White-nosed hussar monkey

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
White-nosed hussar monkey
White-nosed hussar monkey in Murchison Falls National Park

White-nosed hussar monkey in Murchison Falls National Park

Systematics
Family : Vervet monkey relatives (Cercopithecidae)
Subfamily : Cheekbones monkey (Cercopithecinae)
Tribe : Vervet monkeys (Cercopithecini)
Genre : Cussar monkey ( Erythrocebus )
Type : Cussar monkey ( Erythrocebus patas )
Subspecies : White-nosed hussar monkey
Scientific name
Erythrocebus patas pyrrhonotus
Hemprich & Ehrenberg , 1829

The eastern or white-nosed hussar monkey ( Erythrocebus patas pyrrhonotus ) is a subspecies of the hussar monkey that occurs in southern Sudan, in southern Sudan, in the far west of Ethiopia, in Uganda north of Lake Kyoga, and in some separate regions in Kenya. The Kenyan distribution areas are in the districts of Turkana , West Pokot , Busia , Baringo , Laikipia , Nyeri , Makueni and Taita-Taveta . The white-nosed hussar monkey was introduced to Puerto Rico by humans and lives in the southwest of the Caribbean island.

features

The white-nosed hussar monkey has a longer coat than the nominate form of the hussar monkey. The mouth and the area around the eyes are black, the nose is white. The white cheeks are separated from the reddish brown hair on the top of the head by a black line that runs from ear to ear above the eyes. The tips of the ears are white, the inside of the ears is black. The back and the flanks of the adult males are reddish brown, the hair on the shoulders is brown, reddish and blackish in color, and the arms and legs are white. In females and young males, the shoulder hair is shorter than in adult males (maximum 5 cm long). Shoulders, back and flanks are more orange or orange-red, the limbs are cream-colored and the mouth is lighter.

Habitat and way of life

The thickened thorns of the flute acacia

The white-nosed hussar monkey is found in savannahs and open woodlands. In Kenya, the species is apparently restricted to areas with vertisol soils . The flute acacia ( Vachellia drepanolobium ) is the most common tree there and the pennon cleaner grasses P. mezianum and P. stramineum and the sweet grass Themeda triandra are the dominant grasses. In the Murchison Falls National Park in northwest Uganda, the white-nosed hussar monkey lives in open forests with a population of flute acacias, the tamarind tree ( Tamarindus indica ) and Combretum aculeatum . White-nosed hussar monkeys live in small to larger groups. In the Murchison Falls National Park the group size is 5 to 31 individuals, on the Kenyan Laikipia Plateau there are 13 to 56 animals. The large group of 31 individuals in Murchison Falls National Park inhabited an area of ​​52 km². The monkeys prefer to sleep on flute acacias, and with the exception of females with dependent young, each animal in a group sleeps on its own sleeping tree. The flute acacia is also used to lick up tree sap and to eat Crematogaster ants and their larvae and eggs. They pick the ants and their larvae and eggs from the thickened thorns of the acacia. Since the ants are very defensive, the white-nosed hussar monkeys usually change trees after breaking two or three thorns. They also eat flowers, leaves, shoots, fruits, other arthropods and small vertebrates such as geckos, bird nests and bird eggs. White-nosed hussar monkeys have to drink daily and cannot live in areas without access to open water.

Hazard and protection

In Kenya the habitat of the white-nosed hussar monkey shrank from 88,800 km² in 1995 to 48,200 km² in 2008. Today the individual populations are isolated from one another and the habitat is fragmented. The reason is the extraction of arable land by small farmers and the deforestation of the flute acacia in order to obtain charcoal. The largest population of white-nosed hussar monkeys in Kenya lives on the Laikipia Plateau. The exact situation in Uganda and the rest of the range is not known. However, it is believed that the white-nosed hussar monkey is losing habitat here as well due to the growing human population. The white-nosed hussar monkey is protected in Dinder National Park in eastern Sudan and in the Kidepo Valley and Murchison Falls National Parks in Uganda. In Kenya there is no national park in the habitat of the white-nosed hussar monkey.

literature

  • Thomas Butynski and Jan Kalina (Eds.): Mammals of Africa Volume II. Primates. Bloomsbury, London 2013, ISBN 978-1-4081-2252-5 , pp. 258-263.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Yvonne de Jong, Thomas Butynski & K. Anne-Isola Nekaris (2008). Distribution and Conservation Of the Patas Monkey Erythrocebus patas in Kenya. Journal of East African Natural History. 97, 83-102. doi : 10.2982 / 0012-8317 (2008) 97 [83: DACOTP] 2.0.CO; 2
  2. ^ A b D. Zinner, GH Fickenscher & C. Roos: Family Cercopithecidae (Old World monkeys). Pp. 671-672 in Russell A. Mittermeier , Anthony B. Rylands & Don E. Wilson : Handbook of the Mammals of the World: Primates: 3. ISBN 978-84-96553-89-7 .
  3. ↑ a b Butynski and Kalina (2013), p. 258.
  4. ^ Butynski and Kalina (2013), p. 260.
  5. ^ Butynski and Kalina (2013), p. 259.
  6. ^ Butynski and Kalina (2013), p. 263.