Florida Lemurs Aid Rainforest: Visitor encounters fund tree planting; link supports Madagascar

A wildlife centre in North Florida has welcomed two red-ruffed lemurs, turning encounters with the critically endangered animals into a way to support rainforest restoration thousands of miles away in Madagascar. The North Florida Wildlife Center in Lloyd, Jefferson County, is now home to four ruffed lemurs. Two of them, newly arrived red-ruffed lemur males, are being gradually introduced to their new surroundings and trained for the centre’s lemur encounter programme, according to WTXL and WCTV. But their role extends beyond educating visitors.The centre says proceeds and support generated through its animal encounters and conservation work help fund habitat restoration in Madagascar, including efforts to plant thousands of trees each year. Its stated goal is to plant more than 1,000 trees annually through its partnership with conservation organisation Green Again Madagascar.From a Florida wildlife centre to a rainforest in MadagascarThe connection may seem unlikely: visitors in rural Florida meet lemurs, while conservationists on the other side of the world work to restore forests.But that link is central to the wildlife centre’s conservation model. Its programmes include a partn...