Also known as the Nosy Be mouse lemur, it is a species that has only been described in recent years. It lives on the Nosy Be island, the Antseranana province of madagascar and on hte mainland near Manehoka – in and around Lokobe reserve. Its scientific name Mamiratra comes from Malagasy (the local language) means clear and bright, and refers to a family foundation which has contributed to the genetic research on Madagascar. There are a number of closely related mouse lemur species. It is small, with a weight of 60g  (standard for this genus). It is red-brown colour, darkening as you travel down. Its total length is 26-28cm, though the tail accounts for more than half of this

The species status of Claire’s mouse lemur has been recently challenged by a broad study of nuclear DNA and gene trees in mouse lemurs. Results showed that although the mitochondrial DNA differed from that of the Sambirano mouse lemur, its nuclear DNA did not.  Since females stay close to the home range in which they were born, mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited from the mother, is likely to remain similar within a small area while nuclear DNA within a species is likely to be similar over a much larger area. According to the study, this is the case for Claire’s mouse lemur. 

For this reason, it was suggested that Claire’s mouse lemur no longer be recognized as a distinct species. As such this page may get reduced to suspecies status. Any news will appear below. Should we get any links that that will let you see this species in the wild, they will be listed further down the page. (beneath any articles on this subject)