Cleese woolly lemur
| Cleese woolly lemur | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Avahi cleesei | ||||||||||||
| Thalmann & Geissmann , 2005 |
The Cleese woolly lemur ( Avahi cleesei ) is a species of primate from the family of Indri-like within the group of lemurs .
features
Cleese lemurs reach a body length of 25 to 29 centimeters, plus a tail that is around 32 centimeters long. The weight is around 0.85 kilograms. The skin is, as with all woolly dense and woolly, it is gray at the top in a spotty brown and gray at the bottom. The inside of the thighs is white, the bushy tail is beige to gray-brown. The face is slightly lighter than the top of the head and, like the other woolly lemurs, has a short, hairy, mask-like shape. The upper edge of this face mask is curved upwards at the forehead and not downwards as with other woolly lemurs. The brown eyes are large, the ears are small and partially hidden in the fur. The short snout is dark in color.
distribution and habitat
Like all lemurs, Cleese lemurs only live in Madagascar , their habitat is the dry deciduous forests in karst regions on the west coast of the island. So far they are only known from the Tsingy de Bemaraha nature reserve .
Way of life
Little is known about the way of life. They move in the trees with a vertical climb and jump and are nocturnal, they are most active between dusk and midnight and just before dawn. They live in family groups made up of a full-grown couple and their offspring. Groups inhabit areas of around 2 hectares in size. They communicate with each other through a series of sounds. Their diet consists of young leaves and buds.
Danger
The distribution area of the Cleese woolly lemurs covers less than 5000 km² - a forest outside the protected area, which housed a significant population in 1994, was completely cleared ten years later. Due to the small distribution area and the feared further decline in population, the lists IUCN the species as ( "high risk" endangered ).
Discovery and naming
The species was described by the biologists Urs Thalmann and Thomas Geissmann in 2005 , but the first sightings took place in 1990. The name honors the actor John Cleese , who is committed to the preservation of the lemurs.
literature
- Nick Garbutt: Mammals of Madagascar. A Complete Guide. Yale University Press, New Haven CT 2007, ISBN 978-0-300-12550-4 .
- Thomas Geissmann : Comparative Primatology. Springer-Verlag, Berlin et al. 2002, ISBN 3-540-43645-6 .
- Russell A. Mittermeier , Jörg U. Ganzhorn, William R. Konstant, Kenneth Glander, Ian Tattersall , Colin P. Groves , Anthony B. Rylands, Andreas Hapke, Jonah Ratsimbazafy, Mireya I. Mayor, Edward Louis jr, Yves Rumpler, Christoph Schwitzer, Rodin Rasoloarison: Lemur Diversity in Madagascar. In: International Journal of Primatology. 29, 2008, ISSN 0164-0291 , pp. 1607-1656.
Web links
- Avahi cleesei onthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . Retrieved April 22, 2009.