Ring-tailed Lemur (Wild Safari Wildlife by Safari Ltd.)

Review and images by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972

Lemurs are primates endemic to the island of Madagascar. Although superficially similar to monkeys, they have evolved independently from them and can easily be distinguished by their enormous eyes and pointed muzzles. Of the 100 species described, the most famous and popular one of all is probably the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta).

Artist extraordinaire Doug Watson sculpted this ring-tailed lemur for Safari Ltd. back in 2010. It is sculpted on all fours with its head turned to look to the left and its long tail raised and curling over its back like a letter S. This makes it 7 cm long and almost 9.5 cm tall.

The main colours here are taupe grey and white with light blue-grey hands and feet and a wonderful black and white striped tail. Dark grey is used for the large stripe on the head and shoulders, for the palms and the soles of the feet, and for the nails. The face is white with black on the nose, ears, and around the light orange eyes. There’s definitely no mistaking this for any other lemur species.

The large, round eyes, perked ears, and raised tail on this animal give it a distinctly alert, even alarmed appearance, although it could just be out for a casual stroll through the jungle or around its zoo enclosure. Ring-tailed lemurs are known for their surprising intelligence: they can use tools effectively, create pattern sequences, and comprehend basic arithmetic operations.

The sculpting detail on this lemur is quite nice, particularly on the hands and feet. The tail admittedly looks a bit too smooth and flattened, but replicating a fuzzy appearance is hardly an easy task now, is it? But here arises an inaccuracy. Ring-tailed lemurs always have 12 or 13 black rings on their tails, plus a large black tip, but this figure only has 11.

As well, determining the sex of this lemur has proven perplexing. A male lemur has a large, prominent scrotum, and no such organ is visible here. However, there is a small black dot visible on each wrist, which presumably is meant to represent a scent gland and spur that is only found on males. So, is this lemur supposed to be a male or a female? I’m honestly not sure.

In any case, this is still a pretty good ring-tailed lemur figure on the whole, and many people who purchase it are probably unaware of those two issues I described above. Recommended, although you may want to check out the CollectA and Schleich lemurs as well.