World Lemur Day 2023: Significance, History & Interesting Facts

World Lemur Day is celebrated globally on the last Friday of October every year. The World Lemur Day 2023 is on 27th October 2023. In the weeks surrounding the World Lemur Day, World Lemur Festival is also celebrated with the aim to love lemurs and join the Lemur Conservation Network in saving them from extinction. Currently 98% of lemur species are threatened with extinction and 31% are critically endangered. This article provide important details about the World Lemur Day 2023.

World Lemur Day 2023 Date

We have listed below the date of celebration of World Lemur Day:

World Lemur Day 2023 Overview

Significance of World Lemur Day

World Lemur Day is celebrated to raise awareness about lemurs and to highlight important conservation needs to protect them, at both national and international levels. Raising awareness about the value of this unique natural heritage among general public and awakening a sense of pride of these species is also the objective of World Lemur Day 2023.

Also check: special days in 2023

History of World Lemur Day Observation

Professor Jonah Ratsimbazafy of GERP Madagascar, one of world’s leading primatologists and a Project Advisor at the Lemur Conservation Network inaugurated the celebration of World Lemur Festival in 2014. The festival was held in the capital city of Antananarivo, Madagascar and raised awareness about the value of lemurs as Madagascar’s unique natural heritage. It also aimed to awaken pride for lemurs in Malagasy people, improve the economy through tourism, and promote lemur conservation and education worldwide.

The festival was a huge success and garnered attraction from all over the world. After the success of the festival, international celebration of World Lemur Day was established. Since then, every year World Lemur Day is celebrated on last Friday of October. The first World Lemur Day was celebrated on October 30, 2015.

Also check other Important Days in October

How is World Lemur Day celebrated?

Many zoos and conservation organizations all over the world, US, Canada, Africa, Asia, and Europe, also celebrate World Lemur Day with great enthusiasm. People and communities around the globe also organize their own event to promote awareness of lemurs and World Lemur Day. The Lemur Conservation Network promotes these event and activities on their annual event calendar and social media. You can also connect with one of their member organizations to collaborate on an event. On their website you can find many ways you can help, including donating, volunteering or switching your search engine. The celebration is followed by the World Lemur Festival which is held through virtual and in-person events. These events are organized both in Madagascar and around the world.

Interesting Facts about Lemurs

Let us learn some new, interesting facts about lemurs on this World Lemur Day:

1. There was a species of lemur that looked like alf. It went extinct 500 years ago.
2. The lemur society is run by females.
3. Lemurs are the only non-human primates that have blue eyes.
4. The word ‘lemur’ means ‘Evil Spirit of the Dead’ in Latin.
5. Lemurs are intelligent primates. They can memorize images, type them out in correct order, identify larger images and even understand basic math.
6. Madame Berthe’s mouse lemur, weighing just 1.1 ounces is the smallest primate in the world.
7. 106 species of lemurs are known to science and almost all of them face a risk of extinction.
8. Lemurs were once the size of gorillas but lately they have gone extinct.
9. Lemurs are found only on the island of Madagascar, about 250 miles off the coast of Africa.
10. Aye-ayes inspire deep superstition in parts of Madagascar because of their spooky looks.

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