Categories: Dearly Departed

Jovian, beloved PBS Zoboomafoo star, dies at Duke Lemur Center.

The Duke Lemur Center has announced that Jovian, the Coquerel’s sifaka lemur who starred in the PBS wildlife show Zoboomafoo, died on Monday, November 10, 2014. He was 20 years old. Jovian had 12 children, seven of whom are still alive. He also had four grandchildren.

Jovian was the center’s most famous resident, known to children around the world as the leaping, bounding dark brown-and-white primate who appeared in 65 episodes of “Zoboomafoo” from 1999 to 2001.

Brothers Martin and Chris Kratt created the show to teach children about wildlife, and they chose as their co-host a talking lemur puppet known as Zoboo. The Kratts also wanted to use footage of a real lemur and came to the Duke Lemur Center, where Martin Kratt, who graduated with a degree in zoology from Duke in 1989, had volunteered as a student.

Read the full story: Jovian Who Played Zoboomafoo Dies

 
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