Prosimians - Show Your Lemur, Galago, Potto And Other Prosimians On Stamps

The Prosimians (Pre-monkeys)

Prosimians are the most primitive of the living primates, which also include the monkeys and apes. The name prosimian means pre-monkey. The living prosimians are placed in the suborder Prosimii, which includes four families of lemurs, the bush babies, lorises and pottos, and the tarsiers. Some authorities also include the tree shrews, though others separate them into an order of their own.

Prosimian are primarily tree-dwellers. They have a longer snout than the monkeys and apes, and the prosimian snout usually ends in a moist nose, indicating a well-developed sense of smell. A larger proportion of the brain of prosimians is devoted to the sense of smell than the sense of vision. Prosimians actively scent-mark their territories to warn other animals of their occupancy.

As a collector of primates on stamps, I have a small collection of Prosimians on stamps and items. Please, join me and share your stamps and items here.

Prosimians are the only primates native to Madagascar, but are also found throughout Africa and in Asia. Hence, Madagascar issued many stamps depicting prosimians, from them my favorite is this stamp shows Ring-tailed Lemur (Lemur catta), designed and engraved by Pierre Gandon, and issued on September 20, 1954:

Several color proof assays of this stamps:

The design of the above 1954 stamp is based on two different 19th engravings from old nature books:

Bottom brace, are guesses.
The one on the right I thought originally, may be
a bay thighed Diana Monkey, but not so, by the face.

Guesses are Maluku Selatan
No Catalogue I have, name the vignettes.

Rod, thank you very much for your contribution!

The two Ajman on the right in your first post are ring-tailed cat or ring-tailed fox (upper) and Capuchin from South-America (lower). Have no idea too about the Maluku Selatan stamps but I think they are not prosimians. All the rest are prosimians.

The upper Madagascar stamp in your first photo is the first stamp in the world shows prosimian. It shows Lemur and Zebu and it is one of a set of 15 identical definitive stamps issued in 1903 for use in French Madagascar. Here are other one in HR and 12 of them, several appears in different shades:


In 1912, several of them revalued and reissued:

To publicize the "Stamp Day", Madagascar issued on May 6, 1966, a stamp depicting the 1c. value (but different color):

Makis from Mayotte

According to an online catalogue, the 2 Ajman stamps above labelled 2685 Fauna Lemur are the Bushbaby (Galagidae) on the left, and the South American Squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus) on the right. The one on the right certainly looks more like a squirrel monkey than a capuchin monkey.

https://animalia.bio/lists/capuchin...nkeys?page=1

Thanks for correction, indeed, squirrel monkey.

Thanks for the corrections,
I was remiss in not checking my Michel Catalogue.

Some of these I find hard to recognise my relatives.

Apologies Very early scan of mine
Ivory Coast : Potto
Sc#202 1963 A24 2f Perodicticus Potto.


Belgian Congo Opt / Congo
Galago Sc#344

Ajman / Manama
1971
Michel #514 1 dirham Potto Perodicticus.

Rod, I always say it is hard to surprise an old collector, but you did it with the last Manama stamp of the potto which I see for the first time.

Vyolene, thanks for sharing the Mayotte Maki stamps. The second one issued together with a very nice commemorative postmark:

Germany DDR
Sc# 2545 1986 A781 70pfennig Ring Tailed Lemur.

Tanzania
Sc# 1691c 1998 A291 200 shillings Bosman's potto

The West African potto (Perodicticus potto) is a species of nocturnal strepsirrhine primate. It is found in tropical West Africa. It is also known as Bosman's potto, after Willem Bosman, who described the species in 1704.



Making sense of the family tree.

People's Republic of Benin (Previously Rep of Dahomey)
African West Coast.
Sc# 1119 1999 A302 500franc
Potto Perodicticus (also called "softly softly")
They have a distinct odour, often referred to as "Curry"
Litho, Printed on Postmark.