Lemur Street

***Lemur Street*** is a British television series produced by Oxford Scientific Films for Animal Planet International. Using the same format as *Meerkat Manor*, it narrated by Martin Shaw and aired for twenty episodes from November 2007 to January 2008.

In the United States, the series was released under the title *Lemur Kingdom* and aired fourteen of its twenty episodes on Animal Planet from February 8 to May 9, 2008. This broadcast also added names for the episodes - which were referred to by number in the UK - and renamed the lemur troops and some individual lemurs. For example, the Tornadoes were renamed the Furies because of the constant infighting between the three families which make up the troop. Crystal, the dominant female of the Graveyards, has been renamed Juno and her mate Blake has been renamed Marcus.

## Premise

The series follows two competing troops of matriarchal ring-tailed lemurs in the Berenty Reserve on the island of Madagascar. Along with following the lemurs' battles for dominance, against their natural enemies and each other, the series is reported to include the first professionally recorded footage of a ring-tailed lemur giving birth.

## The lemurs

### Tornadoes

This group is made up of three separate families of lemurs and has approximately twenty members. In the US broadcast, they were renamed the "Furies" because of the constant infighting between the three families.

* **Amazon** - A first time mother of four years of age who ignores and neglects her first son, Gizmo. Her neglectful nature leads to the rest of the troop doing the same until Gizmo eventually dies of an injured leg. Amazon becomes a more attentive mother following the birth of her second baby, Orinoco. Between the fifth and sixth episodes, she helps her mother Flame in overthrowing Electra as the dominant female. Amazon later evicts Electra from the group after the latter gives birth.
* **Electra** - The queen of the group known for her bad temper. until she is dethroned by the sixth episode by Flame and Amazon and driven to being the lowest ranking member of the group. After giving birth, she and her newborn son Prince are evicted from the troop. Prince falls from his mother's grasp and dies during the night, and Electra mourns his death. She returns to the troop at the end of the series.
* **Snowflake** - Amazon's sister and Flame's daughter. In the ninth episode, she helps her mother and sister dethrone Electra and her newborn son Prince.
* **Flame** - Amazon and Snowflake's mother who helped her daughters in dethroning Electra.
* **Stella** - Tornadoes' ex-queen and Chelsea's mother. She pets Chelsea and is very concerned for her.
* **Chelsea** - Stella's spoiled daughter. In the fourth episode, she threw Gizmo from a branch, ruining his life, whereupon he dies in the next episode. In the eighth episode, she strays from her family and becomes lost, but is eventually found alive.
* **Flash** - Tornadoes' dominant male.
* **Gizmo** - Amazon's first son, who was born late and is a runt of the litter. At the start of the series, he is five months old and neglected by his mother. He falls from a tree and injures his leg after an unprovoked attack by Chelsea, after which he struggles to keep up with the group, but is left behind. He is revealed to have died in the third episode, presumably, according to the narrator, by a predator.

### Graveyards

This member of twenty members is made up of one family and is named for the fact that they live in a graveyard. In the US broadcast, their name is changed to "Graveyard Gang".

* **Crystal** - The steady, dominant female of the Graveyards who has led the group for four years. In the seventh episode, she gives birth to her first baby Jasmine. In the US version, Crystal's name is changed to Juno.
* **Tapas** - Crystal and Sophie's sister and Josephine's daughter.
* **Sophie** - Tapas and Crystal's sister and Josephine's daughter.
* **Josephine** - Tapas, Sophie and Crystal's mother and ex-queen of the Graveyard. She transferred power to Crystal before the series started shooting.
* **Blake** - The aging, dominant male facing competition for his position from the younger lemurs. He receives a bad slash to his right paw during a battle with Flash, the dominant male of the Tornadoes. In the US version, Blake is renamed Marcus.
* **Milton** - One of the Graveyards' males.
* **Peg Leg** - The oldest, lowest ranking member of the troop at thirteen years of age. He lost one of his back legs to a dog eleven years prior to the series. He usually gets out of the way during battles and avoids the mating fights, but Crystal chose him as her mate when she came into heat, after which she gave birth to Jasmine. He is frequently in the company of his friend Nimbus, another low-ranking male. At one point, after six years living with the Graveyards, Peg Leg and Nimbus attempted to leave to find a new troop, an act called Biological dispersal which helps prevent inbreeding, but were unable to find one and return to the Graveyards.
* **Derrick** - Peg Leg's best friend.
* **Liberty** - The mother of Hogarth and the lowest ranking female in the troop. She mates with Blake, the dominant male, after he chases away a nomadic male named Titus. Liberty leads her family to desert the Graveyards when they faced starvation and with Crystal concentrating on feeding her immediate family during the dry season. A few days later, Liberty gives birth to Lily.
* **Emily** - Liberty and Peg Leg's daughter and Hogarth's eldest daughter. In the fourteenth episode, she gives birth to a daughter named Willow.
* **Hogarth** - Liberty's independent son. He went into the woods during an attack on stray males and got lost, but eventually returned home, but spent the night alone. Fire cut him off from the road to his family, but was later found alive.