Being the owner of large expressive eyes, the loris lemur has recently begun to conquer city apartments from the cats and dogs we are used to. To some extent, this is good, because this small cute animal is on the verge of extinction, people are pushing it out of its native habitats - the Comoros Islands and Madagascar. But before buying, you should know about several very important aspects of keeping that will greatly influence your choice of pet.
Lemur loris
Introduction
Madagascar is a famous cartoon from DreamWorks Animation, released in 2005.
The animation was directed by Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath. Before working on Madagascar, Eric Darnell directed only one animated film, Ant Antz (1998). When Darnell was invited to the Madagascar project, the director was developing the cartoon Roskumentary, where the main characters were penguins. As a result, Eric Darnell transferred them to Madagascar, but as minor characters. Initially, the cartoon was called “Wild Life”, and only then received the name “Madagascar”. All parts turned out to be successful from a commercial point of view. If in the first and second series of the franchise the story is connected with the island of Madagascar, then in the third it does not appear at all. Initially, the animation was conceived without a sequel, but in the wake of the popularity of “Madagascar” it received a second and third part. Work is currently underway on the fourth cartoon in the franchise. Also, the creators do not deny that Madagascar 5 will appear in the future.
Madagascar: cartoons
Madagascar 1
The cartoon "Madagascar 1" became the first part of the famous franchise. The action takes place in the New York Zoo, where Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Gloria the hippopotamus and Melman the giraffe live carefree. Local penguins decide to escape from the zoo and go to their native Antarctica. Marty follows them too. Alex, Gloria and Melman decide to bring their friend back, but by chance they end up on a ship on the high seas. Boxes with animals fall into the water, and soon they wash up on the shores of Madagascar. Thus, Alex, Marty, Gloria, Melman and a group of penguins find themselves free in the wild jungle.
At first, the animals, accustomed to greenhouse conditions, do not know how to survive, and besides, the peace-loving Alex suddenly awakens his hunting instinct and wants to eat Marty. Then the whole company meets the local residents - lemurs led by King Julian. Lemurs lead a carefree lifestyle, which is disturbed from time to time by local predators - the evil fossa.
At one time the cartoon was banned on the island itself. It was believed that Julian was a parody of local leaders
Friends enter into battle with them, defending themselves and the lemurs, and win thanks to Alex. However, the lion cannot live in the wild, so the whole company decides to go home. At this moment, the penguins appear again, having stolen a ship from somewhere. They save Alex from hunger by feeding him fish. At the end of the cartoon "Madagascar" it becomes known that the fuel on the ship has been used up, so new adventures await the animals.
The cartoon "Madagascar 1", released in 2005, turned out to be commercially successful. With $75 million spent on it, it grossed $532 million.
Madagascar 2
The cartoon "Madagascar 2" was released in 2008. This time, four friends - Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman - are thrown into Africa. Four penguins, as well as lemurs Julian Maurice and Mort, go on this adventure with them. Alex finds his father, Zuba, the leader of a pride of lions. Gloria finds herself in the company of hippos and is courted by the popular hippo Moto-Moto. Melman at this time begins to work as a doctor and achieves great success in this matter. And Marty finds a herd of zebras and joins them.
Parents recognized Alex by a characteristic birthmark on his paw (which was not in the first part)
At this time, the penguins deceive the car of local tourists in order to use it for spare parts and repair the plane on which the animals reached Africa. Teeth's enemy, the lion Makunga, uses cunning to dislodge the leader and takes his place. Alex is kicked out of the pack, and he ends up with people. Zuba rushes to help his son, but he performs his signature dance in front of people and charms the audience.
Makunga loses his status as leader when he is beaten by old lady Nana in front of the other lions. She saw her bag in his hands (it was specially given to Makunga by Alex). As a result, all the animals get together again, make peace and decide to stay in Africa for a while.
The cartoon "Madagascar 2" became as successful as the first part. With a budget of $150 million, it grossed $603 million worldwide.
Madagascar 3
The cartoon “Madagascar 3” was released in 2012 and again told about the adventures of the lion Alex and company. This time, the four friends leave boring Africa and decide to return to their native New York zoo. However, Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria end up in Europe by mistake. Animal control captain Chantelle Dubois rushes in pursuit of them. Her dream is to get a lion's head and decorate her office with it.
The friends manage to break away from Dubois and her assistants by jumping onto a train carrying a traveling circus. The four have to lie that they are also circus animals. But the unofficial leader of the troupe - an Amur tiger named Vitaly - does not trust the newcomers and asks them to perform some numbers. Alex and company decide to make the circus more popular, and together with new friends they come up with a more interesting and exciting show. The circus becomes very popular, and the promoter helps him go on tour to America.
Alex and his friends breathed new life into the traveling circus
Four friends return to their native zoo. But Dubois again attacks the animals' trail. Animals from the circus come to the aid of Alex and the rest of his friends, and together they send Chantal Dubois to Madagascar. Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman decide to return to the circus and travel the world.
The cartoon Madagascar 3 became the most successful part of the franchise, grossing $746 million at the box office with a cost of $145 million. DreamWorks Animation is also planning to release the cartoon Madagascar 4. The release date is not yet known, most likely the animation will appear on screens in 2018. The creators have not yet revealed the plot of the new part; it is only known that the cartoon “Madagascar 4” will tell about the new adventures of Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman.
Madagascar Games
Lifestyle
Lemurs spend most of their lives in trees, which they climb very well, jumping from branch to branch, balancing their tails. However, there are also species of lemurs, such as the ring-tailed lemur, that spend a lot of time on the ground.
Lemurs, as a rule, lie on trees, basking in the Sun, where they make their lairs from branches, rest, and breed their offspring. If necessary, lemurs are able to cover long distances by jumping from branch to branch. For example, the jump of the Verreaux sifaka lemur is 9-10 meters.
Lemurs are social animals with a strong territorial sense. They live in family groups of 3 to 20-30 individuals. Within such a lemur group there is a strict hierarchy, the leader is the strongest female (yes, lemurs have matriarchy), who can choose males for herself to mate with during the mating season, and she also has an advantage when choosing food. The number of females and males in such a group is approximately equal, but if the females remain in the group until the end of their days, then the males sometimes go to other groups or may even begin to lead a solitary lifestyle.
Each group of lemurs has its own strictly defined territory, the area of which can range from 6 to 80 hectares. Lemurs mark the borders of their “kingdom” with a special secretion and urine, so that the alien lemurs can smell that there is nothing for them to do here.
Being social animals, lemurs actively communicate with each other using grunting or purring sounds, and sometimes they even scream. Additionally, lemurs communicate using their long tails.
An interesting fact: some species of lemurs, such as the dwarf lemur, fall into a kind of hibernation during the dry season - they sit in a daze on the branches, eat nothing at all, and at this time their body uses up pre-stored fat reserves.
Madagascar: short films
In 2005, the short cartoon “Penguins from Madagascar in Christmas Adventures” was released. This 12-minute animation is dedicated to the secondary characters of “Madagascar” - the penguins Skipper, Kowalski, Prapor and Rico. Together they escape from the old woman Nana, who mistakes Prapor for a Christmas toy. The penguins manage to escape, and together they throw a Christmas party at the zoo, which is then joined by other animals.
The four penguins have become no less popular than the main characters of Madagascar
Then, in 2009, another short film was released - “Christmas Madagascar” (another name is “New Year’s Madagascar”). The cartoon lasts almost half an hour, it tells how Santa Claus accidentally “suffers an accident” on the island of Madagascar, where four friends are still staying at that time. When Santa falls, he loses his memory, so Alex and company take it upon themselves to deliver gifts for the children. As a result, returning to the island, the animals accidentally encounter Santa, and he regains his memory, after which he leaves Madagascar.
In 2013, the short film “Passionate Madagascar” (“Mad Madagascar”), dedicated to Valentine’s Day, was released. The action takes place in Africa after the events that happened in the second part. The Love Potion perfume, which fell from an airplane and ended up in the hands of the lemur Julian, causes confusion in the relationship between friends. Everyone wants to grab a bottle to sort out their relationship with their significant other. As a result, real madness begins.
What to feed at home
Since lemurs are crepuscular and nocturnal animals, they should always be fed in the evening and at night. During the day, a lemur may well refuse food and this is normal for them. As for the foods that the lemur eats, this includes a variety of plant and animal foods:
Occasionally, lemurs can be given milk and even kefir, but only in small quantities. Since lemurs in natural conditions eat small insects, you can also purchase live crickets, cockroaches or mealworms for your pet lemur at a specialized zoological store, which they will happily eat.
Lemurs also have a sweet tooth and sometimes you can pamper them with boiled dried fruits, nuts and honey.
Madagascar: animated series
In 2008, Nickelodeon released the animated series Penguins of Madagascar. The animated series includes three seasons and talks about the secondary characters of Madagascar - a team of penguins. Together they carry out secret missions on the territory of the zoo, and sometimes outside it. The team consists of four members - captain Skipper, inventor Kowalski, demolition man Rico and performer Private (also known as Prapor). The episode lasts from 11 to 22 minutes.
On its release date, November 28, 2008, season 1 of “The Penguins of Madagascar” attracted almost 6 million viewers, which is quite a high figure. The first season consists of 48 episodes. Season 2 of the series “Penguins of Madagascar” was shown on screens from 2010 to 2011 and included 39 episodes. Finally, the currently final season 3 of “The Penguins of Madagascar” started in 2011 and ended in 2012. It has 34 episodes. It is not yet known whether the creators are going to renew the animated series “Penguins of Madagascar” for season 4.
The penguin team always acts coherently and achieves its goal
In 2014, another animated series dedicated to Madagascar was released - Long Live King Julian! It tells the story of the times when four friends from the New York Zoo had not yet arrived in Madagascar. The main character of this animated project is the self-proclaimed king of the lemurs, Julian, and his faithful assistants, Maurice and Mort. At the moment, two seasons of the animated series have been released, the premiere of which has not yet taken place in Russia.
"Penguins of Madagascar"
In the wake of the popularity of the franchise, DreamWorks Animation studio decided to launch a separate project, “Penguins of Madagascar.” The cartoon was released in 2014 and was very well received by viewers. At a cost of $132 million, the film grossed $373 million. The cartoon "Penguins of Madagascar" tells about the adventure of four friends - Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Prapor - even before meeting Alex and company.
The youngest penguin is Prapor. When the others hatched, he was still an egg
The story begins with the fact that in Antarctica, four penguin chicks are separated from a flock of their relatives and leave Antarctica. From this moment on, they turn into a team of secret agents. In the cartoon "Penguins of Madagascar" the heroes are confronted by the evil octopus Dave. At one time, he harbored a grudge against all the penguins of the world, because in every zoo where he lived, the penguins were the favorites of the public, but he was not.
Dave invents a special serum that will help him turn all penguins into scary monsters, and no one will love them anymore. The octopus then kidnaps all the penguins from the zoos and tries to carry out his sinister plan. But a team of agents led by Skipper confronts the villain. The penguins are also helped by a special animal rescue team, White Wind. Dave manages to turn the penguins into monsters, but Prapor, who has boundless charm, sacrifices himself. With the help of a laser beam passed through it, the penguins manage to return to their former appearance. Dave is defeated, and Prapor is restored to his charm by shining a beam through Mort the lemur.
Madagascar Games
Nutrition
What do lemurs eat? Lemurs, like monkeys, are omnivores, but they are still much more vegetarian than carnivores. Their main diet is:
tree leaves, ripe fruits (lemurs especially love figs and bananas), plant shoots, seeds, tree bark. But sometimes various small animals can become prey for lemurs; usually lemurs eat various large insects: mantises, moths, crickets, spiders, cockroaches.
Some lemurs can hunt arboreal
frogs, lizards, and also eat small birds and their eggs.
Many lemurs eat like monkeys and humans, first taking food with their paws and then putting it in their mouth.
Heroes of Madagascar
The main characters of the cartoon “Madagascar” are four animals from the central New York zoo. The unofficial leader of the company is the lion Alex. He is narcissistic, but at the same time very kind. He can dance very well, is a real star of the zoo and everyone's favorite. The lion from Madagascar speaks in the voice of famous comedian Ben Stiller.
Together with his friends, Alex participates in a variety of adventures
Alex's best friend is Marty the zebra. It was he who wanted to be the first to leave his native zoo and started a mess with subsequent adventures. Marty is an incorrigible optimist and a good friend. He is voiced by actor Chris Rock. The third member of the team is the hippopotamus Gloria: a plump woman with a good sense of humor, very cheerful and charming. She speaks in the voice of actress Jada Pinkett Smith. The four also include Melman, a suspicious and insecure giraffe. But at the same time, Melman is a good doctor. He is in love with Gloria, which he confesses to her while in Africa. The giraffe from "Madagascar" speaks in the voice of actor David Schwimmer, known for the TV series "Friends."
And Alex's faithful comrades will never leave him in trouble
In the first part, the four friends meet other characters who have also become very popular. One of them is King Julian from Madagascar. He rules over the lemurs on the island and loves to have fun. Julian leaves his native Madagascar with Alex and company to see the world and seize power in New York. He takes two assistants with him - Maurice and Mort. Maurice is a wise lemur whose main quality is patience. Ready to fulfill all Julian’s whims, although he doesn’t really like it. Mort from Madagascar is one of the audience's favorite characters. Small and very cute, he knows how to pretend to be a kind fluffy and make sad eyes, like the cat from Shrek.
King Julian speaks in the voice of actor Sacha Baron Cohen
Also, the secondary characters of the cartoon are a team of penguins. They were the ones who first developed the plan to leave the zoo. The names of the penguins from "Madagascar" are Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Prapor.
Enemies in nature
Despite their agility, lemurs often become prey to various large predators. The greatest threat to them is the Madagascar long-eared owl and barn owl, as well as
hawks. They are also attacked by snakes (especially the Madagascar tree boa) and some predatory mammals (narrow-striped mano, mongooses and even domestic dogs).
But be that as it may, lemurs suffer the most due to the destructive activities of humans. It has gotten to the point that now lemurs in Madagascar have officially been given protected status, since many of their species are on the verge of extinction. The intensive deforestation of Madagascar's tropical forests, the traditional habitats of these animals, has had a particularly detrimental effect on lemurs.
Video Games in Madagascar
A large number of video games have been created based on the cartoon “Madagascar”. The first one was released in 2005 and received a simple name - “Madagascar”. The game was created in the action-adventure genre, the main characters in it are all the main cartoon characters - Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria. Also in 2005, the game “Madagascar: Operation Penguin” was released, where the player needs to control four penguins. Interestingly, most of the subsequent video games were dedicated to penguins, although they are not the main characters of Madagascar. Among them: “Madagascar: Zoo Race”, “Madagascar: Penguins Fish”, “Madagascar: Snow Race” and others. Also, King Julian sometimes becomes the main character of video games - for example, in the game “Madagascar: Julian’s Dance”.
Madagascar: music
The cartoon “Madagascar” received recognition from the audience not only due to its colorful picture, but also to its good music. The composer of all three parts was Hans Zimmer, known for his compositions for the cartoons “Kung Fu Panda”, “Rango” and “The Lion King”. Originally, the music for Madagascar was supposed to be written by composer Harry Gregson-Williams, but then Zimmer replaced him. It is interesting that at one time Gregson-Williams replaced Zimmer in the Kingdom of Heaven project.
The famous song from Madagascar, “I like to move it,” actually belongs to the duo Reel 2 Real. The single was released in 1994 and immediately topped the charts. In Madagascar, “I like to move it” was performed by actor Sacha Baron Cohen, who voices King Julian.
In addition, in the three parts of “Madagascar” you can find other hits of the past. For example, “What a wonderful world” by Louis Armstrong, “Non, je ne regrette rien” by Edith Piaf, “Stayin' Alive” by the Bee Gees.
Madagascar Games
Sifaka lifestyle
Representatives of this species prefer to settle only in dry deciduous forests, the location of which is no higher than 500 meters above sea level.
This lemur, like all its fellow species, prefers to stay in trees.
Most often, these lemurs stay on the trunks of large trees, resting in the fork of the branches.
Criticism and public perception
The first part of “Madagascar” appealed to most of the audience, collecting a very impressive box office. Critics note that the cartoon turned out to be very colorful and kind, and therefore children liked it. But, according to many respected film critics, Madagascar cannot be called a masterpiece. The main reason for this assessment lies in the banality of the images of the main characters and the not very successful plot. According to the authors of the Lenta.ru resource, the animals are not at all attractive due to the originality of their characters. Children like them only because they either behave funny or absurd, or make cute faces. Often all the characters in Madagascar simply blur into one blur.
Animators draw every detail of the characters, literally every hair
Critic Garth Franklin notes that in the first part of the franchise, only the beginning is exciting. It is interesting to watch how animals accustomed to comfort behave in the wild. All this is a little reminiscent of the popular reality show “Survivor”. But then the scriptwriters seem to not know how their characters can get out of this situation, and therefore they “crumple up” the denouement of the cartoon.
“Overall, Madagascar is full of jokes that we've seen in other films, so the action feels dull and a little threadbare,” says critic Erin Clements.
“From time to time in the first part you can see references to famous films - “American Beauty”, “Cast Away”, “The Twilight Zone”, etc. But these jokes have no meaning and are only needed to somehow fill screen time,” states Garth Franklin.
“Madagascar” owes its success mainly to good animation, as well as some bright finds that can hook the viewer. The creators decided to “stuff” the action with a lot of tricks, and some of them actually worked. Among them: King Julian’s cheerful song “I like to move it”, old lady Nana beating everyone with her purse, a well-coordinated company of penguin special agents, etc.
Madagascar 2 received even more criticism than the first part. Many have noticed that the plot against Alex is reminiscent of a plot from The Lion King. Critic Carrie Rickey writes: "The writers took the flat tire that was once Madagascar, injected it with The Lion King air, and now they have Madagascar 2: Escape from Africa."
The third part of the franchise was also a commercial success, but even the most devoted critics of Madagascar noted that the cartoon repeated the jokes of the first parts, and the characters did not develop, but remained at the same level.
Description, structure, characteristics
Lemurs are mammals and belong to the order of primates, the suborder of wet-nosed monkeys and the information group of lemurs themselves or lemuriformes. The closest relatives of lemurs are monkeys, although lemurs have many differences with them. As for the lemurs themselves, their entire family is divided into 5 subfamilies, numbering as many as 101 species of different lemurs. We will definitely describe the most interesting of them in this article.
The size of a lemur depends on its species; the smallest dwarf mouse lemur easily fits in a human palm. Its size is 18-22 cm in length including the tail (if measured without the tail, then only 9-11 cm) with a weight of 24-38 grams.
The largest lemur, the short-tailed indri, is 50-70 cm in length. The average weight of a lemur of this species is 6-8 kg.
An interesting fact: zoologists believe that once upon a time, both in Madagascar and on the African continent, there were truly gigantic lemurs weighing up to 200 kg. They were larger than modern gorillas. Unfortunately, these giant lemurs became extinct before they survived to our times.
The lemur's body is elongated and dense, its head is round and slightly flattened. The lemur's muzzle is somewhat similar to a fox's, just as elongated and pointed. Also on the muzzle there are antennae, which nature gave them not only for beauty, they perform the function of touch.
The lemur's eyes are unusually large, yellow or orange in color (however, there is also a species of blue-eyed lemur in nature - Sclater's black lemur). Sometimes lemur eyes look like saucers, the expression of their eyes often speaks of simultaneous amazement and fear.
The lemur's teeth have a special structure: on the upper jaw the incisors are spaced very widely, while on the lower jaw they are very close to the fangs and are at a significant inclination forward, thus creating a kind of “tooth comb”.
All four paws of the lemur have 5 toes, the thumb is opposite the others. In general, the structure of the paws of lemurs is very similar to that of monkeys and, of course, us humans: lemurs have nails on their fingers, and the nail of the lemur’s index finger is especially long, since lemurs use it for hygienic purposes, it is called “toilet.”
The lemur's tail is especially long, bushy and luxurious. The length of the tail is often equal to the length of the body, and sometimes even exceeds it. Lemurs have a tail not only for beauty, but also with its help they communicate with each other, and like squirrels, the tail helps them maintain balance when jumping from branch to branch.
But the species of lemur - the short-tailed indri, alas, cannot boast of its long tail; it has the shortest tail in the lemur family - it is only 3-5 cm in length.
The lemur's fur is thick and can have a wide variety of colors: some types of lemurs have gray-brown colors, others are black and white, and others have red or red-brown fur. The ring-tailed lemur has a funny coloration, whose long tail is decorated with black and white stripes.
Interesting Facts
- The filmmakers aimed to make the animals in the style of classic Hollywood animation from the 50s and 60s. The old-fashioned style, combined with innovative computer graphics, in their opinion, would distinguish the cartoon from other creations of the DreamWorks Animation studio.
- The animators wanted to give all four animals features similar to the actors voicing them. The image of the zebra from Marty’s “Madagascar” was especially successful. He really looks a lot like actor Chris Rock. In the second part of the cartoon, Marty, having got to his fellow zebras, realizes that he has blended into the crowd so that even his close friends do not recognize him. This is an allusion to a famous racist saying regarding blacks (Chris Rock is African American).
- In the Russian dubbing, the cartoon characters are also voiced by famous actors: the hippopotamus from Madagascar Gloria speaks in the voice of Masha Malinovskaya, the lion Alex is voiced by Konstantin Khabensky. The giraffe Melman got the voice of Alexander Tsekalo, and the zebra Marty speaks in the voice of Oscar Kuchera.
- The prototypes of penguins were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The creators of the cartoon even highlighted their main features. Skipper (Leonardo) is the decisive leader of the team, Kowalski (Donatello) is the scientist-inventor, Rico (Rafal) is the rebel, Prapor (Michelangelo) is the softest and most sensitive member of the team.
- Fans divided the characters of “Madagascar” by temperament type. Marty and Rico are sanguine, Alex and Prapor are choleric, Gloria and Skipper are phlegmatic, and Melman and Kowalski are melancholic.
- The interjection “mimimi” became widespread precisely after the release of “Madagascar.” It is pronounced by the little lemur Mort. The phrase “smile and wave” also became famous thanks to “Madagascar.” It belongs to one of the penguins.
Marty is no less charismatic character than Alex the lion
Lemur, video
And finally, an interesting documentary about ring-tailed lemurs.
Author: Pavel Chaika, editor-in-chief of Poznavaika magazine
When writing the article, I tried to make it as interesting, useful and high-quality as possible. I would be grateful for any feedback and constructive criticism in the form of comments on the article. You can also write your wish/question/suggestion to my email [email protected] or Facebook, with respect, the author.
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