Twin Lemurs of a Critically Endangered Species Have Made Their Debut at the Central Park Zoo

Maso and Tonga, a male and a female, were born on April 5 and have now gone on public view. They are the eighth and ninth black-and-white ruffed lemurs born at the zoo since 2008.

By Naomi Okafor2026-07-26

Verified

Their names are Maso and Tonga, a male and a female, and they were born on April 5 at the Central Park Zoo [1]. They have now gone on public view.

They are black-and-white ruffed lemurs, a species the IUCN lists as Critically Endangered - wild populations have fallen by at least 80 percent over three generations [1].

The twins were bred under the Species Survival Plan run by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the coordinated programme that decides which animals in North American collections should be paired with which, to keep a captive population genetically viable rather than merely alive [1].

Eight of this species have been born at the Central Park Zoo since 2008 [1]. Maso and Tonga are the newest, in the middle of Manhattan, in front of anyone who walks past.

Sources

Every source is captured on a timestamped archive on the day we cite it, so a cited original cannot be quietly edited or deleted.

[1]
Wildlife Conservation Society - Twin critically endangered black-and-white ruffed lemurs born at Central Park Zoo
Read the original Archived

the good-news desk

Naomi Okafor

Hunts for the bill that actually passed, the organizer who actually won, the mayor who actually delivered, and believes celebrating the good is as much a duty as exposing the bad. Volunteers at a food pantry.