Fans of the animated “Madagascar” movies, with their singing and dancing lemurs, might want to check out the new IMAX 3-D documentary “Island of Lemurs: Madagascar,” narrated by Morgan Freeman, which takes viewers to the remote African island nation to see the amazing creatures in their natural habitat.
One of the film’s leads, Dr. Patricia Wright, a professor at Stony Brook University who once called Brooklyn home, has spent nearly 30 years studying lemurs, spending much of her time in Madagascar working to preserve the animals and their habitat.
“I was so pleased that they made that film because nobody hardly knew what a lemur was, and I think they will now,” Wright says. “They’re critically endangered, many of them, and even though there’s 103 different kinds, 91% of them are either threatened, endangered or critically endangered. And that’s a shame.”
While you can see the lemurs in the film, you can also check them out in the flesh at the Bronx Zoo.
“They’ve done a fantastic job with the habitats, and the lemurs there are really happy and wonderful,” she says. “I really think the Bronx Zoo has done one of the best lemur exhibits around, anywhere.”
