BBC reporter gets mobbed by lemurs during segment at England’s Banham Zoo

Plenty of TV reporters have had to do segments under difficult conditions, but “being jumped by lemurs” stands out. That’s what happened to the BBC’s Alexander Dunlop this week, though. Dunlop was visiting the Banham Zoo (in the East Anglia region of England) for their annual counting of the animals, and while he was trying to film a segment, a crowd of lemurs started jumping on and around him, with a couple even biting him:

https://twitter.com/BBCLookEast/status/950389341947297798

Those are some fired-up lemurs, all right. And credit to Dunlop for trying to persevere with his segment even in the midst of encroaching lemurs. “”And I’m at one of the region’s zoos where they’re doing their annual stocktakes of animals. Ow! Ow! Ow! … I think it’s one of the more enjoyable parts of the job, counting lemurs.” Well, it’s presumably more enjoyable if they’re not biting you. He did have a lighthearted take on it afterwards, though:

Give our BBC online team an inch and they’ll take a country mile (no lemurs were hurt in the making of this movie @banhamzoo) https://t.co/Z7O17P1G5C

— Alexander Dunlop (@dunlopalex) January 8, 2018

This is a memorable day at the office and no mistake. And it’s probably a good thing that most remote shoots don’t involve lemurs. But for those who do want to get up close and personal with the lemurs, ABC’s report on this has some advice:

For lemur fans looking for an experience slightly similar to Dunlop’s, the Banham Zoo offers a “Lemur Encounters” walk-through enclosure so animal lovers can get “up close with the charismatic but endangered lemurs of Madagascar.”

“Charismatic” is certainly one word to use there. It’s probably not the one Dunlop was thinking of.

[ABC]