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Schönbrunn Zoo in Vienna has recently welcomed two very special arrivals!

Their ring-tailed lemurs, known for their distinctive striped tails, have just given birth to two very adorable twins.

A spokesman for the zoo explained that the lemurs are always amongst the first of the species living in the zoo to give birth every year, and with more of their female lemurs still pregnant, there will soon be even more babies joining them in the enclosure!

The twins each weighed just a miniscule 70lb each when they were born, and it is not yet known whether they are male or female.

The bundles of fluffy joy spent their first few days sleeping, snuggled up on their mum’s tummy but will graduate to being carried around on her back in just a few short weeks.


Lemurs tend to suckle for around 6 months and start to eat fruit and vegetables when they are around 1 month old. Ring-tailed lemur’s are herbivores and although most of their diet is made up of fruit they also snack on flowers, leaves and tree bark.

Ring-tailed lemurs are one of about 100 species of lemurs in the world, all of which are native only to the island of Madagascar, which lies off the coast of Africa. Because Madagascar is so isolated, it is home to plenty of incredible animals that can’t be found anywhere else on earth.


But sadly, the lemur population has shrunk by more than a quarter in the past 25 years as huge areas of their natural forest habitat has been cleared for firewood or to make way for farmland.

More than two thirds of the species are now classed as endangered or critically endangered according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. This makes the birth of these twins, even though they are in captivity, all the more important to help preserve these amazing animals for as long as possible.