The East African potto (''Perodicticus ibeanus'') 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. Collec ...

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 ...

. It is found in Central and East Africa.

Taxonomy

It was formerly considered a subspecies of the

West African potto The West African potto (''Perodicticus potto'') is a species of nocturnal strepsirrhine primate. It is found in tropical West Africa. It is also known as Bosman's potto, after Willem Bosman, who described the species in 1704. It is the type speci ...

(''Perodicticus potto''), but a 2015 study split it into three species, and classified ''P. ibeanus'' as a distinct species. It is thought to be the sister species to the Central African potto (''Perodicticus ibeanus''), from which it diverged during the late

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first 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 means "less recen ...

, about 5.5 million years ago. There are two subspecies: the type subspecies ''P. i. ibeanus'' and the

possibly extinct 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 the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biologi ...

Mount Kenya potto (''P. i. stockleyi''), known only from a single specimen collected in 1938.

Distribution

This species ranges from the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo east to western Kenya. In addition, an isolated subspecies (''P. i. stockleyi'') is

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 ...

to the slopes of

Mount Kenya Mount Kenya (Kikuyu: ''Kĩrĩnyaga'', Kamba, ''Ki Nyaa'') is the highest mountain in Kenya and the second-highest in Africa, after Kilimanjaro. The highest peaks of the mountain are Batian (), Nelion () and Point Lenana (). Mount Kenya is locat ...

, making it the easternmost population of any potto.

Conservation

This species is considered

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 ...

by 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 the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

and is known to be an adaptable species, being found in both undisturbed and disturbed forests, even near human populations. However, localized declines may be taking place due to

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...

for agriculture. In addition, the Mount Kenya subspecies is thought to be either extinct or very nearly so due to the clearance of most of its habitat, with less than 50 remaining individuals if it is still extant; due to this, it is classified as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct) by the IUCN.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q27996161 Lorises and galagos Mammals of Central Africa Mammals of East Africa Primates of Africa Mammals described in 1910 Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas