August 24, 2017 - 1:09 PM
DURHAM, N.C. - A pair of endangered lemurs has been imported to the U.S. from Madagascar for the first time in two decades.
The Duke Lemur Center announced Thursday that it transferred the 5-year-old male and 3-year-old female 9,000 miles from Madagascar to their new home in North Carolina. They were born in a conservation centre in Madagascar.
The centre says there could be fewer than 1,000 blue-eyed black lemurs in the wild.
The centre says it took three years of planning and 60 hours of travel to get them to the U.S. Duke says it's the first time lemurs have been imported to the U.S. from Madagascar in 24 years because of strict regulations on the primates.
Duke says there are about 30 blue-eyed black lemurs in the U.S. Overall, 238 lemurs of different species live at the centre at Duke University.
News from © The Associated Press, 2017