Gary Gettert, age 10, of Crawford, Neb., for his question:
What is lemur?
Way out in the tropical indian ocean is the island of madagascar where it is halloween every night of the year. The ghostly prowlers are furry lemurs that haunt the rustling thickets of bamboo and the lofty branches of the jungle trees. If you stroll outdoors at night without knowing what to expect, the lemurs would scare you hcme in a hurry.
The furry lemurs remind you of monkeys and squirrels, foxes and house cats but they are classed in their very own animal family, lemuridae. We know of 90 species of lemur, and 50 of them enjoy life on the warm, forested island of madagascar. They are night prowling tree dwellers ranging in size frm those of a house cat to a small poodle dog.
A lemur gazes hazily at the daytime world from a pair of huge, bright eyes. His foxy face wears a puzzled expression, and his pointed nose is. Set off by a set of stiff whiskers. He has hands like a monkey, and you might think that his long tail can help him swing monkey fashion through the trees. But this is not so. The lemur cannot use his tail for gasping and clasping as some monkeys can. What's more, a lemur's tail may be bushy and striped like the tail of a raccoon.
As a rule, the gentle creature feeds on nuts and fruit though some of his cousins eat insects, birds and birds' eggs. Almost always he dozes through the tropical day. He may s1eep with his foxy head tucked under his furry arm and his bushy tail curled around his neck.
The lemur awakes when the sun dips down from the sky. He stretches his arms while dozens of his friends and relatives are also preparing for the fun. Each type of lemur has his own cry and with a yip or a howl, a moan, a groan or a piercing shriek, off they swoop into the night.
When the lemur does not cry out, the woods of Madagascar are even more eerie. There are scary rustlings in the branches. Suddenly the night traveler is staring straight into a ghostly face set with a pair of dark, deep set ghostly eyes. Sometimes a lemur will drop from a treetop with a wild howl and stand in the pathway, waving his ghostly arms.
The young lemur is always an only child, for his mother has only one baby at a time. She feeds him on mother's milk and cherishes him with tender care. Wherever she goes, he goes with her. He spreads out his arms and legs and clings to mama's furry coat with his fingers and toes. He may cling to her back or to the warm fur on her chest. In some cases, the papa lemur helps bring up and educate the growing lemur.