Living in the rain forests of Madagascar is a newly discovered lemur that has been hiding out in the middle of about a dozen other lemur species. This lemur is about the size of a hamster, making it slightly larger than the others in the area, and it likely lives off an omnivorous diet in the trees, scientists report. It has relatively small ears and a longish tail. It is tiny, only weighing in at 2 to 2.5 ounces (about 60 or 70 grams); is nocturnal and sticks to the lowland areas of the rain forest. The discovery is so new that scientists can't yet tell much about its behaviours.
The species has been named Microcebus Gerpi, after its discoverers' research affiliation, known as GERP. It is colloquially known as the "Gerp's mouse lemur."
The research group found the new lemur when it set out to catalogue the lemur species in the Sahafina forest in eastern Madagascar during a couple of trips a few years back. The researchers weighed and measured the lemurs they found, and took tiny skin samples for genetic analysis in the lab. There was a big surprise when the results came back: some results didn't match any known lemur species.
The lowland rain forests surrounding this new lemur's small range aren't protected areas of Madagascar, as local villagers freely enter the forests to hunt wildlife, harvest wood, and create other disturbances. This means there is no continuous forest anymore in these lowland areas, only patches of forest. The situation for these species is getting more and more unstable. Efforts to conserve the areas are the only way to save these species of lemur!
