London Zoo lemurs enjoy Easter egg hunt

London Zoo lemurs were allowed to kick-off their holiday celebrations early with their own Easter egg hunt.

But instead of traditional chocolate treats they were given paper mache eggs full of tasty carrot and sweet potatoes – just the way they like it.

The eggs were hidden in a brand new walk-through exhibit to encourage the natural foraging behaviours of the lemurs as part of the troop's daily enrichment.

Zookeeper Christina Sara Stender said: "ZSL London Zoo's new exhibit 'In with the Lemurs' is home to a bachelor group of ring-tail lemurs and one black and white ruffed lemur, named Storm.

"They are sociable creatures and love to investigate new things together and mark them as their own by rubbing them with the scent glands on their wrists.

"The treat-filled Easter eggs encouraged the lemurs to hunt around their terrain, seeking out treats hanging in the branches, and foraging on the floor for food, as they regularly do in the wild."

Ring-tailed lemurs are now classed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list as endangered species in Madagascar, the only place where they are found in the wild due to the diminishing effects of logging. Black and white ruffed lemurs are also critically endangered and listed on ZSL's EDGE of existence programme as number 37 out of the 100 most extraordinary threatened species in the world.