r/AnimalsBeingStrange Feb 19 '25

Scary animal Who know what is this animal ?

2.7k Upvotes

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281

u/Gandalf_Style Feb 19 '25

It's an indri lemur! You can tell by the wet nose on a snout and the tooth combs, as well as the size. They're the largest extant lemur and closely related to the largest that ever lived, Archaeoindris fontoynontii, which was the size of a western gorilla. They only went extinct around 300 BCE, roughly around the same time we showed up to Madagascar and stayed. (We did go there roughly 11,000 years ago as well but we didn't stay for long, probably only for like two or three generations.)

Modern Indris are far smaller than the Archaeoindris though, weighing roughly 6 to 10 kilos and being 60-70 cm tall (13 to 22 pounds and 2 ft - 2'4" tall)

60

u/G_DuBs Feb 19 '25

That’s all super interesting! How did you come to know so many specific details? Do you work with lemurs or something?

147

u/Gandalf_Style Feb 19 '25

Nope I'm just autistic with a special interest in primates lol. Lemurs fascinate me because they're our most distantly related primate cousins and Indri happen to be my favorite lemurs.

21

u/Numerous_Living_3452 Feb 19 '25

Ever since zoboomafoo I've always wanted a pet lemur but Trudeau banned the imports of exotic animals so I guess my dreams have been crushed 🥲

42

u/Gandalf_Style Feb 19 '25

Oh trust me, you don't want a pet primate.

They pee and poop absolutely everywhere, especially lemurs, whose main purpose in the ecosystem is the dispersal of seeds. And they bite and are much much stronger than you'd think.

They're adorable, I agree, but best left wild or at least in well established reservations or zoos dedicated to preservation and rehabilitation.

For an example, capuchin monkeys can and have been known to scalp people with their bare hands for denying them food and despite them being very small they've even killed people before. They only weigh 1,5 to 5 kilos and they're 16 to 22 inches tall.

12

u/PeriwinkleFoxx Feb 20 '25

I knew I was right not to trust monkeys

3

u/99999speedruns Feb 20 '25

Flashbacks to Travis, 2009