Staten Island Zoo’s Leia the Lemur receives life-saving care, is reunited with her three babies

The Staten Island Zoo’s Leia the lemur is on the mend, thanks the doctors at Schwarzman Animal Medical Center (AMC), New York City’s only Level 1 Animal Trauma Center and the world’s largest veterinary teaching hospital.

Nine-year-old Leia, a ring-tailed lemur at the Staten Island Zoo, was born at Idaho Falls Zoo at Tautphaus Park in 2014 and came to the Staten Island Zoo in 2016.

During one of her routine wellness exams, the zoo’s vet staff noted an irregularly shaped left kidney. After a point-of-care ultrasound, the staff identified a mass effect on the kidney, which was also impacting Leia’s red blood cell percentage.

In October, Dr. Dennis Slade, a senior veterinarian specializing in internal medicine at AMC, generously donated his time and expertise to perform a referral ultrasound at the zoo to further visualize the mass and take a sample to submit to the lab. This sample returned as a probable mesenchymal tumor.

Following this prognosis, Leia was sent to AMC’s radiology service for a CT scan, so that the surgical team could assess the extent of the tumor as well as plan how to remove it.

In November, AMC’s Senior Veterinarian and Service Head of Surgical Service 2, Dr. Daniel Spector, and his team were able to fully remove the tumor, and Leia returned home and was reunited with her three young babies (named after Jedis!) — Han, Wicket, and Chewie – the same day.

Since then, Leia’s bloodwork has normalized, and she is back to enjoying her favorite activities at the zoo, like soaking in the sun, snacking on bamboo and mulberry, or eating her favorite food, cooked sweet potatoes. As of yesterday, she is doing well.

Photos of Leia the Lemur, who enjoys visitors at te Staten Island Zoo. (Coirtesy: Schwarzman Animal Medical Center)Credit: Schwarzman Animal Medical Center

On Feb 10, the Staten Island Zoo mourned the loss of a beloved black-handed spider monkey, “Grandpa.”

Grandpa, descendant of the original group of spider monkeys at the Zoo, was just a few weeks shy of his 52nd birthday, according to the Zoo’s Instagram.

During his time at the Zoo, Grandpa has provided more than a thousand visitors with a “deeper perspective on his species and conservation of primates in the wild,” the post states.