Beloved Zoboomafoo lemur dies, Internet mourns

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Today, the Internet is mourning the loss of its favourite lemur.

Jovian, a Coquerel’s sifaka lemur, was best known for his starring role on PBS’s kid-friendly nature show, Zoboomafoo, hosted by brothers Chris and Martin Pratt, which aired from 1999 to 2001.

Jovian played Zoboo, a role he shared with a talking puppet.

According to the Duke Lemur Center, the place Jovian called home, the 20-year-old lemur died on Monday from kidney failure.

Almost immediately, everyone’s favourite lemur started trending on Twitter.

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Other Jovian fans shared their favourite memories of the lemur on Duke’s Facebook wall.

“He was very social and calm. He was young and good-looking and very gentle,” Martin Kratt recalled.

"He was great to work with," Kratt told the Duke Lemur Center after receiving news that his former co-star had died. “He’d jump in through the window and we’d feed him mangoes or garbanzo beans. Sometimes he’d grab our noses with those soft sifaka hands.”

At the centre, Jovian was popular with interns.

"Watching our young interns get excited over being in the presence of the real Zoboomafoo this summer made me realize just how lucky those of us at the Lemur Center were who had the opportunity to get to know the real Jovian in his prime," said David Haring, the centre’s registrar and photographer. “He was a playful, gentle, intelligent animal and perhaps one of the best sifaka sires ever.”

Caitlynn Filla, a former intern at the centre, agreed:

"Jovian was one of the lemurs I worked with doing behavioural studies in my 2.5 years as an intern at the DLC and he was always such a character! He definitely knew how to rock the movie star personality. I’m very sad to hear he’s gone," Filla wrote on Facebook.

Read the centre’s lengthy obituary for Jovian/Zoboo here.

Jovian is survived by mate Pia and 22-year-old brother Julian, as well as seven children and four grandchildren. (His daughter-in-law is currently expecting his fifth and sixth grandchildren.)