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Status: Good, though habitats are being destroyed. Diet in wild: Snakes, birds, rodents, flowers, fruits, seeds, tree gum, eggs, insects. Life span in wild: 3-4 years. (10-15 in captivity.) Weight: Up to about 5 pounds. Native habitat: Africa, except Madagascar.
Black Pine Animal Park 1426 W. 300 N. P.O. Box 02 Albion, IN 46701 (260) 636-7383
©2008
Professional Animal Retirement Center, Inc.
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Galagos
This galagos, just one of many different species, is known as a Garnett's greater bush baby. His name is 'Mickey'. Mickey is a former house pet adopted by Black Pine in the spring of 2004. The habitat of the greater bush baby
is being destroyed, though as yet they are not listed as endangered.
Bush babies were given their common name by the natives who share their
land because their vocalizations sound like a crying human infant.
They also croak, chirp, whistle and bark! As might be suspected by
their large eyes, bush babies are nocturnal. They live at the edges
of the rainforest and eat a variety of foods including snakes, birds,
insects, fruits, flowers, seeds and tree gums. At Black Pine,
Mickey's diet consists of commercially prepared diets, insects, fruits,
eggs, nectar, seeds and other favorites. Galagos are amazing creatures. They can rotate their heads 180 degrees like an owl, and have the ability to hear a cricket walking from 15 feet away! Their leap can carry them nearly 40 feet, and they use their bushy tail as a rudder while airborne. At adulthood, this species of galagos is about the size of a small house cat. They can live 10-15 years in captivity, but typically only live to about 3-4 years of age in the wild. Galagos don't make very good pets because they require a lot of space to move around, which they do mostly at night when people are asleep. And the smells emitted from a galagos cage can be pretty potent, in part because they urinate on their hands then mark their territory with the sticky residue - yuck! To learn more about keeping animals like these as pets, click here. |
The Animals
Galagos are prosimians, a group of arboreal primates that are only
distantly related to monkeys and apes. They are more closely related
to lemurs, lorises and pottos.