Bioacoustics of Paragalago orinus

Movements, Home range and Social organization. Mountain Dwarf Galagos are largely solitary. A male’s home range overlaps those of the females. Their social organization is otherwise little known. They use round nests constructed of leaves and twigs for sleeping in the daytime. Nests may be set in clumps of lianas 15 m up in the canopy and hold three to four individuals. They forage alone and in small groups. After leaving their sleeping sites, members of small groups participate in bouts of intergroup and intragroup advertisement calling. They then separate to forage solitarily but maintain contact by calling, which reaches a second peak at dawn. The species-specific advertisement call is a “double unit repetitive call,” and they also emit diagnostic alarm call yaps and descending screeches.

Galagoides orinus was recognized as a full species by P. Honess in 1996 based on differences in vocalizations and morphology—a classification subsequently accepted in the revisions of C. P. Groves in 2001 and P. Grubb and coworkers in 2003. It is sympatric with G. zanzibaricus . Researchers have confirmed the presence of a small dwarf galago, similar to G. orinus , on Mount Rungwe in the south-western highlands of Tanzania. In 2001 Groves referred to a similar-looking galago from the Ukinga Mountains, off the north-east shore of Lake Malawi, and adjacent to and east of Mount Rungwe as the “Ukinga” form, a similar galago is also found in Northern Malawi’s Misuku Hills. Differences in calls, morphology, and other characteristics strongly suggest that although currently considered G. orinus, this form is likely a new species. Monotypic.