Luvua colobus monkey
| Luvua colobus monkey | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Piliocolobus foai | ||||||||||||
| Pousargues , 1899 |
The Luvua colobus monkey ( Piliocolobus foai ) is a species of primate from the genus of the red colobus monkey that lives in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo between the Lowa and Osa rivers in the north, the Lualaba in the west, the Elila in the south and the west bank of Lake Kivu and the northern Lake Tanganyika in the east. The distribution area thus covers large parts of the Congolese provinces of North Kivu , Sud-Kivu and Maniema .
features
Male Luvua colobus monkeys reach a head-trunk length of 50 to 69 cm, a tail length of 62 to 67 cm and a weight of 9 to 13 kg (males). For the females only information on weight is available; it is between 7 and 9 kg. The tail is relatively short, the fur longer compared to that of other red colobus monkeys. It is reddish on the back, the top of the head and on the outsides of the limbs, the upper back can also be black or black-red. Chest, abdomen, throat and the insides of the limbs are smoky gray to yellowish white. Hands and feet are black. Compared to those of other red colobus monkeys, the Luvua colobus monkey's teeth are small. The females show their willingness to mate during their fertile days by a rosy swelling of the rule .
Way of life
Luvua colobus monkeys live in the west of their range in tropical lowland forests and in the east in mountain cloud forests (including the Itombwe Mountains ). They feed on leaves, sprouts, fruits, flowers, buds and possibly also seeds. Reproduction has not yet been researched.
Systematics
The Luvua colobus monkey was described as Colobus foai by the French zoologist Eugène de Pousargues in 1899 . Later all red colobus monkeys were assigned to a single species ( P. badius ). From 2001 Piliocolobus foai was the name for the "Central African Colobus monkey", which was divided into five subspecies, the nominate form Piliocolobus foai foai , P. f. oustaleti , P. f. parmentieri , P. f. semlikiensis and P. f. ellioti . Four of these subspecies were raised to species rank in the Primate Volume of the Handbook of the Mammals of the World in 2013, and the fifth, P. f. ellioti are hybrids of the Semliki colobus monkey with the Oustalet colobus monkey and the Lualaba colobus monkey .
The populations of the Luvua colobus monkey living in the lowlands and the mountain cloud forest differ in color from one another, the animals occurring in the mountains are more brownish than reddish. The Luvua colobus monkey is therefore sometimes divided into two subspecies, the nominate form Piliocolobus foai foai in the mountains and P. foai lulindicus in the lowlands.
Danger
The IUCN does not yet list the Luvua colobus monkey in its Red List of Endangered Species . The animals are heavily hunted to obtain bushmeat .
literature
- Elizabeth L. Gadsby, Colin P. Groves, Aoife Healy, K. Praveen Karanth, Sanjay Molur, Tilo Nadler, Matthew C. Richardson, Erin P. Riley, Anthony B. Rylands, Lori K. Sheeran, Nelson Ting, Janette Wallis, Siân S. Waters & Danielle J. Whittaker: Family Cercopithecidae (Old World Monkeys). Page 710 in Russell A. Mittermeier , Anthony B. Rylands & Don E. Wilson : Handbook of the Mammals of the World: - Volume 3. Primates. Lynx Editions, 2013 ISBN 978-8496553897