The Bongolava mouse lemur (''Microcebus bongolavensis'') is a species of

mouse lemur The mouse lemurs are nocturnal lemurs of the genus ''Microcebus''. Like all lemurs, mouse lemurs are native to Madagascar. Mouse lemurs have a combined head, body and tail length of and weigh , making them the smallest primates (the smallest sp ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

. It lives in western

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

forest within a limited range, including Bongolava Forest and Ambodimahabibo Forest between the

Sofia River The Sofia is a river of northwestern Madagascar. It flows through the Sofia Region. The source is at the Tsaratanana Massif at an altitude of 1784 metres. It has a length of . Its mouth is in the Indian Ocean in the Boriziny-Vaovao District (Por ...

and the

Mahajamba River The Mahajamba is a river of northern Madagascar. It flows through Ankarafantsika National Park. The river is surrounded in mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves ...

. The Bongolava mouse lemur is one of the larger mouse lemurs. Its head and body measure , and a tail measures and it weighs about . In general appearance, the Bongolava mouse lemur looks like

Danfoss' mouse lemur Danfoss's mouse lemur (''Microcebus danfossi''), 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 ...

or the Golden-brown mouse lemur. The colour of the head can be differential, as ruddy bronze (especially in juveniles) ones were observed. Sometimes only a triangular area above eyes is brown or ruddy. The crown is pale gray. Between the eyes a characteristic white spot can be observed. The dorsum can be orange, maroon or red, sometimes there is an indistinct median darker line. The venter is cream white. The fur is dense but not long. The tail is longer than head and body, colored as the body, but distally it has longer and less dense fur. Its white hands and feet are covered by sparse fur too. The species was described by Olivieri ''et al.'', 2007. The type locality is

, province

Mahajanga Mahajangā (French: Majunga) is a city and an administrative district on the northwest coast of Madagascar. The city of Mahajanga (Mahajanga I) is the capital of the Boeny Region. The district (identical to the city) had a population of 258,068 ...

, a fragment of forest near the village

Ambodimahabibo Ambodimahabibo is a town and commune () in Madagascar. It belongs to the district of Boriziny, which is a part of Sofia Region. The population of the commune was estimated to be approximately 9,000 in 2001 commune census. Primary and junior leve ...

near

Port-Bergé Boriziny (French: Port-Bergé) is a city (commune urbaine) in western Madagascar in Sofia Region. The population of the commune urbaine was 22,573 in 2018. Geography It is situated at the Route nationale 6 near the bay of Helodrano. The Bemariv ...

. Geographical coordinates are 47° 28’ E, 15° 30’ S. Before the Bongolava mouse lemur was described, the author had thought that area had been dwelled by another congeneric species, a Golden-brown mouse lemur. The species is monotypic. Data concerning behaviour or live cycle of the Bongolava Mouse Lemur are scarce. It is an arboreal and nocturnal animal. According to

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

, a generation lasts 5 to 6 years. Like all other cheirogaleids, the Bongolava mouse lemur is

to Madagascar. It occurs only in 3 forest patches in the north-western part of the island, between the rivers Mahajamba-Est and Sofia, near Port-Bergé. It can be present in the Bongolava Classified Forest. However, the area the species dwells is lesser than . The habitat consists of primary dense mountain forest. Diet of the Bongolava mouse lemur was not researched with scrutiny. Is probably consumes

insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...

s and fruit, and maybe other items also consumed by congeneric lemurs. IUCN classified the species first time in 2008 as Data Deficient. 6 years later its status was changed to Endangered, as it was rated in 2020 too. There is no estimation of the whole population, but it probably decreases. Genetic research showed a drastic decrease in genetic diversity of the species in the last few centuries, when the forests of Madagascar were destroyed by human. Species habitat is continually destroyed and transformed into farmland. What is more, the lemurs are hunted by humans. They are not kept in captivity.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q892436 Mouse lemurs Mammals described in 2007