Geoffroy's colobus monkey

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Geoffroy's colobus monkey
Geoffroy's colobus monkey (Colobus vellerosus), illustration by Charles Darwin

Geoffroy's colobus monkey ( Colobus vellerosus ), illustration by Charles Darwin

Systematics
Superfamily : Tailed Old World Monkey (Cercopithecoidea)
Family : Vervet monkey relatives (Cercopithecidae)
Subfamily : Common monkeys and colobus monkeys (Colobinae)
Tribe : Colobini monkeys
Genre : Black and white colobus monkey ( Colobus )
Type : Geoffroy's colobus monkey
Scientific name
Colobus vellerosus
( I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire , 1834)

The Geoffroy's colobus monkey ( Colobus vellerosus ) is a primate from the group of colobus monkeys . It is named after the person who first wrote it, Isidore Geoffroy .

features

Geoffroy's colobus monkeys, like all colobus monkeys, are slender, long-tailed primates with a degenerated thumb. The fur is mostly black in color, it has white spots on the hips and white hair that frames the face. The tail is also white and, unlike other representatives of the black and white colobus monkeys, has no tassel.

distribution and habitat

Geoffroy's colobus monkey distribution area

Geoffroy's colobus monkeys live in western Africa , their range extends from the Ivory Coast to western Nigeria . The habitat of this species are forests.

Way of life

These primates are diurnal tree dwellers, they usually stay in the treetops and hardly ever come to the ground. They live in small groups made up of a male, several females and their offspring. They are territorial, the males use loud roaring to indicate their whereabouts to other groups, mainly in the morning.

Ripe leaves and seeds make up the main component of the diet, to a lesser extent they also consume fruits and young leaves. A multi-chambered stomach helps them to utilize the difficult to digest leaf food.

After a gestation period of around five to six months, the female usually gives birth to a single young. This is initially colored white and only develops the typical black-and-white coloring of adult animals after several months.

threat

Like many other inhabitants of the West African forests, Geoffroy's colobus monkeys are threatened by the progressive destruction of their habitat, and hunting for their meat. The IUCN lists the species as endangered ( vulnerable ).

Systematics

In the past, the Geoffroy colobus monkey was thought to be conspecific with the whitebeard colobus monkey , today they are considered as separate species. The population Colobus vellerosus dollmani , which previously lived in Ivory Coast and was considered a subspecies, represents a hybrid between the two species.

literature

  • Thomas Geissmann : Comparative Primatology. Springer-Verlag, Berlin et al. 2003, ISBN 3-540-43645-6 .
  • Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World. 6th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 .
  • Don E. Wilson, DeeAnn M. Reeder (Eds.): Mammal Species of the World. A taxonomic and geographic Reference. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD 2005, ISBN 0-8018-8221-4 .

Web links

Commons : Geoffroy's colobus monkey ( Colobus vellerosus )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files