#red colobus monkey

[somethingyello2]

Few Zans!

A few pictures from the island of Zanzibar, Tanzania. Spots include, Jambiani beach, Nungwi beach and Jozani forest. (August, 2025)

[rjzimmerman]

First Niger Delta red colobus monkey videos reflect community conservation success

Camera traps installed in December 2024 in a community conservation area in the Niger Delta have captured the first videos of elusive and cr

Excerpt from this story from Mongabay Environmental News:

Camera traps installed in December 2024 in a community conservation area in the Niger Delta have captured the first videos of elusive and critically endangered red colobus monkeys. The news comes after years of community efforts to protect their habitat following degradation from oil extraction.

So far, camera traps have recorded 15 videos that show these primates feeding on fruits and leaves and exploring the forest canopy, helping researchers gain further insight into the species’ ecology and behavior.

Niger Delta red colobus monkeys (Piliocolobus epieni) are endemic to the marshy woodlands of the Niger Delta, Africa’s largest mangrove forest. When the species was first described in the 1990s, researchers estimated about 10,000 individuals remained in an area of roughly 1,500 square kilometers (579 square miles), about twice the size of New York City.

At the time, armed conflict between foreign oil companies and the region’s ethnic minorities prevented further research on the species. It wasn’t until 2013 that Rachel Ashegbofe Ikemeh, founder and director of Nigeria’s only Indigenous grassroots conservation organization, SW/Niger Delta Forest Project (SWNDF), could visit the region to take stock of the red colobus monkeys.

She found the forest floor was soaked in knee-deep crude oil, more than 7,000 oil spills that had released at least 13 million barrels (1.5 million tons) of oil since the 1950s, according to the U.N. The recurring oil spills polluted the region’s waterways, forcing fishing-dependent communities to take up logging, which devastated the red colobus’ habitat.

In the 1990s, researchers studying the red colobus recorded the species in 16 community forests of the Niger Delta. By 2013, they were in only four. “The species had become extinct in most of the community forests we visited,” Ikemeh said.

After years of working with the local communities, SWDNF set up a community-managed conservation area in 2021. By then, the primates were on the brink of extinction, with only one viable population with fewer than 200 monkeys.

“We snatched it out of extinction in the nick of time,” Ikemeh said, adding that the population has since doubled, although a rigorous population survey is pending.

“It is indeed miraculous that this species has survived up until now, and it is largely through the efforts of Rachel and her team and the communities with which she works,” said Russell Mittermeier, chair of the IUCN Primate Specialist Group.

[nerjarob]

Red Colobus Monkey

I first encountered the endangered Red Colobus monkey in a forest in The Gambia.

The Red Colobus, Piliocolobus badius, is found in western, central and eastern Africa but has suffered through habitat loss, hunting and the fact that, for some reason, chimpanzees do not like them and will very often attack and kill these beautiful creatures.

[iamjennyjennyisme]

[rjzimmerman]

How Speed Bumps Are Saving Endangered Monkeys

Speed bumps installed on a busy national park road are saving the lives of endangered Zanzibar red colobus monkeys in Africa.

I can think of a couple of places in the US where speed bumps might be helpful in saving wildlife, including endangered species, from being squashed by vehicles. One example is the desert tortoise in those parts of the western deserts where local professionals know the tortoise tend to congregate or migrate. Second would be those stretches of local roads that transverse through urban-forest interface area where deer, raccoons, possum, fox, coyote and other animals tend to cross the road without looking both ways. The speed bumps there would save the animals as well as prevent damage to the vehicles and potentially injuries to human occupants of those vehicles. Same can be applied to areas where wildlife species such as moose are known to migrate. And so on.

Excerpt from this story from Treehugger:

Speed bumps are saving the lives of the endangered Zanzibar red colobus, one of Africa’s rarest primates. After four speed bumps were installed along a road crossing the Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park on the Zanzibar archipelago, the number of colobuses killed by vehicles dropped dramatically, according to a new study.

Roads affect wildlife in many ways. When first constructed, they can remove habitat, and later, they can be responsible for vehicle collisions as animals try to cross them.

Cars can become more dangerous than predators.

“Cars are not selective in the animals they kill,” study senior author and director of the Zanzibar Red Colobus Project, primatologist Alexander Georgiev, said in a statement. “This means that while natural predators may target the very young and old more often, cars are equally likely to kill reproductively active young adults, who would contribute the most to population growth. And this may be a problem.”

Zanzibar red colobus (Piliocolobus kirkii) are classified as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. They're found only on the Zanzibar archipelago and about half of the species population is found in the Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park.

[customstoday]

Bouvier’s red colobus monkey never seen in the wild since 1970s

Bouvier’s red colobus monkey never seen in the wild since 1970s

LONDON: Researchers photographed a rare African monkey while it was in the Republic of the Congo. It was long thought that the animal had gone extict but the picture broke that long-held belief. Bouvier’s red colobus monkey was never seen out in the wild since 1970s. And it was a delight for Congolese researchers who saw it in the Ntokou-Pikounda National Park. They found the tiny red primate who…

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[animals-animals-animals]

Red Colobus Monkey (by Marc Veraart)