Primate Palooza Planning Meeting: January 19 at 6pm!

We’re having our first meeting on Tuesday (January 19) at 6:00PM to begin delegating tasks and preparing committees for our different events. We have a lot to get done and can definitely use all of your help! 

So if you’re interested in getting involved in Primate Palooza, grab dinner and meet us in the Bryan Center (at the long table near McDonalds and in front of the Loop) on Tuesday at 6:00PM. Hope to see you there!

Lemur Center Workday: Saturday, Oct 6

The Duke Lemur Center is the world's largest research facility for critically endangered lemurs from Madagascar. It's not every day that you have the opportunity to contribute to the conservation of these fascinating primates (yes, primates).

Upcoming Lemur Center Workday

Saturday, October 6

Morning: 10am - 12pm

Afternoon: 12:30 - 2:30pm

Contact us at nc.roots.shoots@gmail.com to sign up!

A Brown Lemur from within its enclosure.

Better yet, the Center is a mere 5 minute's drive from campus. 

The enclosures and part of the surrounding Duke Forest.

As a Workday volunteer, you will: 

1. Help to maintain the enclosures, prepare lemur food and even think of creative ways to keep these highly intelligent creatures occupied. 
2. Be entitled to a FREE TOUR in exchange for getting your hands dirty. 
3. Get to see many wonderful lemurs like the sifaka, the aye-aye and the bush baby (or two) in the flesh.

Nocturnal Lemur Housing : Fat-tailed dwarf lemurs chilling in a bucket.

Charles the satisfied volunteer, after helping to weed the enclosures. 

Featuring 3 photobombing Sifakas.

We've scheduled a Workday this Saturday, Oct 6, so contact us at nc.roots.shoots@gmail.com before limited spaces run out. There are 2 timeslots: 10am - 12pm and 1230 - 230pm. You may sign up for one or both timeslots.

If you have a car and are willing to help us out with the 5 minute drive to the Lemur Center, let us know. Please note that spaces are limited and drivers have priority. 

We can't wait to see you at the Duke Lemur Center. 

Movie Screening: Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History

Chimp news from Gombe

Want to know what's going on in Gombe National Park 50 years after Jane Goodall began studying the chimps? Check out graduate student Kara's blog: http://dukeprimate.wordpress.com/category/from-the-field/

Primate Palooza 2011

The second annual Primate Palooza begins March 21!

We are still calling for art and film submissions. There will be prizes!

Check out www.primatepalooza.com and Facebook: Primate Palooza 2011 for more information.

SCHEDULE:

March 21-30 Conservation is…Art
Duke University Bryan Center

Monday, March 21 Performing Biodiversity, Dance and music showcase.
7-9pm Reynolds Theater, Duke

Wednesday March 23 Global Health and Biodiversity
6:30pm (Bingham 301, UNC-CH);

Thursday March 24 Gombe National Park: A Case Study in Research and Conservation, 5pm (BioSci 111, Duke);

Friday March 25 Strategies for Protecting Tropical Forests
4:30pm (Love Auditorium, Duke).

Saturday, March 26 & Sunday March 27 Lemur Center Tours
3:30-5pm. Sign up online at primatepalooza.com

Sunday March 27 On the Edge, Public Service Announcement screening.
7-9pm, Griffith Film Theater, Duke

Why do conservation?

Many of us are concerned about conservation issues. We care about primates. We worry about hunting and deforestation. We worry about environmental degradation. We want to protect biodiversity. But what exactly are the goals of conservationists? Is it to preserve biodiversity? To protect habitats? To save certain species from extinction?

What do you think are the goals of conservation? What does conservation mean to you?
Define any terms you use (such as biodiversity).

To determine effective strategies, it is important to understand what we are trying to do!

Workday with Ubuntu

On Saturday, the Duke/UNC Roots & Shoots hosted our largest service day yet at the Duke Lemur Center. Twenty-five volunteers spent their mornings transporting trash to a dumpster or tearing down an old enclosure. The difference in just an hour and a half’s work was dramatic. Where a building once stood, remained only fragmented pieces. The space once occupied by a tonnage of wooden beams and other parts was now empty save the separated metal bits.

Ubuntu, Duke’s civic engagement themed living group, organized the day’s event with the help of Roots & Shoots as part of their annual ‘rush.’ Members and prospective members of Ubuntu volunteered. Fortunately, the tasks at hand were appropriate for such a large and enthusiastic group.

After the work segment, the Duke students broke up into smaller groups to receive tours of the center. The day’s terrific weather brought out the sifakas, ringtails, and other prosimians. As per the group’s focus on social change, Roots & Shoots got to talk especially about the center’s important contributions to conservation and the role of research in preserving biodiversity.

The Duke/UNC Roots & Shoots group is now developing our calendar for spring service-days at the Duke Lemur Center. If you are interested in volunteering or hosting a group of volunteers, please contact nc.roots.shoots@gmail.com