The Amber Mountain fork-marked lemur (''Phaner electromontis''), also known as the Montagne d'Ambre fork-crowned lemur or Tanta, is a small

primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...

, and like the other

lemur Lemurs ( ) (from Latin ''lemures'' – ghosts or spirits) are Strepsirrhini, wet-nosed primates of the Superfamily (biology), superfamily Lemuroidea (), divided into 8 Family (biology), families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 exist ...

s, can only be found on the island of

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 ...

. The species is named after the

Amber Mountain National Park Montagne d'Ambre National Park is a national park in the Diana Region of northern Madagascar. The park is known for its endemic flora and fauna, water falls and crater lakes. It is north of the capital, Antananarivo and is one of the most biolog ...

where they are found.

Description

The Amber Mountain fork-marked lemur is light grey on the dorsal and ventral areas of its body, with a thick, dark crown, dorsal midline stripe, and tail, as well as its hands and feet. No official body measurements have been published for the Amber Mountain fork-marker lemur, however unpublished research by E. E. Louis Jr suggests that three of the species (2 male 1 female) from Montagne d’Ambre had an average head-body length of 27.2 cm (±0.4 cm), a tail length o-34.4 cm (±0.2 cm), and an average weight of 387g (±35g). The species is similar to several other nocturnal lemurs, including Microcebus, Cheirogaleus, and Lepilemur, however they are mainly differentiated from Microcebus by its difference in size, and from all else the forked pattern on the crown, the very loud and distinctive vocalizations, and the unusual head-bobbing movements.

Habitat

The Amber Mountain fork-marked lemur lives in north Madagascar, in the regions of Montagne d’Ambre and Ankarana, specifically in the Montagne d’Ambre National Park, and is also present in Ankarana National Park, two special reserves (Analamerana and Forêt d’Ambre), and in the Sahafary Classified Forest. A group of lemurs in the genus Phaner have been spotted in Dariana, however it has not been identified as to whether it belongs to the species ''Electromontis,'' or, more likely, is an entirely new species. The Amber Mountain fork-marked lemur mainly inhabits both the wet and dry forest.

Conservation

According to the IUCN, the Amber Mountain fork-marked lemur is vulnerable. Its most prominent threat is the annual burning of its habitat. However, population densities are thought to be high within the Montagne d'Ambre region, though the species has not been studied in-depth. It is listed in

CITES CITES (shorter name for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of interna ...

Appendix I.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1202656 Lemurs Mammals described in 1991 Taxa named by Colin Groves Taxa named by Ian Tattersall