Found only on Madagascar and the nearby Comoro Islands, lemurs are diminutive, mostly tree-dwelling prosimians or "submonkeys" that over 50 million years of isolation from the rest of the world have branched into nearly 50 species. About the size of a housecat, the diademed sifaka (Propithecus diadema diadema) is the largest living lemur and is listed as threatened by the World Conservation Union as habitats are cut down for firewood or lost to farming.

In 1993, Duke scientists captured three diademed sifakas and brought them to North Carolina; two soon died, one it appears from the effects of a diet too rich in calcium. Subsequent forays to find a mate for the survivor, named Romeo, failed. This time the Duke researchers sought divine intervention. On the first morning of the search, the team's Malagasy guide "asked the gods to bless our rescue mission," a ceremony involving chanting and a bamboo tube filled with rum, Glander reports from Madagascar.

Lo and behold, after 2 days of wandering in the woods, the researchers spotted a female and a young male companion. Four hours later, both were tranquilized and placed in protective custody. Their acquisition could be a boon to science, says Deborah Overdorff, a lemur expert at the University of Texas, Austin. Watching the poorly understood sifakas in captivity should give insights into their behavior, reproductive physiology, and infant development, as well as ensure preservation of the gene pool, she says.

But it's unclear whether Romeo has finally found his Juliet. The two new captives have darker coloring than Romeo's and white rings around the eyes--features that suggest to Glander that they may belong to a previously unknown subspecies. DNA testing in the coming months will seek to resolve that question.