After 48 years, the Duke Lemur Center database's diverse collection of endangered primates is available online.

The database allows visitors to download data on 3,600 animals that represents the 27 species of lemurs, lorises and galagos.

The center, part of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, carefully observed and virtually recorded the different aspects of a lemur's life like their birth, parents, growth rate, food, mated animal, offspring and death.

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Most of the animal records were handwritten on notebooks or typed in paper records, dating back from 1966 when the center begun.

Sarah Zehr, a primatologist at the center, said that many of the species are critically endangered in the wild, so the lemurs were unlikely to be held in captivity again, making the data irreproducible.

Zehr said that analyzing this one-of-a-kind data was difficult. She said that the paper records were downsized, not digitized and single copied.

Even though the center had electronic records since the 1990's, there are still buried data that needs to be retrieved from its databases.

Two software developers, Freda Cameron and Richard Roach, volunteered to help Zehr change the animal data files to modern format three years ago.

Online visitors can check for available biological samples for each animal. The center has 10,000 samples for more than 1,000 individual lemurs.

It contains different samples such as blood, serum, DNA, urine and small pieces of skins, organs and other tissues taken from routine veterinary diagnostics in the center.

Online visitors can visit the site and check out the different findings the center gained over these past years at http://lemur.duke.edu/duke-lemur-center-database.

TagsDuke Lemur Center