Jovian (April 5, 1994 – November 10, 2014) was a

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

lemur Lemurs ( ) (from Latin ''lemures'' – ghosts or spirits) 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 exist ...

, 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 June 7, 2001. It was formerly shown in public television (depending on the area) and was regularly shown on Sprout unti ...

''.

Biography

Jovian was born on April 5, 1994, at the

Duke Lemur Center The Duke Lemur Center is an sanctuary for rare and endangered strepsirrhine primates, located at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. It is the largest sanctuary for strepsirrhine primates in the world. The center is open to the public ...

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. Jovian sometimes shared the title role with his father. When

Martin Kratt Martin William Kratt (born December 23, 1965) and Christopher Frederick James Kratt (born July 19, 1969), are American zoologists, actors, producers, directors, and educational nature show hosts. Sons of musical-instrument manufacturer William K ...

and his younger brother

Chris Chris is a short form of various names including Christopher, Christian, Christina, Christine, and Christos. 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), N ...

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 research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

. 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 June 2001. Jovian would appear mostly in the opening segments, before transforming into a talking lemur puppet after eating his meals. Zoboomafoo's voice was provided by veteran

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

puppeteer Gord Robertson. 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 10th, 2014, Jovian died 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 China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

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

Filmography

*(Zoboomafoo) 1999

References

External links

Official obituary

Official video tribute
1994 animal births 2014 animal deaths Animal actors Deaths from kidney failure Individual animals in the United States Individual primates {{lemur-stub