Elderly lemur, boss of Lemur Island, dies at National Zoo

She could rightly be called an old lady, and perhaps a bit of an autocrat. In Washington, she ruled over a patch of territory known at the National Zoo as Lemur Island.

She went by the name Flare, and when she was euthanized on Tuesday, after her health declined and her prognosis turned poor, the zoo said, she was the oldest red-fronted lemur in North America.

The median life expectancy for these big-eyed primates is about 22 years, the zoo said, so Flare had achieved notable longevity when she died at age 33.

On Lemur Island, the zoo said, Flare was not the largest of the resident lemurs, now down to six in all. But according to assistant curator of primates Becky Malinsky, Flare had the “biggest personality,” showed leadership qualities and “was the boss.”

She was born March 19, 1986, the zoo said, not in Madagascar, the natural home of her subspecies, but at the Duke Lemur Center, in North Carolina.

Before coming here in 2001, the zoo said, Flare produced five little lemurs.