The Third Encounter

This will be my third close encounter with the lemurs. Before starting work in the garden, I brought the lettuce from my organic vegetable plot at school to the kitchen, where I could take the compost back to feed our worms. However, before I could even pick up the bucket, one of the techs asked,

“Do you want to see the aye-ayes?"

I had seen pictures of them (I think I explained them to my grandmother as bug-eyed, bald raccoons with beaver teeth and big cat ears), but I had never seen one up close. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

The tech armed me with a red headband light and blue gloves. Aye-ayes are nocturnal creatures, so they are kept in dark enclosures in two wings at the Lemur Center. We started out by meeting a smaller aye-aye. She was small for her size, but she started scratching on the door when she heard us getting ready.

As soon as the tech opened the door, her curious nose was past the threshold. We lured her back inside with a White Oak acorn, which I got to feed to her. She clung to the bamboo jungle gym-looking structure and looked at me curiously. We tried giving her sweet potatoes, but she’d just throw them to the side in search for more acorns. She was sharp.

The tech later gave her food by letting her use her long finger and her sharp front teeth to break through the bag, much like she would to a tree branch to look for food in the wild. The Lemur Center does their best to provide food to the lemurs and other primates in a way that is similar to how they would get it in the wild.

I got to meet more aye-ayes, as well as two pygmy slow lori, who were very shy, and two slow lori, which were right up in my face even after I learned their saliva is poisonous.

Aye-ayes are odd, almost scary-looking, primates, but most pictures of them are misleading because they are lit up by a flash. All you see in the dark are red eyes and a little lumbering body. However, they are quite docile and sweet, and very curious, despite the scary names (Nosferatu, Mephistopheles, Bellatrix, Norman Bates, etc.) they have.

I must say I am very proud to have the opportunity to be the garden manager and work toward providing fresh food to the lemurs and other primates at the center. While I already love the primates at the center, seeing them up close and personal puts into perspective how amazing and fragile they are. If you would like to visit the duke Lemur Center for yourself, please visit the Duke Lemur Center Tours page.

Spring is almost here!

It’s exciting to think spring is coming. Now we’ve got to start thinking about what we are going to grow. Since this is the first year for the garden, we are going to start with a summer crop and then start a yearly cycle.

At the beginning of the project, I received a list of plants that the lemurs eat or that the Duke Lemur Center was interested in trying with the lemurs. Below, you can see the plants we are looking to put in this year. It may look like a lot, but we will be watching to see what works and what doesn’t.

As far what is going on with the garden, we were supposed to start on March 6, but there was a severe thunderstorm and we rescheduled for Tuesday, March 8. Mr. Welch has turned a bed already and said it looked good. The concrete has been poured for the water catchment system’s foundation. He has also started the composters. During my next visit, we will be discussing worms! It will be great.

Crops

• Squash
• Bell peppers
• Meschlun Lettuce
• Carrots
• Beets
• Watermelons, cantaloupe
• Serviceberries
• Blueberries
• Raspberries
• Figs
• Blackberries
• Winged sumac
• Spinach
• Bush butter beans
• Yellow beans

Herbs

• Maximilian sunflower
• Nasturtiums
• French marigolds
• Parsley
• Borage
• Basil
• Cilantro

So what is going on?

Although I am about a month behind on posts, it has been a productive time getting everything together. Hello, my name is Amanda Wilkins and I am a junior in horticultural science from N.C. State University. It is a curious, simple story about how I came upon this project.

At the beginning of December I got an e-mail from a previous professor asking about student interest in a project at the Duke Lemur Center. They wanted a student who could coordinate an organic garden to feed lemurs. Although I have another job, there was something about this that sparked my interest and I could not help myself. I immediately e-mailed Dr. Jenny Campbell, from the Department of Biology at N.C. State, and we began the application process. Before the end of the semester, I was on the job.

Before Christmas break started, I met with Lari Hatley, development officer, and Charles Welch, conservation coordinator, to go over the project over at the DLC. Basically they received a $5,000 grant to build an organic vegetable garden to feed the lemurs. Their goal is to offset travel, food and carbon costs by having to ship in less fruits and vegetables and also deal with the waste that is generated from food preparation.

There was a level area where they want to put the garden and they’d already received top soil and chicken compost. They had an area marked off for the deer fencing. Deer tracks were obvious all over the plot and would definitely cause a problem without a fence. They also already had some composting bins and a water catchment system to catch water off the nocturnal lemur enclosure.

There is also another area where Charles has already planted blackberries, raspberries, plums and figs. Winged sumac is also in the plan for these areas because many of the lemurs love winged sumac leaves and the leaves freeze easier.

I also had the opportunity to meet with some of the lemurs. I have to say the Coquerel's sifakas are my favorite. They remind me of the days when I used to watch Zaboomafoo. It was also the first time I had seen them up close. You can tell lemurs are smart, even if you’ve never seen the research the DLC has done. Check out this video from CNN if you don’t believe me.

After the initial meeting, I was inspired to work on the plan for the 20’ by 30’ plot. I got a list of veges (coming soon!) and went to work over my break. I will post the rudimentary plan soon! Check out the photos in the mean time!