LESSER BUSHBABY: Galago senegalensis

Distribution:

Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Transvaal and Swaziland.

Diet:

Insects and the gum of trees ; they will lick dew and rain water from cracks and crevices.

Habitat:

Dry bushland, woodland and mountain forest as well as river valleys.

Habits:

Bushbabies are mainly arboreal coming down from the trees only to forage and to cross open ground, or when moving from one tree to another.

Their most active periods being in the first two hours after sunset.

They spend large amounts of time and energy on grooming each other before setting off to forage.

They will travel up to two kilometers in a night's foraging.

Just before dawn the members of a group will meet and make their way together to their sleeping place.

Lesser Bushbabies are not truly gregarious as adults will forage alone.

They will sleep in groups of six to seven individuals who are in no way related.

They can jump a distance of 5-7 meters and use this skill to pounce on insects.

The males show territorial behaviour.

They will mark their territory by wiping urine on the underside of their feet as well as by rubbing their lower lip on the surfaces of branches.

Males will mark females by urinating on them.

They are very vocal and have about 25 different calls.

Breeding:

Two young are normally born after a gestation period of approximately four months.

Sometimes only one young is born, three being the exception.

They will often breed twice in one year.

Predators:

They are preyed upon by the larger owl species, taken by snakes, servals, African Wild Cats and genets.

The main threat to the lesser bushbaby is fire. These animals are not capable of moving over very large distances and may face severe consequences if fire sweeps through their area as this may destroy their available food supply in the areas they frequent. This may help to explain why they are found in the moist and short grass habitats : a form of protection from fire.