Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Bush ba­bies oc­cupy the forested and bush re­gions of Africa south of the Sa­hara. Their range also ex­tends to some nearby is­lands, in­clud­ing Zanz­ibar.

• Biogeographic Regions
• ethiopian
  • native

Habi­tat

Lesser bush ba­bies are well-adapted to liv­ing in drier areas. They gen­er­ally oc­cupy the the sa­van­nah wood­lands south of the Sa­hara and are ex­cluded only from the south­ern tip of Africa.

• Terrestrial Biomes
• forest
• rainforest
• scrub forest

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Av­er­age length of Galago sene­galen­sis is 130 mm. Tail length varies be­tween 15 and 41 mm. Mem­bers of the genus weigh be­tween 95 and 300 g.

Galago sens­galen­sis has thick, woolly, rather long and wavy fur which is sil­very gray to brown dor­sally and slightly lighter un­der­neath. Ears are large, with four trans­verse ridges that can be in­de­pen­dently or si­mul­ta­ne­ously bent back and wrin­kled down­ward from the tips to­ward the base. The ends of the fin­gers and toes have flat disks of thick­ened skin, which aid in grasp­ing tree limbs and slip­pery sur­faces. Their tongues have a car­ti­lagi­nous pro­tu­ber­ance un­der­neath the fleshy tongue (like a sec­ond tongue) which is used in con­junc­tion with the front teeth in groom­ing.

The tar­sus of gala­gos is greatly elon­gated to 1/3 the length of the shin­bone, which al­lows these an­i­mals to adopt the hop­ping gate of a kan­ga­roo. Gala­gos also have a greatly in­creased mus­cle mass in the hind legs, which also en­ables them to per­form large leaps.

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Range mass

  95 to 300 g

  3.35 to 10.57 oz

• Average length

  130 mm

  5.12 in

• Average basal metabolic rate

  0.764 W

  AnAge

Re­pro­duc­tion

Gala­gos are typ­i­cally polyg­y­nous breed­ers. Male com­pete for ac­cess to the home ranges of sev­eral fe­males. Male com­pete­tive abil­ity is usu­ally re­lated to size.

• Mating System
• polygynous

Lesser bush ba­bies breeds twice a year, once at the onset of rains in No­vem­ber and a sec­ond time dur­ing the end of rains in Feb­ru­ary. Fe­males build a nest of leaves in which they bear and raise their young. Bush ba­bies gen­er­ally have one or two young per lit­ter (rarely 3) which are born from April to No­vem­ber after a ges­ta­tion pe­riod of 110 to 120 days. Young bush ba­bies gen­er­ally nurse for about three and a half months, al­though they can eat solid food at the end of the first month.

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• viviparous

• Breeding interval

  Lesser bush babies breed twice per year.

• Breeding season

  Lesser bush babies breed once at the onset of rains in November and a second time during the end of rains in February

• Range number of offspring

  1 to 3

• Average number of offspring

  1.5

  AnAge

• Range gestation period

  110 to 120 days

• Average weaning age

  3.5 months

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
  Sex: female

  240 days

  AnAge

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
  Sex: male

  300 days

  AnAge

The mother nurses her young for about three and half months. The young gen­er­ally cling to the mother's fur in trans­port, or she may carry them about in her mouth by the napes of their necks. The mother also leaves young un­at­tended in the nest while she for­ages. The role of males in parental care has not been doc­u­mented.

• Parental Investment
• altricial
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-independence
  • protecting
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Their life span is ap­prox­i­mately 10 years in cap­tiv­ity, but is prob­a­bly no longer than 3 to 4 years in the wild.

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  10 years

• Typical lifespan
  Status: wild

  3 to 4 years

• Typical lifespan
  Status: captivity

  10 (high) years

Be­hav­ior

Bush ba­bies are gre­gar­i­ous, ar­bo­real, and noc­tur­nal, sleep­ing by day in dense veg­e­ta­tion, tree forks, hol­low trees, or old birds' nests. They gen­er­ally sleep in groups of sev­eral in­di­vid­u­als; they carry out their noc­tur­nal ac­tiv­i­ties, how­ever, soli­tar­ily. If dis­turbed dur­ing the day, they may move very slowly, but at night they are ac­tive and agile, jump­ing as far as 3 to 5 me­ters in a sin­gle leap. On a level sur­face, bush ba­bies hop like minia­ture kan­ga­roos, but they gen­er­ally lo­co­mote by leap­ing and climb­ing through the trees. They use urine to moisten their hands and feet, which is be­lieved to help them hold onto branches and may also func­tion in scent mark­ing. Their call is de­scribed as a high-pitched, chirp­ing note ut­tered most fre­quently in the morn­ing and evening.

• Key Behaviors
• arboreal
• scansorial
• saltatorial
• nocturnal
• motile
• sedentary
• solitary
• social
• dominance hierarchies

Home Range

In the genus Galago, males typ­i­cally have larger home ranges than fe­males. A dom­i­nant male's home range may over­lap those of sev­eral fe­males.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion in all gala­gos in­volves a va­ri­ety of modal­i­ties.

Vi­sual com­mu­ni­ca­tion, such as body pos­ture, is used be­tween con­specifics. These an­i­mals are also known to have a va­ri­ety of fa­cial ex­pres­sions to com­mu­ni­cate emo­tional states, such as ag­gres­sion, af­fil­i­a­tion, and fear.

Uri­nat­ing on hands be­fore walk­ing, while im­prov­ing grip, also al­lows the an­i­mals to mark their ter­ri­to­ries with scents.

Tac­tile com­mu­ni­ca­tion, in play, ag­gres­sion, and groom­ing, is an im­por­tant part of the lives of bush ba­bies. Tac­tile com­mu­ni­ca­tion is es­pe­cially im­por­tant be­tween a mother and her off­spring, as well as be­tween mates.

Fi­nally, bush ba­bies are known to use vocal com­mu­ni­ca­tion with one an­other. Alarm calls, fear calls, ag­gres­sive calls, and con­tact calls are com­mon. In fact, the com­mon name for these an­i­mals de­rives from the sim­i­lar­ity be­tween some of their calls and the cry­ing of human ba­bies.

• Communication Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

• Other Communication Modes
• scent marks

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Bush ba­bies are noc­tur­nal and ar­bo­real feed­ers. Their fa­vorite food is grasshop­pers, but they will also con­sume small birds, eggs, fruits, seeds and flow­ers. They mainly feed on in­sects dur­ing the wet sea­sons, but dur­ing drought they feed solely on the gum that flows out of some of the trees in the aca­cia-dom­i­nated wood­lands.

• Primary Diet
• omnivore

• Animal Foods
• birds
• eggs
• insects

• Plant Foods
• seeds, grains, and nuts
• fruit
• flowers
• sap or other plant fluids

Pre­da­tion

Pre­da­tion on gala­gos cer­tainly oc­curs, al­though de­tails are lack­ing. Likely preda­tors in­clude small cats, snakes, and owls. Bush ba­bies are known to es­cape from preda­tors by leap­ing through the trees. They use alarm calls to alert con­specifics of dan­ger, and some species in the genus Galago have been known to mob smaller preda­tors.

Ecosys­tem Roles

As in­sect preda­tors, these an­i­mals prob­a­bly help to con­trol pop­u­la­tions of their prey. They may also aid in dis­per­sal of seeds through their fru­givory. As a po­ten­tial prey species, they may af­fect preda­tor pop­u­la­tions.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Be­cause of its small size, large ap­peal­ing eyes and gen­eral fluffi­ness, lesser bush­ba­bies are often kept as pets in Africa.

• Positive Impacts
• pet trade

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

These crea­tures are not known to have any neg­a­tive im­pacts on human economies.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Lesser bush ba­bies are one of the more suc­cess­ful African prosimi­ans. They have been stud­ied quite ex­ten­sively in South Africa.

Galago sene­galen­sis is listed on CITES Ap­pen­dix II for most of its range, and Ap­pen­dix III in Ghana.

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  Appendix II Appendix III

Con­trib­u­tors

Nancy Shef­ferly (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Liz Bal­lenger (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

Bourne, G.H. 1974. Pri­mate odyssey. G.P. Put­nam's Sons, New York.

Free­man, D. 1977. The love of mon­keys and apes. Oc­to­pus Books, Lon­don.

Walker, E.P. 1964. Mam­mals of the world. John Hop­kins Press, Bal­ti­more, MD.