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Peanut, a baby ring-tailed lemur, has undergone surgery on her broken limb to give her a second chance at a normal life. Peanut’s devoted handlers at Summer Wind Farms Sanctuary drove her more than one and half hours to see a board-certified veterinary surgeon, Dr. Jennifer Covey, who repaired her limb using steel reinforcements last Thursday at Michigan Veterinary Specialists.
Just 10 months old, Peanut snagged her leg on a branch as she fell while climbing around, and fractured her femur. And without full use of her leg, this member of an endangered species – one that spends most of its life using its hands and feet to move nimbly through the trees – would be severely affected.
That’s where the Michigan Veterinary Specialists came to the rescue. A group of vets that regularly provide pro-bono services to local rehabilitation centers and sanctuaries, the Michigan Veterinary Specialists agreed to perform a special operation on Peanut’s leg that would allow her to heal and, hopefully, one day climb her favorite tree again.
When Peanut woke an hour and a half later, her leg was repaired and she was ready to return home to the sanctuary where she will spend the next 8 to 12 weeks recovering.
Dr. Jennifer Covey, who performed the actual surgery, said, “I was excited to be personally involved in helping an endangered species. That doesn’t happen every day – and I’m pleased with how the surgery went.”
“It’s not every day that we get to treat a rare, endangered animal like a baby ring-tailed lemur,” said Kristi Valentini of the Michigan Veterinary Specialists.
“We’re so happy everything went according to plan and that Peanut is expected to make a full recovery. We sent Peanut home as soon as possible because we thought she’d be more comfortable in her home surroundings rather than in our clinic.”
And that’s where Peanut is today, recovering nicely, and her leg should be ready to climb just fine when she is up for giving that tree another shot.
Ring-tailed Lemurs:
The Ring-tailed Lemur (Lemur catta) is a large Strepsirhine primate and the most recognized lemur due to its long, black and white ringed tail. Like all lemurs it is endemic to the island of Madagascar. Madagascar is home to many amazing animals found nowhere else on Earth. Lemurs may have floated there eons ago on “rafts” of vegetation and evolved in isolation over countless centuries
The genus name Lemur was selected by early biologists because the calls of some elusive lemur species brought to mind the cries of the spirits of the dead, or lemures, from Roman mythology. The species name, catta, meaning “cat” in New Latin, was assigned due to the similarity between the Ring-tailed Lemur’s purring vocalization and that of the Domestic Cat
Lemurs use their hands and feet to move nimbly through the trees, but cannot grip with their tails as some of their primate cousins do. Ring-tailed Lemurs also spend a lot of time on the ground, which is unusual among lemur species. They forage for fruit, which makes up the greater part of their diet, but also eat leaves, flowers, tree bark, and sap. Ring-tailed Lemurs are endangered, largely because the sparse, dry forests they love are quickly vanishing.
Summer Wind Farms Sanctuary:
Summer Wind Farms is a 140+ acre facility which houses over 200 exotic animals including bears, tigers and monkeys. These animals have been brought to the sanctuary to have a safe refuge in which to spend the rest of their lives after having zoo or movie careers, or having been illegally owned as pets. The sanctuary is a non-profit organization that is USDA licensed and operates entirely on donations. For more information visit: www.swfsanctuary.org
Compiled by EVOLVE! Campaigns
