The West African potto (''Perodicticus potto'') is a species of nocturnal

strepsirrhine Strepsirrhini or Strepsirhini (; ) is a suborder of primates that includes the lemuriform primates, which consist of the lemurs of Madagascar, galagos ("bushbabies") and pottos from Africa, and the lorises from India and Southeast Asia. Colle ...

primate Primates is an order (biology), order of mammals, which is further divided into the Strepsirrhini, strepsirrhines, which include lemurs, galagos, and Lorisidae, lorisids; and the Haplorhini, haplorhines, which include Tarsiiformes, tarsiers a ...

. It is found in tropical

West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

. It is also known as Bosman's potto, after

Willem Bosman Willem Bosman (12 January 1672 – after 1703) was a merchant in the service of the Dutch West India Company, spending most of his time in the Dutch Gold Coast. Bosman was born in Utrecht. Although he sailed to the Gold Coast as an apprentice ...

, who described the species in 1704. It is the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

of the genus ''

Perodicticus The pottos are three species of strepsirrhine primate in the genus ''Perodicticus'' of the family Lorisidae. In some English-speaking parts of Africa, they are called "softly-softlys". Etymology The common name "potto" may be from Wolof langua ...

''.

Taxonomy

This species was formerly considered the only species in the genus ''Perodicticus'', but a 2015 study split it into three species, with only the name ''Perodicticus potto'' only applying to the West African population. Phylogenetic evidence supports the West African potto being the most basal member of the genus ''Perodicticus'', with the other two species being sister species to one another. It is thought to have diverged from the other species during the mid-late

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

, between 6-10 million years ago. The mysterious "

false potto The false potto (''Pseudopotto martini'') is a Lorisoidea, lorisoid primate of uncertain Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic status found in Africa. Anthropologist Jeffrey H. Schwartz named it in 1996 as the only species of the genus ''Pseudopotto'' o ...

" (''Pseudopotto martini'') is now thought to have been a misidentified specimen of West African potto.

Distribution

This species ranges from

Guinea Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...

west to

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

, with an disjunct population in eastern

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

. The

Niger River The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through Mali, Nige ...

serves as the eastern barrier to the species' range, separating it from the

Central African potto The Central African potto (''Perodicticus edwardsi'') is a species of nocturnal strepsirrhine primate. It is found in Central Africa. It is also known as Milne-Edwards's potto, after Alphonse Milne-Edwards. Taxonomy It was formerly considered ...

(''P. edwardsi'').

Ecology

One population of

chimpanzees The chimpanzee (; ''Pan troglodytes''), also simply known as the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close relative the ...

living in

Mont Assirik Mont may refer to: Places * Mont., an abbreviation for Montana, a U.S. state * Mont, Belgium (disambiguation), several places in Belgium * Mont, Hautes-Pyrénées, a commune in France * Mont, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, a commune in France * Mont, Sa� ...

, was observed to eat West African pottos, taking them from their sleeping places during the day; however, this behaviour has not been observed in chimps elsewhere.Chimpanzees in the dry habitats of Mont Assirik, Senegal and Semliki Wildlife Reserve, Uganda' by K. D. Hunt and W. C. McGrew. Chapter from
Behavioural Diversity in Chimpanzees and Bonobos
', edited by

Christophe Boesch Christophe Boesch (11 August 1951 – 14 January 2024) was a French-Swiss primatologist who studied chimpanzees. He and his wife worked together, co-wrote articles and co-directed documentaries about chimpanzees. Biography Boesch was born in St. ...

(Cambridge University Press, 2002)

Conservation

Although this species is known to survive in disturbed forests near human habitation, population growth and subsequent

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

in West Africa are of major risk to the species. Heavy deforestation for

industrial agriculture Industrial agriculture is a form of modern farming that refers to the industrialized production of crops and animals and animal products like eggs or milk. The methods of industrial agriculture include innovation in agricultural machinery and ...

is thought to have led to rapid population declines in the species. In addition, this species is more frequently hunted for bushmeat due to a decline in larger animals to hunt, which has in turn also caused pottos to become rarer. Due to this, it is classified as

Near Threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as that may be vulnerable to Endangered species, endangerment in the ne ...

on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q747610 Lorises and galagos Mammals of West Africa Primates of Africa Mammals described in 1766 Taxa named by Philipp Ludwig Statius Müller