The Perodicticus potto is about 12.01 to 15.35 inches, both male and female are about the same size.  They have very large eye compared to their head. Their ears however, are very small and round and they don’t have much fur on them. Their fur is thick and can vary in from shade of brown to grey.  Their tail is very small; it’s only about thirty-seven to one-hundred mm.  On their hands, they have a special finger that is very tiny; it is used for climbing and catching insects. Perodicticus pottos have long, skinny bodies and two arms, two legs that are all about the same length.  They have made some adaptations to their environment such as having flexible wrists and joints, and while the animal isn’t moving, and having a “scapular shield” consisting of stretched out spines. The Perodicticus potto lives in areas with a lot of rain forest vegetation or in tropical and terrestrial regions.  They can live in many places though.  From coastal and lowland forest to mid-altitude forest and can inhabit the highest or secondary forest growth.  They are normally found in trees that are five to thirty meters high. They live two-thousand, and eighty-nine meters high. At the tops of the trees, they tend to move slowly and they don’t come down very much at all.

They are least concerned, so they are far from being extinct.  They are very common in the region of the Ivory Coast in Equatorial Guinea.  They are decreasing though in Northeastern Liberia.  The main threats to them are human hunting, deforestation, and predation.  Since they live in trees, when the trees get chopped down, they freeze up when they are threatened, so they are easy to get burned or chopped down with the trees.  When it comes to food they have a very unique taste.  Their diet is sixty-five percent fruit, twenty-one percent tree gums, and ten percent insects.  That’s not all they eat though, they occasionally catch bat and mall birds.  They don’t usually have competition for their food because they have strong jaws that let them eat fruits and lumps of dry tree gum.  To get insects they catch them by scent and then rapidly grab them with their hand or mouth.

Perodicticus pottos don’t have many predators at all.  They don’t because large carnivores cannot climb where Perodicticus pottos live.  The biggest threats they have are African palm civets and humans.  Humans are a big threat because they can hunt the Perodicticus pottos.  If they are threatened they will either hide their face and neck-butt it’s opponent or freeze up. When infants are left alone by their mothers, the mother will apply a salivary liquid to her offspring by grooming it with her tooth comb. This liquid applied to the infant repels predators.  Some interesting facts about the Perodicticus potto are that, for a small primate, it can deliver a powerful bite.  On top of that, the saliva contains compounds that make the wound inflamed. Perodicticus pottos are instrumental in seed dispersals.  Also, humans hunt them for their meat, but humans benefit from the seed dispersal.  Perodicticus pottos are also all three herbivore, frugivore, and omnivore.

As you can see, Perodicticus potto isn’t a name you her every day, but is very fascinating primate.  Like how they are so small and they can deliver a powerful bite that makes the wound inflamed.

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Author: Kayley C.
Published:  1/2013

Credit: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perodicticus_potto>
Photo Credit:  http://www.bogleech.com/nature/mammal-