Duke Lemur Center Reviews

What a cool place!!

My family and I took the basic group tour which lasted about an hour and I learned so much! Our tour guide really knew her stuff! They offer more expensive tours where you can actually interact with the lemurs and if I get a chance to go back that is what I will do!

Call ahead to book a tour! Walk-ins are not available for this facility. They are very popular and are frequently booked up a few weeks out, especially around holidays. If you don't know much about the Lemur Center, their website is extremely informative.

This amazing institution is located in Duke Forest. Duke Lemur Center (formerly Duke University Primate Center) is involved in conservation education & noninvasive research of endangered animal species, lemurs from Madagascar.

The most like Madagaskar in the USA. I love this place!!!!

We went in April (had to get on a waiting list for reservations, so book early). Most of the lemurs were in the inside enclosures, due to the temperature, however, if you go in the summer, you get a completely different experience! The inside enclosures were a bit difficult to continue to look at, as there is a chain link fence and sometimes that makes your eyes go wonky.

The lemurs are so cute! This is where they filmed Zoboomafoo!

After years of waiting, I finally got to see the lemurs. Totally worth the wait! The tour starts with a short informative video, then a walk to see some of the lemurs in their outdoor homes. It's a little tough to get a picture of them in the enclosures, but their cuteness is apparent even from far away. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable. By the end, you can't help but pick up a couple souvenirs to bring home (plus it supports the research efforts). Highly recommend!

Largest collection of lemurs outside of Madagascar. Great place to learn about lemurs and lemur conservation.

We just finished the Lemurs Live Twilight Tour and found it very enjoyable! This is the guided tour showcasing numerous types lemurs in enclosures. Our guides were extremely knowledgeable and entertaining making the tour interesting for the wide range of ages of guests in our group. The enclosures were very well kept and you could tell that the staff at the Lemur Center truly loved the lemurs. I would definitely recommend this as a great family outing.

The tour and guides were great. The gift shop cashier was not polite with me and my family. Overall, the experience was great and I'm disappointed in the interaction with this one individual.

Did our second Walking with Lemurs tour here this past weekend...had to come back for more! We visited with three types of lemurs, red ruffed, ringtail and sifaka. It is an amazing up close and personal tour that allows for great pictures and videos! Our guide Megan and lemur keeper Matt were awesome...so knowledgeable and friendly. For the lemur-obsessed, this trip is a must!

The Duke Lemur Center is one of the hidden jewels of the Triangle. The work that the scientists and volunteers do is difficult, dangerous, and miraculous. The Duke Lemur Center is unique--and it deserves preservation, protection, and funding.

Amazing habitat for lemurs. They seem to be treated very well here

Just came back from the $12 tour. The center is clean and has good gravel roads. Except for that, most of the tour is equivalent (or worst) to the reading the wikipedia page about lemurs and watching a 10 minutes youtube video (you actually do it there). Admittedly, we weren't lucky: today is a rather cold day (50F) and most lemurs hid indoors, where the visitors aren't allowed. So, we saw lemurs only in about 8 cages. But even if all of the lemurs were out and playing, they are behind two (2!) cage nets, with the second net being 2 meters / yards away from visitors. You can barely see them. Forget about pictures. This way you pass by around 20 cages, with the tour guide telling you not to stand in front some of the lemurs, as they are currently having some family issues. At the end, you get to see 3 cages with nocturnal species (perhaps, the best part of today) and that's it!

Any other zoo is better (if the zoo keeps lemurs, as a lot of them do, you'll have a better experience with them there in this center). Want to see lemurs in Durham? Better go to the Durham Life and Science Museum! You'll see them better and closer than here. Otherwise, you can feel good by making a donation, which is apparently well spent on preserving lemurs in Madagascar.

The only lemur research center in the US. The work they do here is vitally important for the preservation of these endangered species, which are native only to Madagascar.

Come learn about these fascinating creatures and support the center's mission.

Don't even look in that direction in the winter months for the basic tour. I wish I would have known that they show about 8 lemur's (out of the claimed 240) kept behind double cages. Simply can't take any good pictures. Was a waste of time an money. May be I'll take the 'walk with the lemurs' tour some day and update this review.

Fabulous.

we splurged and did the "Walking with Lemurs" tour. That meant that we got a tour inside one of the facilities and then spent time in the forest with a family of lemurs. We were able to be within a couple of feet of the lemurs and got great pictures. (the best was my daughter taking a "selfie" of her with a lemur and the lemur was clearly looking at himself (herself?) in the screen).

note, you must have a reservation to get a tour.

Amazing place to learn about lemurs and the wonderful research being done to help them.

I was disappointed with the tour. I went with some friends from out of town and they weren t impressed either. We only saw a small fraction of the Lemurs they have and it was difficult to see because they were all behind a double fence. The tour guide was fine but didn t seem to be able to answer anything beyond the basic questions. It just wasn t a super engaging tour.

Magical place, and one that I frequently remember fondly. The little leems are cared for so well here which warms my heart. Everyone who works or volunteers here is a saint in my opinion.

A really fun place to visit, the dark room with the nocturnal lemurs is super cool.

Numbers off lemur were available it's nice and peaceful place
Lemurs are fun

Great for kids and just as interesting for adults. The tour guides are very knowledgeable. I went on the basic 1hr tour but next time the longer hands on tour would be really fun.

The Lemur Center gives you unprecedented access to witness the great work being done here and time to get up close with their furry residents.

This is not a zoo, it s a living, breathing, research facility for Lemur monkeys, which adds to the experience in many ways. Immediately you'll be able to tell that the guides are very passionate about the work they re doing here as they walked you around the facility and educate you on its purpose. Our guide was extremely well spoken and informative.

The Lemur monkeys were pretty cool and there were many different types. One of the most interesting were the nocturnal monkeys that the group had to go into a dark room with red light to witness.

If you re in the Durham area, make sure that you put this on your list of things to do. Keep in mind you do need reservations and they fill up quickly, so call as soon as you know you ll be in the area.

Also, this review is specifically just for the tour. They offer many different types of programs that we will be sure to check out when we're in the area again.

A great experience for the entire family.

Largest "collection" of lemurs outside of Madagascar. Be advised that the $12 tour means you are looking at a few lemurs in caged enclosures. Only the more expensive tours/options (upwards of $95) actually get you into the outside enclosures.

Great place to take the kids. Learned a lot about Lemurs.

I was really disappointed in our family tour. My husband and I brought our two kids, ages 5 and 2. The video at the beginning was way too long for young kids. Also, the tour was shockingly short. The guides were lovely, but the strict rules (no snacks, do not walk on the gravel, keep up!) felt very stuffy. And not ideal for kids. It s obvious the facility is primarily for research purposes not the public. Which is fine. I think that should be more explicit on the website.

The Duke Lemur Center is a great place to learn and engage with old world primates. They perform ground breaking research on prosimian species here and we are fortunate to have a glimpse into their beautiful facility. Would highly recommend expanding your knowledge of primatology.

My family and I certainly enjoyed seeing up close and learning about these cute, unique animals that only live in Madagascar besides this special facility at Duke. Great efforts have been made to create a natural environment for them. Staff members are very knowledgeable and friendly. Great family outing to reserve. !

It was really fun to watch the Lemurs and learn about the Lemurs. However we were not told that we were supposed to book a tour and therefore we had to ask one of the staff to add us to the tour. The staff was fairly rude to us, she was contradicting herself since she told us that there were no spaces left even though she said that the capacity was 17 people and they had only 15 people. The staff added us to the wait list and told us to return. When returning we realized that they had changed staffs and we were treated with a kind staff who added us to the tour. We went on the normal tour however we are going to return and book a WALKING WITH THE LEMUR TOUR next time.

Great place to see and learn about fascinating lemurs. Remember to book a tour in advance.

Had a phenomenal experience. They make you feel at home, and most importantly it was fun!

Like no other place on Earth. Educational, immersive, and furry. Lemurs come in far more species and sizes than I ever knew about. Come visit and support endangered species as you learn about these unique mammals from Madagascar.

Took the Little Lemurs tour and was very disappointed. I went with a friend and took my 3yr old and 4yr old on the Little Lemurs tour. For about 20min or so of the 45 min tour, we sat inside the gift shop and watched a little video on lemurs. We then went outside and briefly looked at all the enclosures. My kids didn't care much about it, esp since it wasn't the easiest viewing for them looking at the lemurs from a distance in a cage. When one adult on the tour asked the guide a question, the adult was rebuked and told only toddlers can ask questions. I couldn't believe it how rude the guide was. I would not pay to go back here.

What a fantastic facility with great access to the lemurs! During the summer they have open house weekends when the lemurs are viewable in enclosures and also indoors in the nocturnal house where those lemurs who are active at night are on a flipped schedule from our own. During the summer they don't offer first this where you can see the lemurs in the forest outside of the enclosures which I'm sure is fantastic.

My family had a wonderful time! The tour guide was knowledgeable and the tour was interesting.

Regarding some of the negative reviews:
This is not a zoo, it is a research facility that offers tours to the public.

The conservation work the Duke Lemur Center does is 5 stars, the tour is more like 3 stars. It was cool to get to see different kinds of lemurs because it seems like you only ever see ring tailed lemurs anywhere else but the viewing can be difficult in their winter habitats. It would probably be a lot more fun to see the lemurs in their summer habitats so we might give it another try later in the year to see if it makes a difference. Since the tour fee goes towards the cost of caring for the lemurs I don't regret spending the money.

You feel less like you're visiting a zoo (though the gift shop does its best to fool you) and more like you're getting a behind-the-scenes tour of an excellent conservation facility -- which you are. Wonderful staff, adorable animals, small tours. Book early!

The Lemur Center is such an interesting place to visit. Highly recommend!

A must see if you're in Durham (reservations required). We learned a lot about lemurs from our knowledgeable guide, and got to see several outdoors and heard them howl at each other. There is also an indoor room for the nocturnal Aye-Aye that looks bat-like. The gift store is also worth a visit - you can buy a painting made by a lemur!

I visited several years ago during World Lemur Day. It was enjoyable and informative. The staff were accessible and eager to share their knowledge.

Wonderful facilities, great learning experience for all ages of lemur lovers.

What a great experience! While the center itself may be a bit awkward to find, my GPS was accurate. If you drive yourself, there is ample parking. Make sure you come property dressed for the weather. If it's raining, you might get wet and muddy. The tours were prompt and informative. Everyone that worked there was friendly and knowledgeable. They have a plethora of lemurs which is a true treat in North America! A definite must-stop if you're in the area.

The lemur center is one of my favorite places to go to, even as an adult! The lemurs are always so curious and interested in their surroundings, it's quite entertaining! I would recommend going during the summer during their open house periods on the weekends. Each exhibit has a volunteer that tells you everything there is to know about the lemurs they are with that day. It is quite impressive! Make sure you call for reservations first though!

We enjoyed our general tour today with our two teenagers. We ve been wanting to do the tour for a while and it was fun and educational.

We got a glimpse into what Duke Lemur Center is doing to help this endangered species. They have the largest number of lemurs outside of Madagascar. The bush babies (which are not lemurs) were a cool bonus to get to see too. Thanks Duke Lemur Center!

We did the walking with lemurs tour today and absolutely loved it! We live in Missouri and are so glad we made the trip.

Expensive for what it was, but the money goes to a good cause.

It s not a great experience for the 12 dollar tour. You need to remember this is not a zoo, so the animals are not on display like in a zoo. The cages make it difficult to see the lemurs and you can just forget about taking photos, unless you have 100-300 dollars per person and get on a waiting list for the photo tour your just going to be out of luck. It s a great cause and the lemurs are awesome.

A fun and educational place. The lemurs are as endearing as their stories.

An absolutely wonderful place and experience! Thought I might suggest in the gift shop when purchasing items with a debit or credit card, an option to donate to the center! It's so easy to put in a donation amount and easy to do with your card. Thank you for everything!!