Jovian (April 10, 1994 – November 10, 2014) was a

Coquerel's sifaka Coquerel's sifaka (''Propithecus coquereli'') is a Diurnality, diurnal, medium-sized lemur of the sifaka genus ''Sifaka, Propithecus''. It is native to northwest Madagascar. Coquerel's sifaka was once considered a subspecies of Verreaux's sifaka ...

lemur Lemurs ( ; from Latin ) are Strepsirrhini, wet-nosed primates of the Superfamily (biology), superfamily Lemuroidea ( ), divided into 8 Family (biology), families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 existing species. They are Endemism, ...

, best known for portraying the title character in the children's television series ''

Zoboomafoo ''Zoboomafoo'' is a live-action/animated children's television series that originally aired on PBS from January 25, 1999, to November 21, 2001. After the original run on public television, reruns were shown on Universal Kids#As PBS Kids Sprout/S ...

''.

Biography

Jovian was born on April 10, 1994, at the Duke Lemur Center in

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

, to parents Nigel and Flavia. When Martin Kratt and his younger brother

Chris Chris is a short form of various names including Christopher, Christian, Christina, and Christine. Chris is also used as a name in its own right, however it is not as common. People with the given name * Chris Abani (born 1966), Nigerian autho ...

wanted a lemur co-host for their TV show ''

'', Martin returned to the Duke Lemur Center, where he had previously volunteered while a student at

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

. In 1997, the Kratts prepared for the show by filming Jovian and his parents jumping around an outdoor cage modeled on the stage set. Jovian appeared on the program from January 1999 to November 2001. Jovian would appear mostly in the opening segments, before transforming into a talking lemur puppet after eating his meals. After appearing on the show, Jovian was credited with attracting 15,000 visitors to the Duke Lemur Center each year. As part of the center's conservation breeding program, Jovian was paired with a lemur named Pia. Throughout his life, Jovian sired 13 offspring with two different breeding partners. On November 10, 2014, Jovian died of kidney failure at the Duke Lemur Center at the age of 20. News of his death spread quickly worldwide, with an outpouring of grief from the public and media industry. The first relative of Jovian to be born after his death was his granddaughter Isabella, born on January 25, 2015. Since then, his children have produced multiple children. On June 15, 2021, the Kratt Brothers' official

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

account uploaded a video showing Jovian's new granddaughter Cassia, born from his daughter Gisela.

Filmography

*''

'' — 1999

References

External links

Official obituary

Official video tribute
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jovian 1994 animal births 2014 animal deaths Animal actors Deaths from kidney failure Individual primates in the United States Duke University