To think when it says don't touch the lemurs....

[Softlysoftly]

....you shouldn't touch the bloody lemurs?

And you certainly shouldn't let your crawling baby stroke the lemur, grab its tail and yank on it? Then proclaim loudly in distress "oh it nearly turned on him!".

AIBU to have had my judgy pants on?

Ah boo :(

I'd like to see a lemur rampage.

And if DS touched a lemur when he was told not to and it bit him, I would shake it's sticky little paw, not sue the zoo :( bloody people.

I was at a zoo recently where a woman was throwing her sandwiches at the chimps. I was livid and shouted at her to stop and tried to explain why. She pointed at the sign saying what they ate and said' it says they eat bread' and refused to stop! Not a keeper in sight either. Totally ruined my day having a confrontation with her.

Lemurs are indeed bitey.

I like to live life on the edge...

I have a fab photo of my nephew sat on one of the seats in the lemur part of Yorkshire Wildlife Park last year surrounded by about 3 lemurs - he couldn't help but touch them as they were all over him

snaplegs and dawn We were in Gib a few years ago and saw a group of tourists trying to grab a very tiny obviously newborn ape from its mother's nipple so that their DCs could be photographed with it.

I'm afraid I rather lost my temper...

I need sleep! Just been reading this thread thinking you were all a bit mad.

I said to DH that DD and I were stroking Lemurs today at the farm, and they certainly didn't have cute paws. He replied 'they were Llamas you tool'

Bedtime for me...

custard off you pop, have some coco

Now llamas are bloody vicious and I give them a wide berth.

I saw a terrible accident at London zoo which involved a llama. Plus one spat snot at me once and I was plastered in it.

I once completely failed to keep a straight face in a zoo that had all sorts of monkeys and lemurs running loose at a similar incident. They do not let you into the place without a 'monkey safety' talk (so there's excuses like an overlooked sign) and 'do not touch the monkeys unless the monkeys touch you' is stressed over and over again. First lot of monkeys we see - don't know what kind they were but they were very small, very cute and very fast, and using the visitors for climbing frames.

One of them was sat in a tree, minding its own business when a guy with his toddler DD walked up, grabbed the branch, and tried to pull the monkey down off it. Toddler pipes up 'daddy, they said at the entrance you can't do that because the monkeys don't like it...', he starts to explain that it's fine and you can just ignore what the staff say because he can touch the monkey if he wants to when the monkey sinks its teeth into his hand.

I felt a little bad for the girl as she was clearly shocked due to her dad's howling and swearing but I must confess I laughed like a drain. Serves him right.

So there's no excuses like an overlooked sign, obviously.

Why is it always the really important word I manage to leave out?

I live very near to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park and we have a season pass (so can perhaps meet up with wandering MNers and their lemur-touching off-spring at short notice).

Was there not a bored looking staff member muttering "don't touch the lemurs...stop touching the rope...stay on the path..stop poking the lemur..." at them? They usually have someone on guard.

They never tell the lemurs not to touch the people though, which is why I once had one of the brown ones hanging from my hair and grooming me.

They did say they are more likely to pee on you than bite.

Cricket St Thomas was always good for a lemur rampage. They were in a walk-through enclosure but the big black and white ones were always climbing over the fence and raiding the bins at the cafe.

comma there was a young girl on duty but she didn't come over, it was very busy she probably had five other shallow gene pool members sets of parents to bollock. I should have called her really instead of spinelessly commenting and cats bumming.

The lemurs were the black and whites luckily as they seem the friendliest, we sent dd2 and the pushchair round the outside as I know they are known to picnic raid the pushchairs, cheeky buggers!

Maybe I have sign blindness. I've been shouted at today for walking on wet paint on a footpath. I said to the workmen they ought to have a sign and then they pointed one out. It was very small and I still reckon it should have been barried off!

I hate lemurs! We went to a zoo/park in Tenerife about 10 years ago and were invited into the lemur enclosure for feeding time. Didn't know I was on the menu - a big black and white one went for me and ripped my leg open in two places - those mothers have big claws. I spent every day of my holiday visiting the hospital to have wounds dressed from ankle to thigh, so tan was a bit iffy. I then had to be swabbed for 'diseases' when I came home and was the talk of the surgery 'that woman was attacked by a monkey '.

One of the types of lemur in the Blackpool Zoo Lemur wood has vampire teeth, few people try to touch them!

I love the way they sit in the sun, they look like they're trying to meditate but being distracted.

Viva if you're still around, I'd love to know about "I saw a terrible accident at London zoo which involved a llama". Did someone fall over it or get trampled or something?

I didn't know they could drive sorry

Llama accident - back when I was a kid they used to do llama drawn cart rides at the zoo (and camel rides). I saw a llama bolt, it turned the carriage on its side with children still in it and carried on running.

I think a girl was quite badly hurt. I had a good view of it all as was sat on a camel in the next paddock. Can still rememebr the screaming.

Christ, poor children. Sorry, but I love "I....was sat on a camel in the next paddock".

I think that my mum had a ride on an elephant at London zoo way back when. I guess it was incidents like yours that stopped this sort of animal exploitation. Can you imagine the risk assessment now?

When DD was about 2 we took her to Woburn. We carried her through the lemur encounter enclosure whilst DGrandad pushed her buggy.

One of the lemurs jumped in and got a ride across one of the walkways. DD went mad (with pleasure) when she noticed and it's gone down in family folklore.

God I know!

Me and a friend were also invited into the elephant enclosure at London zoo to help weigh them. We fed them dog biscuits. I got a certificate. There is no way they'd just randomly ask 11 year old kids into an enclosure these days. Our parents weren't even with us so they didn't even have parental consent!

YANBU at all the parents needed poked in the eye by a lemur then they would realise not to touch some folk are just IDIOTS ,

a big black and white one went for me and ripped my leg open in two places

Doesn't surprise me. If you've ever read Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell, there's a bit where he's looking after a Lemur at home and it goes for him in the same way. He nearly bled to death as the stripy bastard severed an artery.

To think when it says don't touch the lemurs....you know you aren't in Homebase after all