Reproduction

Both males and females may mate with multiple partners. The males will mate to gain access to the females.

Two mating seasons occur each year. These match up with the warm seasons.

A single young is most common but twins and occasionally even triplets are possible. These are born after a 3-4 month gestation period. Twins make raising the young more difficult as they carry the young in their mouth for the first two weeks of life.

The young are left in the nest and the female will return to feed her young regularly. Weaning occurs within 10 and 14 weeks of birth. Males provide no parental care.

Sexual maturity is reached as early as 6-7 months old for females. Males are sexually mature by a year old and will move out of their birth group at this point.

Behavior

Their alternative name of bush baby comes from their alarm call. This sounds similar to the call of a baby crying.

The Senegal bushbaby is considered nocturnal.

These animals are arboreal and spend much of their time in the trees. The nest in a dense thorn tree or a tree hole. They may also make use of the abandoned nests of birds. Their elongated back legs help them to hop and leap across the ground similar to kangaroos. They were recorded to hop 50m (164ft) in one study.

Before moving through the trees they will urinate on the hands and feet which provides better group. It is also though that this helps them navigate back to their nest.

A Senegal bushbaby will live as part of a group which includes 2-5 individuals though they forage outside of these groups.

They have the ability to hear extremely high frequency calls. These are too high for their predators to hear and are used by mothers and their young to communicate.

Adults use a range of calls including a low-pitched woo.

Senegal bushbabies can undertake a period of torpor (similar to a temporary hibernation) which assists them to conserve energy. This can last for just a few hours.