Cross River bushbaby
| Cross River bushbaby | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Primates |
| Family: | Galagidae |
| Genus: | Sciurocheirus |
| Species: | S. cameronensis |
| Binomial name | |
|
Sciurocheirus cameronensis (Peters, 1876) |
|
 |
|
| Map showing range of Cross River bushbaby on the mainland and Allen's bushbaby on Bioko | |
The Cross River bushbaby, also known as the Cross River Squirrel Galago , (Sciurocheirus cameronensis) is a species of prosimian primate in the family Galagidae which is endemic to a restricted are of West Africa. It is one of four species of squirrel galago in the genus Sciurocheirus.
The Cross River bushbaby is a medium sized bush bay with little noticeable sexual dimorphism, except that the males may be slightly larger than the females. They have a prominent snout with a pale grey stripe on the nose which broadens out on to the forehead. The fur on the animal's underparts is whitish or gery and this extends onto the inside of the legs and the cheeks. It has black rings surrounding the large, round, chocolate brown eyes which meet between the eyes to form a face mask. It has naked ears, which are black in colour with some times have a pale grey ring at their base. The dorsal fur is generally brown grizzled with grey except that the shoulders, flanks and outer forelimbs are rufous. It has greyish black palms on the hands and soles on the feet. The long tail, which is a fifth longer than the body, is bushy along its length and is coloured dark grey to black, and sometimes has a white tip. Individual variation occurs in the extent of rufous on the anterior dorsal fur, tail colour and the face mask. The weight varies from 220g=355g.
The Cross River bushbaby is endemic to a restricted area in West Africa from the Niger River through South-eastern Nigeria to the Sanaga River in central Cameroon. It is recorded from the Cross River National Park in Nigeria, as well as from Ebo Wildlife Reserve, Korup National Park and Banyang-Mbo Wildlife Sanctuary in Cameroon.
The Cross River bush baby occurs on high rainfall, primary tropical rainforest, both lowland and montane, up to an altitude of 2000m. It occusr in well developed secondary forest with an understorey which is relatively open and will use plantations for foraging in.
...
Wikipedia