Subject: Lemurcon '97 diary
From: vkochend@nyx10.cs.du.edu (Vance Kochenderfer)
Date: 6 June 1997
Newsgroups: alt.fan.lemurs

A little time has passed since Lemurcon '97, so I thought I'd post a brief narrative about it. All in all, I think it was a success. We saw plenty of animals, Dr. Glander shared with us some of his encyclopedic knowledge of prosimians, and no one was seriously burned at the cookout. Three cheers to Maria and Joao for setting things up (while 500 miles away from Durham!).

Friday
Thanks to the good people at the North Carolina Department of Transportation, I arrive at Durham an hour late. Seems that they felt Memorial Day weekend was the perfect time to perform construction work on I-85. Of course, they chose to work on a section which had no obvious alternate routes. After spending 15 minutes or so at 5 MPH, I took the first exit I could and wound up taking a roundabout route to Durham. When I checked into the Carolina Duke at 5:30 PM, the manager gave me a note from the group saying, "We've gone to Bullock's. Where are you?" Well, I would have to miss out on Bullock's Barbecue* Restaurant this year.

*I'm not sure of the exact spelling, it could be Barbeque, Bar-B-que, BBQ, Bar-B-cue, Bar-B-Q, or any number of variants.

After a short rest and a shower, it was out to the primate center. The rest of the group arrived minutes after I did. Jay greeted me with open arms (literally), and I was introduced to all of the first-time attendees. Dr. Ken Glander, the primate center's director, arrived soon thereafter. We all got spiffy name tags to wear, and he took us into the natural habitat enclosures (NHE). The NHEs are fenced-in areas of 10+ acres where groups of lemurs are allowed to run free. The fences are topped with electric wire, and the trees are cut back to prevent the animals from jumping across the fence, but any lemur that really wants to get out can. But free food and group unity keep them inside for the most part. As we walked through NHE #1, we found an adventurous young ringtail up in the trees outside the fence. He was trying to get back across to the group that was calling him, but couldn't quite find the best place to jump. We moved on so as not to distract him, and the next day we heard that he was back inside. Apart from this, little else of note took place - we got to see some other lemurs, but they weren't very active and mainly stayed high in the trees.

After touring the NHEs, we all went to the "beach house," a structure in NHE #3 built on stilts. Dr. Glander brought some slides of his trips to Madagascar, and described his adventures as well as some of the Malagasy customs. After a short question-and-answer period, we all decided it was time to retire. A few hardy souls stayed up and went to the Mad Hatter's Tea Shop for coffee, tea, and confections. The guy behind the counter was somewhat taken aback when I ordered "the most boring tea you have." He finally settled on Earl Grey. I think he would have had a stroke if I ordered Lipton. Hey, I like it - so sue me. After kibitzing for a while, we too grew weary, and headed back to our respective sleeping quarters. Except for David, who had to go lift cases of beer or something.

Saturday
The phone rang at 7:30 AM, and I went to help Joao pick up some chairs at a rental place. The chairs were blue. I got some chocolate milk and Danish for breakfast at the Texaco, and we all met at the Primate Center around 9:30 AM. Dean Gibson, the operations manager, led us around the cage areas, showing us the great variety of prosimians the Center has. One red ruffed lemur hung upside down from the top of his cage in a successful attempt to get people to take his picture. Dean also took us into the nocturnal building, where the nocturnal lemurs (surprise) are housed. Because of the light cycle in the building, it was still "daytime," so few of these lemurs were active.

We then headed back out to NHE #1 with Dr. Glander. The technicians had just finished putting out food for the animals in this enclosure, so we got the chance to see three groups of lemurs (ringtails, brown lemurs, and black-and-white ruffed lemurs) feeding on the ground. There was a little bit of confrontation between the different groups, but everyone seemed to get enough to eat. I was squatting down, watching a group of ringtails, when one of them came up to me. Very slowly, he started to reach out his hand toward me. He would look up at me, then down at the ground, over and over, all the while reaching closer. He got what he was after, a pellet of Monkey Chow at my feet, backed up a few steps, and started nibbling. I didn't really want it anyway. Dr. Glander then took us down to the rooms in the Primate Center where animals requiring special attention are kept. He entered a dark room, then emerged wearing an aye-aye named Goblin. Goblin was shy, though, and kept turning away from the camera lenses.

It was then time for the cookout to begin. Jay and David fired up the charcoal while most of the group went to see their adopted lemurs and/or raid the gift shop. Jay was busy happily squirting charcoal lighter fluid onto the flaming charcoal. Maria and Joao got out the heavily salted snack foods and sliced up burger toppings while preventing Jay from starting a forest fire. Soon hamburgers and hot dogs were sizzling on top of the grill, and the Big K grape soda and Twinkies came out. Everyone ate their fill, and then those of us who had not visited the gift shop went in to make some last-minute purchases before it closed.

Volunteer work was next on the agenda. Our mission was to cut down and remove the dead bamboo from the bamboo stands next to the Center. Some (no names) seemed to relish the opportunity to wield sharp objects. A couple people were sent on a special detail to remove the perches from one of the cages that was being prepared for a group of lemurs to move in. Once everyone was sufficiently sweaty, we adjourned to grab showers and a little rest before dinner. A few of us lingered for a while to watch two sifakas playing tag.

It was then on the highway and out to a Greek restaurant in Chapel Hill. However, it was closed for the weekend. After some brief confusion, we headed over to the Macaroni Grill. It looked as though it could be a long wait, until a waiter told us another large party would be leaving soon. Jay went in to give them the evil eye to hasten their departure. A feature of this restaurant that proved popular was that the tables were covered with paper, and every table had crayons on it. Soon the tablecloth was covered with doodles. I think Randy was the only one who displayed any artistic ability.

The plan after dinner was to go bowling, but there was not great support for that (except for David and Joao). Instead, half of the group went back to their rooms for the night while the other half piled into Joao and Maria's room to watch some video she shot earlier in the day. Then we all got naked and jumped into the swimming pool. That's not true, actually only Jay did. That's not true either, but I bet he *thought* about it. Nobody came up with any good ideas for further activities, so we called it a night.

Sunday
The majority of the group met at Honey's Restaurant for the farewell breakfast. However, Jay and Carole had vanished mysteriously and could not be found. Copious amounts of coffee and cholesterol-laden food were consumed. Take it from me - in North Carolina, they KNOW how to make biscuits and gravy. Only one person was brave enough to try the grits.

The people who had planes to catch and long drives to make departed, leaving myself, Joao, Maria, David, Randy, and Renee to lounge by the poolside. This group gradually grew smaller and smaller until Lemurcon '97 finally reached its end.

Okay, I lied when I said this would be brief. But just think how long it *could* have been if I didn't cut out details like the hamburger surplus, my sunburn, and the Macaroni Grill waitress' career development. Not a pretty thought, is it? On the other hand, if you hunger for this kind of detail, your only option is to sign up for next year and experience the excitement that is Lemurcon. Plus, we might even go bowling.