#prosimmian

The Javan Slow Loris is a primate native to  western and central Java, Indonesia.

It is arboreal, feeding on fruit, gum, eggs, lizards, and the seeds of the cocoa tree. Weighing up to 680 g (24 oz), this small nocturnal mammal sleeps in the open on branches during the day and is easily poached for the exotic pet trade. Populations are declining and the animal is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as Critically Endangered, and included in a list of The World's 25 Most Endangered Primates.

Photograph credit: Aprisonsan

The Sublingua - The “Undertongue”

The sublingua ("under-tongue") is a muscular secondary tongue found below the primary tongue in tarsiers and living strepsirrhine primates, which includes lemurs and lorisoids (collectively called "lemuriforms").

Although it is most fully developed in these primates, similar structures can be found in some other mammals, such as marsupials, treeshrews, and colugos. This "second tongue" lacks taste buds, and in lemuriforms, it is thought to be used to remove hair and other debris from the toothcomb, a specialized dental structure used to comb the fur during oral grooming...

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublingua

The Duke Lemur Center recently welcomed an endangered baby Aye-aye.

The female is the first born at the Center in six years, and she is one of only 24 of her kind in the U.S. Third-time mom, Medusa, gave birth on June 7, and the infant has been named “Agatha” after prolific mystery writer, Agatha Christie.

Follow the link to today's ZooBorns to learn more and see VIDEO:

Zoo Ostrava welcomes female Mongoose Lemur baby on Apr. 5, and 6-mo-old is the first of her kind born at the Zoo. 

In the wild, the Mongoose Lemur has declined sharply in numbers because of habitat destruction and hunting, and they are currently classified as “Critically Endangered" by the IUCN. 

UK researchers discover a new species of primate from Africa's Angolan rainforests 

An international team of researchers led by Oxford Brookes University has revealed a new species of primate in a paper published by the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

The primate which is the largest known dwarf galago or bushbaby, has been named the Angolan dwarf galago, named after the only country where it is known to occur.

The news comes after primate conservation experts called for urgent action to protect the world's dwindling primate populations last month...

Madagascar’s beloved ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) have all but disappeared from many of the island nation’s forests. According to two worrying new studies, the species’ population has fallen to between 2,000 and 2,400 animals—a shocking 95 percent decrease since the year 2000.

To put that number in context, there are now fewer ring-tailed lemurs living in the wild than there are living in zoos around the world.

Factors driving the decline include rapid habitat loss, hunting, and the illegal pet trade, according to a paper published last month in the journal Primate Conservation and a second paper published today in Folia Primatologica.

Diademed Sifaka (Propithecus diadema), family Indriidae, Madagascar

ENDANGERED.

There’s a New Member of the Lemur Family 

Grove’s Dwarf lemur (Cheirogaleus grovesi) was discovered in two of Madagascar’s national parks.

Grove’s Dwarf lemur (Cheirogaleus grovesi) was discovered in two national parks, Ranomafana and Andringitra, both of which are part of the Rainforests of Atsinanana UNESCO World Heritage Site. A team led by scientists at the Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium in Omaha, Nebraska described the species in a paper published this week in the journal Primate Conservation.

An analysis of DNA samples taken from a number of animals was used to confirm that Grove’s Dwarf lemur is in fact a new, distinct species.

The new lemur is a nocturnal primate that is smaller than a squirrel. The fur on its back, limbs, and head are a reddish-brown in color, and there are brownish-black rings around its large eyes...