The lesser iron-gray dwarf lemur (''Cheirogaleus minusculus''), or large iron-gray dwarf lemur, is a small

nocturnal Nocturnality is an ethology, animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnality, diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have ...

lemur Lemurs ( ) (from Latin ''lemures'' – ghosts or spirits) 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 Madaga ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found 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 found els ...

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. It is nocturnal and an arboreal quadruped, and is not very agile. It produces three types of vocalisation: a squeak, which is high in pitch and is produced with the mouth closed, and is used between infants and their mothers; a whistle, which is higher in pitch than the squeak, so it is hard to hear with human ears, and is used as a communicative and possibly territorial call; and a grunt, which is usually given in series and is very powerful, used when an individual is being attacked in its nest. This species is only known to exist from one museum specimen from

Ambositra Ambositra is a city (commune urbaine) in central Madagascar. Ambositra is the capital of the Amoron'i Mania region, and of Ambositra District. It is the centre of Madagascar's' wood-carving industry due to the presence of the Zafimaniry tri ...

, north of Fianarantsoa in east-central Madagascar. As of 2010, no studies in the wild have been conducted of the lesser iron-gray dwarf lemur, and it is unknown whether it still survives in this region. There are no reports of it being kept in captivity.

References

Mammals described in 2000 Dwarf lemurs Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN Taxa named by Colin Groves {{lemur-stub