bushbaby n : agile long-tailed nocturnal African lemur with dense woolly fur and large eyes and ears [syn: galago, bush baby]

English

Alternative spellings

• bush baby

Noun

bushbaby

1. An small, nocturnal, African primate, similar to a lemur.

Synonyms

• galago

Translations

Galagos, also known as bushbabies, bush babies or nagapies (meaning "little night monkeys" in Afrikaans), are small, nocturnal primates native to continental Africa, and make up the family Galagidae (also sometimes called Galagonidae). They are sometimes included as a subfamily within the Lorisidae or Loridae.

According to some accounts, the name bush baby comes from either the animals' cries or appearance. The South African Afrikaans name "nagapie" (little night monkey), comes from the fact that they are almost exclusively seen at night.

Characteristics

Galagos are agile leapers and run swiftly along branches. They have large eyes that give them good night vision, strong hind limbs, acute hearing, and long tails that help them balance. They have nails on most of their digits, except for the second toe of the hindfoot, which bears a 'toilet' claw for grooming. Their diet is a mixture of insects and other small animals, fruit, and tree gums. They have pectinate ("comb-like") incisors, and the dental formula:

After a gestation period of 110-133 days, young galagos are born with half-closed eyes and are initially unable to move about independently. After a few days, the mother carries the infant in her mouth, and places it on branches while feeding.

Females maintain their territory but share them with their offspring. Males leave their mothers' territories after puberty but females remain, forming social groups consisting of closely related females and their young. Adult males maintain separate territories, which overlap with those of the female social groups; generally, one adult male mates with all the females in an area. Males who have not established such territories sometimes form small bachelor groups.

While their keeping as pets is not advised (like many other non-human primates, they are considered likely sources of zoonoses, diseases that can cross species barriers) it is certainly done. Equally, they're highly likely to attract attention from customs officials on importation into many countries. Reports from veterinary and zoological sources indicate captive lifetimes of 12 to 16.5 years, suggesting a natural lifetime of the order of a decade.

Galagos communicate both by calling to each other, and by marking their paths with urine. At the end of the night, group members use a special rallying call and gather to sleep in a nest made of leaves, a group of branches, or a hole in a tree.

Classification

There has been much recent study of the Galagidae. Several new species have been discovered, and they are now grouped into three genera, with the two former members of the now defunct genus Galagoides returned to their original genus Galago:

• ORDER PRIMATES
  • Suborder Strepsirrhini: non-tarsier prosimians
    • Family Cheirogaleidae: dwarf and mouse lemurs
    • Family Lemuridae: lemurs
    • Family Lepilemuridae: sportive lemurs
    • Family Indriidae: wooly lemurs and allies
    • Family Daubentoniidae: Aye-aye
    • Family Lorisidae: lorises, pottos and allies
    • Family Galagidae: galagos, or bushbabies
      • Genus Otolemur : greater galagos, or thick-tailed bushbabies
      • Genus Euoticus : needle-clawed bushbabies
      • Genus Galago : lesser galagos, or lesser bushbabies
  • Suborder Haplorrhini: tarsiers, monkeys and apes

Genomics

A low-coverage genomic sequence of the Northern Greater Galago, Otolemur garnettii, is in progress. As a 'primitive' primate, the sequence will be particularly useful in bridging the sequences of higher primates (macaque, chimp, human) to close non-primates such as rodents. The 2x planned coverage will not be sufficient to create a full genome assembly, but will provide comparative data across most of the human assembly.

References

External links

• Bushbabies: Wildlife summary from the African Wildlife Foundation