Potto
Encyclopedia
The potto is a strepsirrhine primate
Primate
A primate is a mammal of the order Primates , which contains prosimians and simians. Primates arose from ancestors that lived in the trees of tropical forests; many primate characteristics represent adaptations to life in this challenging three-dimensional environment...

 from the Lorisidae
Lorisidae
Lorisidae is a family of strepsirrhine primates. The lorisids are all slim arboreal animals and include the lorises, pottos and angwantibos. Lorisids live in tropical, central Africa as well as in south and southeast Asia....

 family. It is the only species in genus Perodicticus. The potto is also known as Bosman's potto, after its supposed discoverer, and in some English-speaking parts of Africa, it is called a "softly-softly".

Subspecies

There are four recognized subspecies:
  • Perodicticus potto potto
  • Perodicticus potto edwardsi
  • Perodicticus potto ibeanus
  • Perodicticus potto stockleyi


However, variation among pottos is significant, and there may, in fact, be more than one species. A few closely related species also have "potto" in their names: the two golden potto species (also known as angwantibos) and the false potto
False Potto
The false potto is a lorisiform primate of uncertain taxonomic status found in Africa. Anthropologist Jeffrey H. Schwartz named it in 1996 as the only species of the genus Pseudopotto on the basis of two specimens that had previously been identified as pottos...

. The false potto may be the same species as the potto.

Habitat

Pottos inhabit the canopy of rain forests in tropical Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, from Guinea
Guinea
Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...

 to Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

 and Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...

 into the north of the Democratic Republic of Congo. They are nocturnal and arboreal, sleeping during the day in the leaves, and almost never descending from the trees.

Physiology

Pottos grow to a length of 30 to 40 cm, with a short (3 to 10 cm) tail, and their maximum weight is 1.5 kg. The close, woolly fur is grey-brown. The index finger is vestigial, although they have opposable thumbs with which they grasp branches firmly. At the second toes of the hind legs, they have the fine claw typical for strepsirrhines. Three of the vertebrae in the potto's neck have sharp points and nearly pierce the skin; these are used as defensive weapons. Both males and females have large scent glands under the tail (in females, the swelling created by the glands is known as a pseudo-scrotum), which they use to mark their territories and to reinforce pair bonds. Pottos have a distinct odor that some observers have likened to curry.

In potto hands and feet, fingers three and four are connected to each other by a slight skin fold, while toes three through five are joined at their bases by a skin web that extends to near the proximal third of the toes.

Locomotion and diet

Pottos move slowly and carefully, always gripping a branch with at least two limbs. They are also quiet creatures. Their most common call is a high-pitched "tsic", which is used mainly between mother and offspring.

Studies of stomach contents have shown the potto diet consists of about 65% fruit, 21% tree gums and 10% insects. Pottos have also occasionally been known to catch bats and small birds. Their strong jaws enable them to eat fruits and lumps of dried gum that are too tough for other tree-dwellers. The insects they eat tend to have a strong smell, possibly because more palatable insects are snatched up by faster-moving creatures.

Territorial and reproductive behaviour

Pottos inhabit firm territories which they mark with urine and glandular secretions, and same-sex intruders are vehemently guarded against, although each male's territory generally overlaps with that of two or more females. Females have been known to donate part of their territories to their daughters, but sons leave their mother's territory upon maturity.

As part of their courting rituals, pottos often meet for bouts of mutual grooming. This is frequently performed while they hang upside down from a branch. Grooming consists of licking, combing fur with the grooming claw and teeth, and anointing with the scent glands. Pottos mate face-to-face while hanging upside down from a branch.

After a gestation of about 170 days, the female gives birth, typically to a single young, but twins are known to occur. The young first are clasped to the belly of the mother, but later she carries them on her back. She can also hide her young in the leaves while searching for food. After about four to five months, they are weaned, and are fully mature after about 18 months.

Predators and defences

Pottos have relatively few predators, because large mammal
Mammal
Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

ian carnivore
Carnivore
A carnivore meaning 'meat eater' is an organism that derives its energy and nutrient requirements from a diet consisting mainly or exclusively of animal tissue, whether through predation or scavenging...

s cannot climb to the treetops where they live, and the birds of prey
Bird of prey
Birds of prey are birds that hunt for food primarily on the wing, using their keen senses, especially vision. They are defined as birds that primarily hunt vertebrates, including other birds. Their talons and beaks tend to be relatively large, powerful and adapted for tearing and/or piercing flesh....

 in this part of Africa are diurnal
Diurnal animal
Diurnality is a plant or animal behavior characterized by activity during the day and sleeping at night.-In animals:Animals that are not diurnal might be nocturnal or crepuscular . Many animal species are diurnal, including many mammals, insects, reptiles and birds...

. One population of chimpanzee
Chimpanzee
Chimpanzee, sometimes colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...

s living in Mont Assirik, Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...

, was observed to eat pottos, taking them from their sleeping places during the day; however, this behaviour has not been observed in chimps elsewhere. Pottos living near villages face some predation from human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...

s, who hunt them as bushmeat
Bushmeat
Bushmeat initially referred to the hunting of wild animals in West and Central Africa and is a calque from the French viande de brousse. Today the term is commonly used for meat of terrestrial wild animals, killed for subsistence or commercial purposes throughout the humid tropics of the Americas,...

. They are sometimes harassed by African palm civet
African Palm Civet
The African palm civet , also known as the two-spotted palm civet, is a small mammal, with short legs, small ears, a body resembling a cat, and a long lithe tail as long as its body. Adults usually weigh . It is native to the forests of eastern Africa, where it usually inhabits trees...

s, although African palm civets are largely frugivorous.

If threatened, a potto will hide its face and neck-butt its opponent, making use of its unusual vertebrae. Pottos can also deliver a powerful bite. Their saliva
Saliva
Saliva , referred to in various contexts as spit, spittle, drivel, drool, or slobber, is the watery substance produced in the mouths of humans and most other animals. Saliva is a component of oral fluid. In mammals, saliva is produced in and secreted from the three pairs of major salivary glands,...

 contains compounds that cause the wound to become inflamed.

The highest recorded life span for a potto in captivity is 26 years.

Cognition and social behaviour

In a study of prosimian
Prosimian
Prosimians are a grouping of mammals defined as being primates, but not monkeys or apes. They include, among others, lemurs, bushbabies, and tarsiers. They are considered to have characteristics that are more primitive than those of monkeys and apes. Prosimians are the only primates native to...

 cognition
Cognition
In science, cognition refers to mental processes. These processes include attention, remembering, producing and understanding language, solving problems, and making decisions. Cognition is studied in various disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science...

 conducted in 1964, pottos were seen to explore and manipulate unfamiliar objects, but only when those objects were baited with food. They were found to be more curious than loris
Loris
Loris is the common name for the strepsirrhine primates of the subfamily Lorisinae in family Lorisidae. Loris is one genus in this subfamily and includes the slender lorises, while Nycticebus is the genus for the slow lorises....

es and lesser bushbabies
Lesser bushbaby
Lesser bushbabies, or lesser galagos, are strepsirrhine primates of the genus Galago. They are classified, along with the rest of the galagos and bushbabies, in the family Galagidae. They are probably the most numerous primate in Africa, and can be found in every large forest on the continent...

, but less so than lemur
Lemur
Lemurs are a clade of strepsirrhine primates endemic to the island of Madagascar. They are named after the lemures of Roman mythology due to the ghostly vocalizations, reflective eyes, and the nocturnal habits of some species...

s. Ursula Cowgill
Ursula Cowgill
Ursula Moser Cowgill is a biologist and anthropologist who worked for Yale University, Dow Chemical Company and the University of Colorado during the second half of the 20th century...

, a biologist at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 who looked after six captive pottos for several decades, noticed they appeared to form altruistic relationships. The captive pottos were seen to spend time with a sick companion and to save food for an absent one. However, there is no confirmation this behaviour occurs in the wild.

Pottos in popular culture

The potto is not particularly familiar to people outside Africa, but some will know it from its appearance in Patrick O'Brian
Patrick O'Brian
Patrick O'Brian, CBE , born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series of novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and centred on the friendship of English Naval Captain Jack Aubrey and the Irish–Catalan physician Stephen...

's Aubrey-Maturin novels. Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....

's nickname was 'Potto', and James Thurber
James Thurber
James Grover Thurber was an American author, cartoonist and celebrated wit. Thurber was best known for his cartoons and short stories published in The New Yorker magazine.-Life:...

 sketched a potto for a series of animal cartoons. André Gide
André Gide
André Paul Guillaume Gide was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1947. Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the symbolist movement, to the advent of anticolonialism between the two World Wars.Known for his fiction as well as his autobiographical works, Gide...

 wrote an autobiographical story entitled Dindiki ou le pérodictique potto.

In the 1990s, there was also a short-lived children's science series, Professor Potto's Videolab. Here, Professor Potto, a friendly potto puppet, his researcher friend, Dr. Zeno, and their robot elephant, Big Maxx, teach kids science from the rain forests of Africa. They also have a cardboard box time machine to help illustrate the invention of things like batteries. Four VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....

tapes were produced with the subjects of electricity, magnets, motors, and crystal radios. The series was also notable for providing a set of items with each tape that would allow the person watching to play along and do the same science as the characters on screen, such as building one's own working crystal radio, and more.

External links

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