Dueling Tribes Battle for Supremacy in Animal Planet’s New Series, LEMUR KINGDOM

January 28, 2008

(Silver Spring, Md.) Strong Lady Macbeths, trouble-making and duplicitous offspring, and the treacherous males in their lives these are the stars of a new TV series; however, the big new stars are just 20 inches tall with black and white tails that make their home in the south eastern corner of Madagascar. Their stories of love, loss and betrayal unfold with turf battles, kidnapped babies, deposed rulers, family feuds and evictions in Animal Planet’s new series LEMUR KINGDOM, an animal ‘soap opera’ tracing the lives of two neighboring gangs of lemurs. LEMUR KINGDOM premieres Friday, February 8 with a special, two-episode debut starting at 8 PM (ET/PT). Premiere episodes of the series will air regularly on Fridays at 8:30 PM (ET/PT). The series is a total of 15 half-hour episodes.

LEMUR KINGDOM follows the lives of the two rival groups of ring-tailed lemurs living in the beautiful protected reserve of Berenty on the island of Madagascar, off the coast of Africa. Filmed over the course of a year, the show captures unprecedented footage of these amazing animals’ behavior. These unique and very social prosimians are habituated to humans, enabling detailed filming of every aspect of their complex lives from wars with neighboring gangs and troop leadership battles to political alliances and illicit relationships.

The stars of LEMUR KINGDOM are two families the Graveyard Gang and the Furies, headed by their dominant females, (Juno and Electra respectively), because in ring tail society, the girls outrank the boys. Since the members of the Graveyard Gang are all related to each other, they're a relatively calm bunch, content to hang out in their spiky, sisal-fenced home which also happens to be an ancient cemetery. The volatile Furies, led by paranoid loner Electra, are comprised of three separate families all vying to rule the roost; thus in-fighting is commonplace, and nothing is stable for long.

LEMUR KINGDOM tracks both gangs for a year, starting in the March mating season and follows their progress through November, when the newborns arrive and the rains finally break. Along the way, the lemurs experience tragedy, joy and everything in between. They suffer the worst drought in a decade that claims a few cherished members. They celebrate the joy of new life as tiny babies take their initial breath with the first-ever recorded ring-tail lemur birth. Hormone overload during mating season erupts into violent clashes among the dominant males from each gang. One troop will experience a coup when the dominant female is deposed by a younger and more ferocious challenger. And, an abrupt human invasion into the other troop’s turf leaves them homeless. Packed with drama and jeopardy as well as beautiful wildlife imagery, LEMUR KINGDOM reveals the trials and tribulations of Madagascar's most charismatic inhabitants.

Off the Fence produces LEMUR KINGDOM for Animal Planet. Clare Birks is the executive producer and Caroline Hawkins is series editor for Off the Fence. For Animal Planet, Dawn Sinsel is executive producer. Dr. Alison Jolly, who has studied ring-tailed Lemurs on the Berenty reserve since 1963, served as a scientific consultant for LEMUR KINGDOM.

About Animal Planet
Animal Planet Media (APM), a multi-media business unit of Discovery Communications, is the world's only entertainment brand that immerses viewers in the full range of life in the animal kingdom with rich, deep content via multiple platforms and offers animal lovers and pet owners access to a centralized online, television and mobile community for immersive, engaging, high-quality entertainment, information and enrichment. APM consists of the Animal Planet television network, available in more than 94 million homes in the U.S.; online assets AnimalPlanet.com, the ultimate online destination for all things animal; the 24/7 broadband channel, Animal Planet Beyond; Petfinder.com, the #1 pet-related Web property globally that facilitates pet adoption; PetsIncredible, a major producer and distributor of pet-training videos and includes web service PetVideo.com; and other media platforms including a robust video-on-demand (VOD) service; mobile content; and merchandising extensions.