The second reason why lemurs do not make good pets is that they can be aggressive. Lemurs have a very high level of intelligence and are territorial animals, so they require their own space to avoid being too aggressive with humans.
Yet, despite their popularity as pets, it turns out that lemurs do not make good pets at all. In fact, they are the wrong type of animal to have in your house as a pet because they can carry some diseases and parasites, which could be dangerous for humans. They also have specific dietary requirements and need plenty of space to live in captivity.
The most usefull answer is: when you consider reptiles and fish, a pet isn’t even something that forms a bond with its caregiver. From that reasoning, yes a lemur could be a pet. On the flip side, threatened species are generally not allowed to be pets and many lemurs are at least threatened.
What lemurs can you own as a pet?
This is one of the few states that still allow a vast number of exotic animals including some species of big cats, bears, and wild canines. All primates in the Sunshine State require permits, but some of these permits are simple to acquire. Mississippi, west virginia, north dakota, and nevada as well are a few extra ideas to think about.
However, when there is a demand, it happens anyway.
A common query we ran across in our research was “Are lemurs illegal to have as pets in the US?”.
Unlike the United States where many states permit businesses to breed and sell lemurs for private ownership, in Madagascar most pet lemurs are captured from the wild (Reuter et al. 2016, 2019).
What animals are related to lemurs?
Genus: Allocebus: hairy-eared dwarf lemur (1 extant species)Genus: Cheirogaleus: dwarf lemurs (9 extant species)Genus: Microcebus: mouse lemurs (24 extant species)Genus: Mirza: giant mouse lemurs (2 extant species)Genus: Phaner: fork-marked lemurs (4 extant species).