SPECIES - Galagoides sp. nov. 3
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  • Description
  • Taxonomy
  • Calls
  • Distribution
  • Habitat
  • Conservation
  • References
rungweHigh resemblance with G. orinus but with less red; it display dark brown tail, with hairs black-tipped towards the end and feet light, fawn (Groves 2001). This unnamed taxon display a vocal repertoire that place them in the genus Galagoides and it display an advertising call of rolling or scaling type grouping it together with G. zanzibaricus, G. rondoensis and G. orinus (Grubb et al. 2003). Populations with similar vocal repertoire and external characters have been found in Mughese Forest, Misuku Hills Forest Reserve, Malawi (Bearder and Karlsson 2009) (approximately 50 km south of G. sp. nov. 3’s described range (see Distribution).

Diet is unknown but individual was seen entering large cone-shaped banana flowers and eating the nectar (Perkin et al. 2005).

Body measurements (from museum specimens) (Groves 2001):

  • Head and body: 140-150 mm
  • Tail: 165-190 mm
Common name: Ukinga Galago

Type locality: Madehani 9° 10’ S;  33° 50’ E, Ukinga or Livingstone Mountains, Makete district, Tanzania

Excerpt from Grubb et al. (2003):

"Galagos collected at Madehani in the Ukinga Mountains of Tanzania, near the Malawi border, were at first identified as Galago senegalensis moholi by Allen and Loveridge (1933), then as Galagoides demidovii thomasi by Lawrence and Washburn (1936), and are now designated as Galagoides sp. nov. 3 (Groves, 2001). Their vocalizations have not been well recorded but suggest inclusion in the Galagoides zanzibaricus group (Honess, 1996). Perkin (in litt.) thinks they do not sound like Galagoides zanzibaricus, G. granti or G. orinus. Clearly, more data are needed on this taxon."
Mountain populations of Galagoides spp. are found at different localities around Tanzania, Kenya and Malawi. Some of these populations are of undecided taxonomic status, i.e. Taita Mountain Dwarf Galago, Ukinga Galago (G. sp. nov. 3) and Misuku Hills Dwarf Galago, but has been grouped, on occasion, as possible subspecies to G. orinus. Below are the advertising calls from G. sp. nov. 3, Misuku Hills Dwarf Galago and G. orinus as a compliment for your own comparison.


Scaling Call

Scaling Call (Misuku Hills Dwarf Galago)

Scaling call (G. orinus)

Accelerating Chatter

Grunt and Buzz

Rapid Yaps

Slow Yaps

Yaps and Descending Shrieks

Zipping Screech and Yaps


All calls are used by kind permission from NPRG Sound Library, Oxford Brookes University, U.K.
The original museum specimens studied by Groves (2001) was collected in Madehani , Ukinga Mountains, Livingstone Mountain Range, Makete District, Iringa Region, Tanzania. It has not been described from this area since its collector’s days (Allen and Loveridge 1936). Madehani is connected by a fragmented corridor of montane forest to another part of Livingstone Mountain Range where the field observations of the taxon has been made - Mount Rungwe, Mbeya Region, Mbeya District, Tanzania. Altitude where observed is not mentioned in any publication but Mount Rungwe treeline limit is 2,600 meters. On the adjacent side of the Livingstone Mountains in Malawi lies the Nyika Plateau (Lovett and Wasser 1993). Part the regional highlands but a separate mountain range, another population with high resemblance to G. sp. nov. 1was found at an altitude of 1,600 – 1,700 meters in Mughese Forest, Misuku Hills Forest Reserve, Malawi (Bearder and Karlsson 2009).

Map: Pink area illustrate the current estimated distribution of G. sp. nov. 3.


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Distribution polygon data compiled by Karlsson (2012).
Madehani forests contain of afromontane rainforest and undifferentiated afromontane forest (Lovett and Congdon 1989) as does Mount Rungwe forests. The Mughese Forest in Malawi display similar montane rainforest type that is floristically diverse with strangling figs and epiphytes (Dowesett-Lemaire and Dowsett 2006). The population in Mount Rungwe preferred areas of forest with large numbers if wild bananas, although it was also found in the Hagenia-dominant montane forest not rich in wild bananas (Perkin et al.2005).

mugheseForest
Picture: Mughese Forest Reserve, Misuku Hills, Malawi.
G. sp. nov. 1 inhabits one of the most fertile lands in Tanzania and is therefore threatened by the agricultural expansion in the area. Other threats to its habitat are logging and charcoal manufacturing (Perkin et al. 2005). The population on the Malawi side faces similar habitat threats though the boundary of the Misuku Hills Forest Reserve appears to be respected by local people (J. Karlsson, pers. obs.).

mugheseBoundary

Picture: Mughese Forest Reserve, Misuku Hills, Malawi, and its boundaries closely intergrade with agricultural land.
Allen GM & Loveridge A (1933) Reports on the scientific results of an expedition to the south-western highlands of Tanganyika Territory. II. Mammals. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard 75:47-140.

Bearder SK & Karlsson J (2009) A survey of nocturnal primates in Malawi - August 2009.  (Oxford Brookes University, U.K.), p 5.

Dowsett-Lemaire F & Dowsett RJ (2006) The birds of Malawi: an atlas and handbook (Tauraco Press and Aves a.s.b.l., Liège, Belgium) p 556 p.

Groves CP (2001) Primate taxonomy (Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington [D.C.]) pp viii, 350 p.

Grubb, P. et al. Assessment of the diversity of African primates. International Journal of Primatology 24, 1301-1357 (2003).

Honess PE (1996) Speciation among galagos (Primates, Galagidae) in Tanzanian forests. PhD Thesis (Oxford Brookes University, Oxford).

Lawrence B & Washburn SL (1936) A new eastern race of Galago demidovii. Occ. Pap.Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 8:255-266.

Lovett JC & Congdon TCE (1989) Notes on Madenge Forest, Livingstone mountains,Tanzania. East African Natural History Society Bulletin 19:31-32.

Lovett JC & Wasser S eds (1993) Biogeography and ecology of the rain foests of Eastern Africa (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge), p 341.

Perkin A, Bearder SK, Davenport TRB, & Butynski TM (2005) Mt. Rungwe Galago, Galagoides sp. nov. . in Report to IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group (PSG), International Primatological Society (IPS) and Conservation International (CI), eds Mittermeier RA, Valladares-Pádua C, Rylands AB, Eudey AA, Butynski TM, Ganzhorn JU, Kormos R, Aguiar JM, & Walker S (Washington, DC.), p 15.
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