Coquerel's giant mouse lemur (''Mirza coquereli''), also known as Coquerel's dwarf lemur or the southern giant mouse lemur, is a small

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

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 ...

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 elsew ...

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 ...

. This species can be found in parts of the

Madagascar dry deciduous forests The Madagascar dry deciduous forests represent a tropical dry forest ecoregion situated in the western and northern part of Madagascar. The area has high numbers of endemic plant and animal species but has suffered large-scale clearance for agric ...

Behaviour

This lemur is active throughout the year; unlike

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 less than , making them the smallest primates (the smallest spe ...

s (''Microcebus''), it does not

hibernate Hibernation is a state of minimal activity and metabolic depression undergone by some animal species. Hibernation is a seasonal heterothermy characterized by low body-temperature, slow breathing and heart-rate, and low metabolic rate. It most ...

. It feeds on the larvae of

hemiptera Hemiptera (; ) is an order (biology), order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising over 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, Reduviidae, assassin bugs, Cimex, bed bugs, and shield bugs. ...

(the true bugs) to sustain itself. It is an

arboreal Arboreal locomotion is the Animal locomotion, locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally, but others are exclusively arboreal. Th ...

species, and feeds on fruit, flowers, and small animals such as insects and spiders. Coquerel's giant mouse lemur is heavily preyed upon by

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

Taxonomy

Coquerel's giant mouse lemur was named after the French entomologist

Charles Coquerel Jean Charles Coquerel (2 December 1822 – 12 April 1867) was a French navy surgeon, algologist, and entomologist. Coquerel collected insects in Madagascar and neighbouring islands. A number of these were described after his death by Léon Fairma ...

. It was the only member of the genus ''

Mirza Mirza may refer to: * Mirza, Kamrup, town in Assam, India * Mirza (name), historical royal title & noble * ''Mirza'', the genus of giant mouse lemur * "Mirza", song by Nino Ferrer * ''Mirza – The Untold Story'', Punjabi action romance film wri ...

'' until 2005, when a second species, the northern giant mouse lemur (''M. zaza'') was described.

References

External links

* * * ARKive
images and movies of the Coquerel's mouse lemur ''(Mirza coquereli)''
Lemurs Mammals described in 1867 Taxa named by Alfred Grandidier {{Lemur-stub