lemurs or do much with them… but that expectation proved to be entirely unfounded… especially once Jen gave Mom some craisins to feed the dynamic duo.
And then it was my turn to experience feeding time at the… it’s not a zoo though it’s kinda a zoo… at the wildlife park? I will say it was a place filled with enthusiastic, excited, engaged staffers who legitimately cared for their animals and for eco-tourism and eco-edu-tainment.
We spent a good 25-30 minutes with the lemurs… a bit longer than normal but I think because we were on our own and Jen didn’t think there was another encounter scheduled for the rest of the day for the guys they might as well get as many treats as they could stomach… and they’ve got quite the stomach for craisins!
Mom must have been welcomed into their conspiracy because then this happened:
So thanks to Jen and Wild Florida for delivering what Marathon Tours and Madagascar couldn’t.
And because we could, I secretly added a second encounter for Mom… a little slower paced but nonetheless just as fun:
Yeah. That’s a sloth. His name is Guy. He sleeps 18-20 hours a day. But if you catch him in the right frame of mind (and an ear of corn seems to help), he’s willing to pose for a few “slothies.” Although he did fall asleep in mid-chew a few times… and ni getting back into his clay pot, he fell asleep half in/half out. But ya know what? I was a college student once. I know how it is.
There are heaps more photos but that’s more than enough to post.
The whole thing exceeded all of my hopes and expectations. I loved it. And more importantly Mom really loved it.
There’s more than one way to see a lemur.
And if you find yourself in the central Florida area, I cannot more highly recommend a drive out to Wild Florida for an animal encounter. I can’t guarantee you’ll get Jen or meet the same lemurs and sloths that we did… they rotate showtimes so different animals get to experience being the star while the others get some down time… and in the case of the sloths they need A LOT of down time. It’s not easy carving out 18-20 hours of the day for your beauty sleep. But I can guarantee you a nature park that truly cares.
Also, they have a zorse. And a zdonk. Zounds!
