Mountain galago
Galagoides orinus
Key identification features
A rat sized primate with large ears and large eyes and a elongated upturned nose. The long bushy tail is reddish-brown coloured. The body is a dark brown colour with reddish tints and the underparts are yellowish. They are nocturnal and more often heard then seen. The loud advertising calls of bushbabies are a better guide for separating the various species then their appearance. The Mountain galago’s call is described by Honess (1996) as a double unit call: It is comprised of two soft units. The first unit is made at a higher pitch than the second, and uttered in a series up to six times at a regular tempo to form a phrase. Sometimes there is a single unit at the beginning and at the end of the call. HB 15.5 cm (only one species, measured by Honess).
Habitat and social behaviour
The Mountain galago is restricted to the montane forests of the Eastern Arc Mountains between 650 and 2,400 m (Honess, 1996; Butynski et al., 1998; Perkin, 2000) Nocturnal animal that lives in small family groups but forages singly. G. orinus predominantly sleeps in nests it has constructed (Bearder et al. 2003).
Similar species
The different species of dwarf galagos look very similar and the most reliable way to distinguish between species in the field is by the loud advertising calls. The Zanzibar galago has a incremental call: a call with rolling trill units that after a few units becomes higher pitched and louder before reaching a mild crescendo and then trailing off. The Diani lesser galago has a incremental call. It often begins with high pitched rapidly uttered chirrups followed by units arranged in phrases in a high loud tone, which gets softer and gets an increasing number of units per phrase during the call. The Grant’s galago has an incremental call like the Diani lesser galago but maintains a relatively consistent loudness, and has more units per phrase then the Diani lesser galago. The Rondo galago has a roller call, a sustained vibrating call that rises in volume and tails of quite suddenly after 10 seconds.
See also
Rondo galago · Zanzibar galago · Grant's galago · Diani lesser galago