San Francisco Zoo welcomes 2 rare sifaka lemurs

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Saturday, August 20, 2016
Two Sifaka lemurs checked out their new habitat at the San Francisco Zoo's Primate Center on Friday, August 19, 2016.
Two Sifaka lemurs checked out their new habitat at the San Francisco Zoo's Primate Center on Friday, August 19, 2016.
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SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The San Francisco Zoo opened a new exhibit on Friday, but first it took certain precautions.

Two sifaka lemurs checked out their new habitat at the zoo's Primate Center.

From the start, the lemurs showed their tremendous leaping ability -- they can jump 30 feet.

Because of that, the zoo couldn't put them in with the other lemurs, so they built a special enclosure for them.

The space also shows off the lemurs' funny walk.

"They will walk by beatling, a bounce. It is very kind of comical, but at the same time it is very, very graceful," San Francisco Zoo Director of Primates Joe Knobbe said.

The Sifaka lemurs are native to Madagascar. San Francisco becomes only the tenth zoo to have them.

The two lemurs are expected to breed, so expect to see a baby lemur in a few years.

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