Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Primates > Cheirogaleidae > Microcebus > Microcebus murinus

Microcebus murinus (gray mouse lemur)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

The gray mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus), grey mouse lemur or lesser mouse lemur, is a small lemur, a type of strepsirrhine primate, found only on the island of Madagascar. Weighing 58 to 67 grams (2.0 to 2.4 oz), it is the largest of the mouse lemurs (genus Microcebus), a group that includes the smallest primates in the world. The species is named for its mouse-like size and coloration and is known locally (in Malagasy) as tsidy, koitsiky, titilivaha, pondiky, and vakiandry. The gray mouse lemur and all other mouse lemurs are considered cryptic species, as they are nearly indistinguishable from each other by appearance. For this reason, the gray mouse lemur was considered the only mouse lemur species for decades until more recent studies began to distinguish between the species.
View Wikipedia Record: Microcebus murinus

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
7
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
31
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 15.33
EDGE Score: 2.79
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  65 grams
Birth Weight [1]  6 grams
Diet [2]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Carnivore (Vertebrates), Frugivore, Nectarivore, Herbivore
Diet - Ectothermic [2]  20 %
Diet - Fruit [2]  30 %
Diet - Invertibrates [2]  20 %
Diet - Nectar [2]  10 %
Diet - Plants [2]  20 %
Forages - Arboreal [2]  100 %
Female Maturity [1]  8 months 3 days
Male Maturity [1]  8 months 3 days
Gestation [1]  61 days
Litter Size [1]  2
Litters / Year [1]  1
Maximum Longevity [1]  18 years
Nocturnal [3]  Yes
Snout to Vent Length [4]  6 inches (14 cm)
Weaning [1]  37 days
Habitat Substrate [3]  Arboreal

Ecoregions

Name Countries Ecozone Biome Species Report Climate Land
Use
Madagascar dry deciduous forests Madagascar Afrotropic Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests
Madagascar mangroves Madagascar Afrotropic Mangroves
Madagascar spiny thickets Madagascar Afrotropic Deserts and Xeric Shrublands
Madagascar subhumid forests Madagascar Afrotropic Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Madagascar succulent woodlands Madagascar Afrotropic Deserts and Xeric Shrublands

Protected Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Madagascar and the Indian Ocean Islands Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles Yes

Prey / Diet

Baudouinia fluggeiformis[5]
Maerua nervosa (Natal Bush-cherry)[5]
Mammea punctata[5]
Rhopalocarpus similis[5]
Senegalia schweinfurthii[5]

Predators

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Lemuricola microcebi[7]

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 2Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 3Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 4Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 5Feeding Ecology of Sympatric Mouse Lemur Species in Northwestern Madagascar, Ute Radespiel, Wiebke Reimann, Malalatiana Rahelinirina, and Elke Zimmermann, International Journal of Primatology, Vol. 27, No. 1, February 2006, pp. 311-321
♦ 6Small-scale coexistence of two mouse lemur species (Microcebus berthae and M. murinus) within a homogeneous competitive environment, Melanie Dammhahn, Peter M. Kappeler, Oecologia (2008) 157:473–483
♦ 7Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0