Western red colobus
{{Short description|Species of Old World monkey}}
{{Speciesbox
|name = Western red colobus{{MSW3 Groves |pages = 169|id=12100621}}
|image = Western Red Colobus Monkey (32257813804).jpg
|status = EN
|status_system = IUCN3.1
|genus = Piliocolobus
|species = badius
|authority = (Kerr, 1792)
|range_map = Western Red Colobus area.png
|range_map_caption = Western Red Colobus range
(green — extant, orange — possibly extinct)
}}
The western red colobus (Piliocolobus badius), also known as the bay red colobus, rust red colobus or Upper Guinea red colobus, is a species of Old World monkey in West African forests from Senegal to Ghana. All other species of red colobuses have formerly been considered subspecies of P. badius.
The monkey is a frequent prey of the common chimpanzee. In 1994, western red colobus monkeys infected many chimpanzees with Ebola virus after being hunted and consumed by the chimps.[http://virus.stanford.edu/filo/eboci.html Ebola Cote d'Ivoire Outbreaks]
Subspecies
According to Groves (2005) the Western red colobus has three subspecies, including the nominate:
- Bay red colobus, Piliocolobus badius badius
- Temminck's red colobus, Piliocolobus badius temminckii
- Miss Waldron's red colobus, Piliocolobus badius waldronae
P. b. waldronae is critically endangered, possibly even extinct. The other two subspecies are endangered. Under more recent taxonomies, these are generally considered separate species.{{cite book|title=Handbook of the Mammals of the World: Volume 3, Primates|year=2013|isbn=978-8496553897|publisher=Lynx|editor= Mittermeier, Russell A. |editor2=Rylands, Anthony B. |editor3=Wilson, Don E.|author=Zinner, D. |author2=Fickenscher, G.H. |author3=Roos, C.|pages=705–706}} Groves concurs with this revision, although not all primatologists agree.{{cite book|title=An Introduction to Primate Conservation|author=Groves, C.P.|editor=Wich, Serge A. |editor2=Marshall, Andrew J.|chapter=Species concepts and conservation|pages=45–47|year=2016|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780198703396|author-link=Colin Groves}}
Description
The western red colobus grows to a head-and-body length of {{convert|450|to|670|mm|in|0|abbr=on}} with a tail of {{convert|520|to|800|mm|in|0|abbr=on}}, and a weight of between {{convert|5|and|11|kg|lb|0|abbr=on}}. It has red or chestnut-brown head and limbs and black, slatey-grey or dark brown upper parts. It does not have long fringes of hair, or tufts of hair on the tail. Compared to monkeys in the genus Colobus, the nostrils are V-shaped, the digits are long and the big toe short.{{cite book|author=Ronald M. Nowak|title=Walker's Primates of the World|url=https://archive.org/details/walkersprimateso0000nowa |url-access=registration|year=1999 |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=978-0-8018-6251-9 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/walkersprimateso0000nowa/page/38 38]–39}}
Distribution and habitat
The red colobus is endemic to tropical West Africa. Its range includes various fragmentary populations in Sierra Leone, and contiguous populations in Liberia, Guinea and western Ivory Coast. It is unclear exactly where the ranges of P. b. badius and P. b. temminckii meet, but P. b. badius populations are separated from P. b. waldronae by the Bandama River in Ivory Coast. The red colobus is an arboreal species, typically found in primary rainforest, but also inhabiting secondary forest and gallery forest.
Ecology
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{commons category|Piliocolobus badius}}
{{wikispecies|Western red colobus}}
- ARKive - [https://web.archive.org/web/20080725064302/http://www.arkive.org/species/GES/mammals/Piliocolobus_badius/ images and movies of the Red colobus (Procolobus badius)]
{{C.Colobinae nav}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q1075133}}
Category:Mammals of West Africa