They sure are

I was offered an obese male ringtail lemur not long ago. I couldn't say no fast enough. Dealing with my kinkajou is more than enough problems.

One thing annoys me when reading trough this thread. People keep on talking about owning one lemur or one primate.
I think this sends out the wrong impresion. Lemurs and primates are very social, and should never be kept alone. Human company is just not good enough, you need atleast two animals for them to thrive.

They are very social and need 2 at least!! When you see them in the wild, they are in packs most of the time!!

I saw that episode today aswell! he was so cute he was hugging her and talking and everything, he looked perfectly happy and ive wated one for a very long time! haha
but yeah i just searched to see if its legal to own a lemur in the uk n came across this, if anyone knows please shout me! =] thanks
regards
rhiannon

You should never get just one. It sounds like that woman just didn't know what she was doing.
Some years ago you also saw punkers with a single rat on the shoulder, all the time. Now no good rat owner would ever keep a single rat.
It's the same with lemurs.

I know several people who have just one and they are happy well adjusted animals but you have to make the commitment to be their troop which pretty much means never leaving them alone and they are never caged. Heck they can go outside with the owners loose and they don't run off or even want to go far enough to leave sight of the home or owner.

As for UK there is a department with a list of what can and can't be had. I always forget the name but the best place to ask would be here http://www.exotickeepersforum.co.uk/phpBB3/index.php

Imo it's cruelty to keep a primate or lemure and so on alone. A human can never become what a member of the same species is.

To be honest, I'm glad I live in a country where it is illegal to keep highly intelligent and social animals like that alone...

So even if an animal looks and acts happy we are to assume it is mental and emotionally tortured? I don't see how it's cruel if the animal is (or appears to be) happy and healthy.

Not every species of primate or lemur is communal either and trying to force them to live socially to suit the human need(law) of them having one of their own kind can be problematic.

The lemurs I know where the owners only keep one are not kept alone as the people are always with them, work from home or the like. They are happy and have no problems from this.

I am going to agree with TamanduaGirl in most of this. Most primates do better in pairs or more, but I have known people who have had single primates for the entirety of the animal's life and they have never experienced any sort of aggression. You just have to spend most of your time with them. The examples that I have are a woman who has had a single capuchin monkey for over 16 years (and she's still doing great!), and a lady who had a tamarin for around 10ish years.

Now, I am not saying that monkey ownership is for everyone, nor am I saying I think that monkeys are "pets." They are tricky and require a lot of hard work/research before deciding to add one to your family. The ones that have behavior problems are usually being housed in cages, singly with no one giving any attention to it, or people teasing it/rough housing with it. My view is, if you do the research (for several years minimum), have an adequate habitat for the critter, have the proper mindset (this is an animal not a little person or a "pet"), are responsible, and are financially capable of keeping a monkey, you should be allowed to.

It is hard for a lot of people to understand that many smaller primates and other exotic animals are just fine in captivity as long as they are cared for properly. I've known people who have kept bears, primates, zebras, and cougars, and although I would never keep one myself, the animals were healthy and happy and never hurt anyone because they had responsible caretakers. Unfortunately, a lot of people have only had bad examples of exotic animal keeping gone wrong as a reference and as such, tend to generalize things. I can look up some stats if people want, but I think out of the thousands of primates kept by independent hobbyists, there have only been around 2% who have attacked a human with serious injury, but since the media is everywhere, you would think the rates were closer to 99% lol. And, I believe all of these monkeys were "Old World" apes such as Chimpanzee's and Baboons, which are larger and more temperamental.

Also, as a final point, a lot of primates, such as Marmosets, die within a few years in the wild (predation, malnutrition, disease, and habitat destruction are factors), whereas with careful keeping (nice/clean/spacious habitat, good diet, plenty of companionship, training) Marms can reach 10-15 years!

Ending my speech here lol I don't want to step on anyone's toes, and this wasn't directed at anyone in particular! I just want to spread some awareness that there are good primate caretakers out there! If anyone has any questions about primates/things I've said, you can feel free to PM me, and I can direct you to more sources of info

I'm interested in those stats and where you got them. Although they may be a little lower anyways since so many people remove teeth from their primates . But yeah, I haven't seen that research and would be interested in reading it.

No problem! Here is a really excellent monkey-ownership website. She doesn't condone monkey keeping, but gives very straightforward advice/facts. Its really good since it does iron out lots of monkey facts that are misconstrued. There are a few other really good sites as well, but this one is the best in my mind.

petmonkeyinfo(DOT)com(SLASH)monkeymyths(DOT)html

(Sorry, it wont let me put in a direct link yet, but if you copy/paste this and insert the dots and slash into your web browser, you can get there )

The people I have known who have kept/keep monkeys have not had their teeth removed, I am happy to say! Although, I know that it still does happen Luckily, most of the good keepers do not practice this anymore. That's not saying some redneck will practice the same restraint tho

Again, I am not saying that monkeys are pets, but after seeing some people I have known who have taken such good care of their primate friends, I can't say that it is immoral or bad altogether. The monkey's disposition really comes from its treatment. With good caretakers and a large/enrichment filled environment, the monkeys can be kept very happy!

Thanks, e-mailing the owner now since they didn't actually cite sources. I'd prefer to read the stats myself, you know?

I am concerned that this person has young monkeys and therefore can't really say anything about them not turning aggressive as they age . They have pretty limited experience, honestly. Hopefully the actual research looks more legitimate than that website.

Cool! She actually is really nice, and she answers questions pretty frequently Her mother-in-law has a 13 year old capuchin that is still a sweetie, and she has spent a lot of time learning from her mother-in-law and some other monkey breeders/keepers. Also, I believe she lives in Florida where you have to have 1000+ hours experience working with whatever exotic critter you are planning on acquiring before being granted a permit, also you have to have USDA approved quarters for the critter as well. Florida is pretty strict, luckily. Its the way the system of exotic animal ownership should be run: no long-term research and hands on experience, no exotic animal. There's another lady who has expertise with exotic animals: primates, sloths, tamanduas, lynx, etc is chasing-tail(DOT)com She has a lot of good videos on Youtube and she is an exemplary caretaker IMO

To the original topic being lemurs as pets it should be noted that lemurs are primitive primates which is not so much like monkeys. Lemurs are easier to keep and keep happy than monkeys and other advanced(not sure the exact term) primates.

Not to say they are easy to keep just easier to keep, happy and safely. A less demanding animal than a monkey but still much more than the common domestic pets or even common exotics.

REXANO has statistics on death caused by exotics compared to death by other things http://www.rexano.org/Statistics/Dea...nimal_2005.pdf
it doesn't cover just injuries where no death happened though.