Mouse lemur

Dwarf mouse lemur ( Microcebus myoxinus )

The mouse lemurs ( Microcebus ) are a native to Madagascar primate genus from the group of lemurs with 19 species. They include the smallest primates in general.

Features

Mouse lemurs have a soft, short coat that can be colored reddish- brown or gray. The underside is whitish, in addition, a white nose stripe and a most conspicuous spinal stripe are available. The hind legs are longer than the front legs, the head is characterized by the short muzzle, the round head, large eyes and ears enlarged. The body length of the mouse lemurs is 9 to 15 centimeters, the tail is as long as the body. My weight varies between 30 and 100 grams, but is subjected to strong seasonal fluctuations.

Distribution and habitat

Mouse lemurs come like all lemurs before only to Madagascar, where they are among the most common and widespread members of this primate group. Their habitat is forests, where they inhabit both the dry forests in the West and the rain forests in the east of their home island. You are missing only in the non-forested central highlands.

Lifestyle and diet

Mouse lemurs live mainly on the trees, they are nocturnal and daytime sleep in self-made, round leaves nests or tree cavities. Females form groups of two to nine animals that sleep during the day together, go out at night but separate in search of food. The males tend to live solitary, they exhibit territorial behavior and mark their territory with urine or feces. Sometimes males are also longer time in the company of female groups.

Mouse lemurs have the ability in poor environmental conditions such as drought, low food and water availability, and cold in a short-term torpor (rigid state) or in prolonged hibernation, which can last up to two weeks to fall. In this case, body temperature and metabolic rate can be lowered so that energy is saved. The torpor is open all year to watch but increased in the dry season. The animals go in bad weather conditions around midnight in torpor and can then be passively heat and wake in the morning by the rising heat. By torpor and passive warm-up, they save a lot of energy. The hibernation has so far been observed only during the dry season and does not seem so long to take as in the related Fettschwanzmakis. In preparation they put in the rainy season a grease reservoir ( brown adipose tissue ) in her tail to.

Mouse lemurs are omnivorous, but fruits make a considerable part of their food from. In addition, they also consume insects, spiders, flowers, nectar and leaves.

Reproduction

Mating takes place immediately after the end of the dry season, the animals know a ritual courtship behavior, expressed in Quietschlauten and the attempted catching the tail of the partner. The mouse lemurs, the female is often ready to conceive only one night a year; in this small window of time, there is supposedly indiscriminate copulation with up to seven males. Apparently there are at Makiweibchen the body's mechanisms for post-coital healthy selection, the survival of the offspring enhancing heritage.

After an approximately 60 -day gestation period come in November or December usually two (rarely three) pups. Partly it, then, depending on the area and duration of the rainy season, to a second breeding season with a second mating season in December and a second litter in January and February. The juveniles spend their first weeks of life in the nest of the mother. Later, they are then carried around by the mother during nocturnal activity in his mouth and parked each for 1-2 hours at different locations in the bushes while the mother goes in search of food. The young are weaned after about a month or two. Sexual maturity occurs with one to two and a half years. The life expectancy is in animals in the wild six to eight years, animals in human captivity can live up to 15 years old.

Threat

The destruction of habitat is the main threat to the mouse lemurs dar. In particular, the species with only a small area of ​​distribution are jeopardized. However, no data are available for many of the newly described species.

The types

In the past, it was only two or three types, but other species have been described, so that now 19 kinds of mouse lemurs known recently.

• Berthe mouse lemur ( Microcebus berthae )
• Bongolava mouse lemur ( Microcebus bongolavensis )
• Danfoss mouse lemur ( Microcebus danfossi )
• GERP 's mouse lemur ( Microcebus gerpi )
• Gray brown mouse lemur ( Microcebus griseorufus )
• Jolly mouse lemur ( Microcebus jollyae )
• Goodman Mouse Lemur ( Microcebus lehilahytsara )
• MacArthur mouse lemur ( Microcebus macarthurii )
• Claire mouse lemur ( Microcebus mamiratra the kind described in 2006 Microcebus lokobensis is conspecific with him)
• Mitter Meier mouse lemur ( Microcebus mittermeieri )
• Gray mouse lemur ( Microcebus murinus )
• Dwarf mouse lemur ( Microcebus myoxinus )
• Gold brown mouse lemur ( Microcebus ravelobensis )
• Brown mouse lemur ( Microcebus rufus)
• Sambirano mouse lemur ( Microcebus sambiranensis )
• Simmons mouse lemur ( Microcebus simmonsi )
• Northern mouse lemur ( Microcebus tavaratra )
• Anosy mouse lemur ( Microcebus tanosi )
• Marohita mouse lemur ( Microcebus marohita )

The Riesenmausmakis were also formerly reckoned among the mouse lemurs, are today but in a separate genus, Mirza, filed.