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.
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 fat-tailed dwarf lemur, also known as the lesser dwarf lemur, western fat-tailed dwarf lemur, or spiny forest dwarf lemur, is endemic to Madagascar.
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 brown mouse lemur is a small primate, and like the other mouse lemurs can only be found on the island of Madagascar. They are known also as the rufous mouse lemur, eastern rufous mouse lemur, red mouse lemur, or russet mouse lemur. Its dorsal side is brown or reddish-brown, while ventrally it is a whitish-grey.
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 fossa is a slender, long-tailed, cat-like mammal that is endemic to Madagascar. It is a member of the carnivoran family Eupleridae.
The Madagascar dry deciduous forests represent a tropical dry forest ecoregion situated in the western and northern part of Madagascar. The area has high numbers of endemic plant and animal species but has suffered large-scale clearance for agriculture. They are among the world's richest and most distinctive dry forests and included in the Global 200 ecoregions by the World Wide Fund. The area is also home to distinctive limestone karst formations known as tsingy, including the World Heritage Site of Bemaraha.
The Anjajavy's Protected Area is located on a peninsula of the town of Antonibe, in the district of Analalava and in the north-west region of Madagascar. It is part of the Sofia region of the independent province of Mahajanga and its position is between 47°13’ at 44°22’ of longitude east and 14°58 at 15°07’ of latitude south..
The furry-eared dwarf lemur, or Crossley's dwarf lemur, only found on the island of Madagascar, as with all other lemurs. It has a pelage coloration that is red-brown dorsally and gray ventrally. The eye-rings of this species are blackish and the ears are black inside and out. Cheirogaleus crossleyi species are obligated to hibernate during periods of food scarcity on the island of Madagascar. Cheirogaleus crossleyi species specifically undergo drastic fluctuations in temperature during hibernation.
Cryptoprocta spelea, also known as the giant fossa, is an extinct species of carnivore from Madagascar in the family Eupleridae which is most closely related to the mongooses and includes all Malagasy carnivorans. It was first described in 1902, and in 1935 was recognized as a separate species from its closest relative, the living fossa. C. spelea was larger than the fossa, but otherwise similar. The two have not always been accepted as distinct species. When and how C. spelea became extinct is unknown; there is some anecdotal evidence, including reports of very large fossas, that there is more than one surviving species.
The dwarf lemurs are the lemurs of the genus Cheirogaleus. All of the species in this genus, like all other lemurs, are native to Madagascar.
Sibree's dwarf lemur is a small nocturnal lemur endemic to Madagascar.
The Kirindy Mitea National Park is a national park on the coast of the Mozambique Channel, in south-west Madagascar. The 72,200 hectares park contains many endemic animals and plants and claims to have the greatest density of primates in the world.
The Lavasoa dwarf lemur is a small, nocturnal strepsirrhine primate and a species of lemur that is endemic to three small, isolated patches of forest on the southern slopes of the Lavasoa Mountains in southern Madagascar. Fewer than 50 individuals are thought to exist. Its habitat lies in a transitional zone between three ecoregions: dry spiny bush, humid littoral forest, and humid forest. First collected in 2001 and thought to be a subpopulation of the furry-eared dwarf lemur (C. crossleyi), it was not formally described until 2013. It is one of six species of dwarf lemur, though the research that identified it also suggested the existence of many more new species.
Groves' dwarf lemur is a species of dwarf lemur known from Ranomafana and Andringitra national parks and surrounding areas in southeastern Madagascar. The identification was based on comparison of mitochondrial and nuclear gene sequences with other members of the C. crossleyi group. Individuals from this clade first came under genetic study in 1999 and were recognized as a new species in 2014, but it was not formally described until 2017. The lemur was named after mammalologist Colin Groves. Known from altitudes from 754 to 999 m, it is significantly larger than other members of the C. crossleyi group, with a 20 cm body length, a 29 cm tail, and a weight of 0.41 kg. While the conservation status of the new species has not yet been assessed, its presence in several national parks does not guarantee that it will not be threatened by deforestation ongoing on the island, or possibly by hunting.
The Makay Massif is a mountain range in western Madagascar.
