Fans mourn death of PBS ‘Zoboomafoo’ lemur

Millions of fans mourned online the death of a lemur that starred in the PBS show “Zoboomafoo” and helped introduce a generation of Americans to the beady-eyed primate group, the Duke Lemur Center in North Carolina said on Wednesday.

The lemur, known to its handlers as Jovian but more familiar to many viewers as Zoboomafoo, gained fame on the children’s show which aired 65 episodes from 1999 to 2001 and remains in syndication.

Jovian died on Monday at age 20 of kidney failure, the center said.

“He was great to work with,” said nature show host Martin Kratt, who co-starred on “Zoboomafoo,” according to Duke Today, a university publication.

“He’d jump in through the window and we’d feed him mangoes or garbanzo beans. Sometimes he’d grab our noses with those soft sifaka hands,” he said, referring to the Coquerel’s sifaka, a medium-sized variety of lemur with white, black and brown fur that is endangered.

More than 10 million people had viewed news of the primate’s passing on the center’s website and Facebook page as of Wednesday, a Duke spokesman said, with many thousands having posted comments and images commemorating him.

Jovian was born at the center in 1994 to a mother who had been captured in Madagascar, where lemurs are endemic, and a father born in captivity. Jovian went on to become a father of 12.

Lemurs face threats from deforestation and poaching, as some Malagasy people are driven to eat local wildlife due to poverty. Some giant lemur species have already become extinct, and others are critically endangered as more than 90 percent of the island’s forests have been destroyed.

The Coquerel’s sifaka has an expected life span of 15-20 years in the wild and 25-30 years in captivity, according to the Houston Zoo.