The Gabon bushbaby (''Sciurocheirus gabonensis'') is a species of

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 ...

in the family

Galagidae Galagos , also known as bush babies, or ''nagapies'' (meaning "night monkeys" in Afrikaans), are small nocturnal primates native to continental, sub-Sahara Africa, and make up the family Galagidae (also sometimes called Galagonidae). They are ...

found in

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the nort ...

, and the Republic of the Congo. Its head and body length is 8.5 in with a 10-in tail, and it weighs about 10 oz. It lives in evergreen

tropical rainforest Tropical rainforests are rainforests that occur in areas of tropical rainforest climate in which there is no dry season – all months have an average precipitation of at least 60 mm – and may also be referred to as ''lowland equa ...

s and eats primarily fallen

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

, but also some

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chiti ...

Distribution and habitat

The Gabon bushbaby is native to tropical western Central Africa. Its range extends from the

Sanaga River The Sanaga River (formerly german: Zannaga) is the largest river in Cameroon located in East Region, Centre Region and Littoral Region. Its length is about from the confluence of Djérem and Lom River. The total length of Sanaga-Djérem Rive ...

in Cameroon, through the Congo Republic and

Río Muni Río Muni (called ''Mbini'' in Fang) is the Continental Region (called ''Región Continental'' in Spanish) of Equatorial Guinea, and comprises the mainland geographical region, covering . The name is derived from the Muni River, along whic ...

, in Equatorial Guinea to Gabon, where it is found between the

and the

Ogooué River The Ogooué (or Ogowe), also known as the Nazareth river, some long, is the principal river of Gabon in west central Africa and the fifth largest river in Africa by volume of discharge, trailing only the Congo, Kasai, Niger and Zambezi. Its wa ...

. It is unclear whether it occurs to the south of the Ogooue River. Its typical habitat is dense humid forest where it lives in the lower part of the canopy among the lianas and tree trunks. It seems able to adapt to some extent to inhabiting secondary growth and partially felled areas.

Ecology

The Gabon bushbaby moves widely through the forest; the home range of males is while that of females is . This bushbaby forages for small invertebrates and fruit which it finds on the forest floor. At birth the ratio between the sexes is 1:1 but among adults, the ratio of males to females is 1:4. This difference may be because the males travel greater distances and are therefore at greater risk of

predation Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

. Animals known to prey on this species include large snakes, the

African palm civet The African palm civet (''Nandinia binotata''), also known as the two-spotted palm civet, is a small feliform mammal widely distributed in sub-Saharan Africa. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. Characteristics The African palm ...

(''Nandinia binotata''), the African linsang (''Poiana richardsonii''), and large owls.

Status

The Gabon bushbaby has a relatively wide range and is a fairly common species. Apart from some felling of forest for timber and for conversion into agricultural land, no particular threats have been identified. This bushbaby is present in a number of protected areas, so the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of nat ...

has rated its conservation status as being of "

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:galago, Gabon Gabon bushbaby Fauna of Central Africa Mammals of Gabon Mammals of Cameroon Mammals of the Central African Republic Mammals of the Republic of the Congo Mammals of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Mammals of Equatorial Guinea Gabon bushbaby Gabon bushbaby