Photo Gallery The World's Smallest Primates
The researchers from the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hanover, Germany, had to overcome many obstacles on their Madagascar trip -- including a river without bridges. They found three new primate species in the remote forests.
The researchers used bananas to attract the mouse lemurs so they could examine them. Then they released them back into the wild.
The scientists caught the mouse lemurs, which are about the size of hamsters, in small boxes.
Sometimes the researchers had to forgo cars for oxen-drawn carts.
The mouse lemurs have a talon on their feet for cleaning themselves.
This wary-looking creature is one of the newly discovered microcebus lokobensis species.
The microcebus danfossi is another of the "newly baptized" animals.
I'm ready for my close-up: Protected by a blanket, a sleepy microcebus bongolavensis lemur peers into the camera.
Doctoral student Gillian Olivieri carefully holds a tiny mouse lemur in her gloved hands.
