The Cheirogaleidae are the family of strepsirrhine primates containing the various dwarf and mouse lemurs. Like all other lemurs, cheirogaleids live exclusively on the island of Madagascar.
Lemurs are wet-nosed primates of the superfamily Lemuroidea, divided into 8 families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 existing species. They are endemic to the island of Madagascar. Most existing lemurs are small, have a pointed snout, large eyes, and a long tail. They chiefly live in trees and are active at night.
The gray mouse lemur, grey mouse lemur or lesser mouse lemur is a small lemur, a type of strepsirrhine primate, found only on the island of Madagascar. Weighing 58 to 67 grams, it is the largest of the mouse lemurs, a group that includes the smallest primates in the world. The species is named for its mouse-like size and coloration and is known locally as tsidy, koitsiky, titilivaha, pondiky, and vakiandry. The gray mouse lemur and all other mouse lemurs are considered cryptic species, as they are nearly indistinguishable from each other by appearance. For this reason, the gray mouse lemur was considered the only mouse lemur species for decades until more recent studies began to distinguish between the species.
The pygmy mouse lemur, also known as Peters' mouse lemur or dormouse lemur, is a primate weighing only 43–55 g (1.5–1.9 oz); it is the second smallest of the mouse lemurs. Its dorsal side is a rufous-brown colour, and creamy-white ventrally. It lives in dry deciduous forests of western Madagascar. It has been captured in the Tsingy de Bemaraha Nature Reserve, the Andramasy forests north of Belo sur Tsiribihina, and the border of heavily degraded deciduous forest and savanna at Aboalimena. It has also been found in other habitats, in mangroves in two localities.
The golden-brown mouse lemur, also known as the (Lac) Ravelobe mouse lemur, is part of the Cheirogaleidae family, and the smallest species of lemur. It is arboreal, nocturnal and usually social. It get its name from the color of its body. Like several other mouse lemurs, like the brown mouse lemur, it is a small primate that has a brown dorsal side and a whitish-grey for its ventral side of the body. All lemurs live in Madagascar. This species was discovered in 1994.
The Sambirano mouse lemur is a small, recently discovered primate and like the other mouse lemurs can only be found on the island of Madagascar. The dorsal side is both cinnamon and rufous-cinnamon and is grey ventrally. It has vibrissae that are dark in color.
The giant mouse lemurs are members of the strepsirrhine primate genus Mirza. Two species have been formally described; the northern giant mouse lemur and Coquerel's giant mouse lemur. Like all other lemurs, they are native to Madagascar, where they are found in the western dry deciduous forests and further to the north in the Sambirano Valley and Sahamalaza Peninsula. First described in 1867 as a single species, they were grouped with mouse lemurs and dwarf lemurs. In 1870, British zoologist John Edward Gray assigned them to their own genus, Mirza. The classification was not widely accepted until the 1990s, which followed the revival of the genus by American paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall in 1982. In 2005, the northern population was declared a new species, and in 2010, the World Wide Fund for Nature announced that a southwestern population might also be a new species.
The hairy-eared dwarf lemur, or hairy-eared mouse lemur, is one of the most scarcely known lemurs. A. trichotis is a nocturnal lemur that is endemic to Madagascar. It was originally named by Albert Günther in 1875 as Cheirogaleus trichotis as part of the Cheirogaleidae family, or the dwarf lemurs. In 1967 Petter-Rousseaux and Petter reassigned the lemur to its own genus and is the now only member of the genus Allocebus. The hairy-eared dwarf lemur was thought to be extinct until its rediscovery in 1989 in a northeastern primary lowland rainforest. The population of these mammals is shown to be severely decreasing and largely fragmented throughout Northern and Eastern Madagascar rainforests; most likely due to hunting, trapping, slash-and-burn agriculture as well as habitat fragmentation.
Mittermeier's mouse lemur is a species of mouse lemur known only from Anjanaharibe-Sud Special Reserve in Madagascar.
The northern rufous mouse lemur, northern brown mouse lemur, or Tavaratra mouse lemur is found in northern Madagascar from the Ankarana Special Reserve in the west to the Manambato River in the northeast, and up to the Irodo River in the north of the Analamerana Special Reserve. The complete distribution range of M. tavaratra is still to be defined as some areas surrounding the described distribution have not been visited yet. For example, M. tavaratra has been reported to possibly occur from the Irodo up to the Montagne des Français. Its known distribution cover four protected areas – the Ankarana Special Reserve, and the Analamerana Special Reserve both managed by Madagascar National Parks, the Loky-Manambato protected area (Daraina), and the Andavakoeira-Andrafiamena protected area, both Managed by the NGO Fanamby
The reddish-gray mouse lemur also known as the gray-brown mouse lemur or rufous-gray mouse lemur, is a small, solitary-but-social, nocturnal and omnivorous primate from the Western Madagascar in the region around Beza Mahafaly Reserve, north to Lamboharana. Like the other lemur species, the reddish-grey mouse lemur is endemic to Madagascar. They generally live in the drier regions of the island. It is categorized as least concerned in the IUCN Red List.
Madame Berthe's mouse lemur or Berthe's mouse lemur is the smallest of the mouse lemurs and the smallest primate in the world; the average body length is 9.2 cm (3.6 in) and seasonal weight is around 30 g (1.1 oz). Microcebus berthae is one of many species of Malagasy lemurs that came about through extensive speciation, caused by unknown environmental mechanisms and conditions.
The mouse lemurs are nocturnal lemurs of the genus Microcebus. Like all lemurs, mouse lemurs are native to Madagascar.
Fork-marked lemurs or fork-crowned lemurs are strepsirrhine primates; the four species comprise the genus Phaner. Like all lemurs, they are native to Madagascar, where they are found only in the west, north, and east sides of the island. They are named for the two black stripes which run up from the eyes, converge on the top of the head, and run down the back as a single black stripe. They were originally placed in the genus Lemur in 1839, later moved between the genera Cheirogaleus and Microcebus, and given their own genus in 1870 by John Edward Gray. Only one species was recognized, until three subspecies described in 1991 were promoted to species status in 2001. New species may yet be identified, particularly in northeast Madagascar.
Danfoss's mouse lemur, or the Ambarijeby mouse lemur, is a species of mouse lemur endemic to Madagascar. It lives in western deciduous forest within a limited range between the Sofia River and the Maevarano River. This species has been found in substantial populations in the Ambarijevy, Anjajavy, and Beanamaolo forests in Madagascar. Their lifespan is about 5 years but can live up to 10 years. They are part of the infraorder called lemuriformes which represents 20% of the entire primates diversity and over 60% of the mammalian genera of Madagascar.
Lemurs were first classified in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus, and the taxonomy remains controversial today, with approximately 70 to 100 species and subspecies recognized, depending on how the term "species" is defined. Having undergone their own independent evolution on Madagascar, lemurs have diversified to fill many ecological niches normally filled by other types of mammals. They include the smallest primates in the world, and once included some of the largest. Since the arrival of humans approximately 2,000 years ago, lemurs have become restricted to 10% of the island, or approximately 60,000 square kilometers (23,000 sq mi), and many face extinction. Concerns over lemur conservation have affected lemur taxonomy, since distinct species receive increased conservation attention compared to subspecies.
The Marohita mouse lemur is a species of mouse lemur known only from the Marohita Forest in eastern Madagascar, near the village of Marolambo. Specimens were first collected in December 2003, and its discovery was announced in 2013 along with the Anosy mouse lemur. It is a large mouse lemur, weighing up to 89 g (3.1 oz), and lives within the same area as the Goodman's mouse lemur (M. lehilahytsara), Simmons' mouse lemur (M. simmonsi), and the brown mouse lemur (M. rufus), all four of which are nearly identical in appearance. Its fur is rufous on its back and grayish-beige on its underside. Nothing is known about its behavior. Its conservation status was evaluated as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2012, before it was formally described, because its only known habitat had severely degraded between 2003 and 2012.
