It lives on the island Nosy Bé in the Antsiranana province of Madagascar, and on the mainland near the village of Manehoka, including Lokobe Reserve.

[4] The scientific type name, mamiratra, comes from Malagasy and means "clear and bright"; this refers the Theodore F. and Claire M. Hubbard Family Foundation, which has contributed to genetic research on Madagascar.

The fur of the upper part is reddish-brown and becomes darker in the middle of the back.

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.

For this reason, it was suggested that Claire's mouse lemur no longer be recognized as a distinct species.