News Excerpt:
Conserving these Old World primates could help save Africa’s tropical forests.
More about Study of Red Colobus:
- Red colobus are a rare group of imperilled monkeys spread across Africa and are primary indicators of biodiversity decline in the continent's tropical forests.
- According to an International team of scientists stated that Conserving them could hold the keys to protecting these forests,
- Their declining populations "forewarn the fate of other large-bodied terrestrial vertebrates across African tropical forests and portend a bleak future for Africa's biodiversity. a statement by New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society.
- Scientists from nearly 20 institutions across the US, Europe, and Africa advocate for investment in red colobus conservation to safeguard :
- Africa's tropical forests,
- Biodiversity,
- Address climate change impacts, and
- Enhance food security and public health.
- Investing in and conserving the red colobus species “could have cascading net positive impacts on African tropical forest health in the face of a growing biodiversity crisis.
- All red colobus to be provided legal protections and their inclusion as priority conservation species in national laws and international treaties.
- Recommendations included investing in :
- protected areas for red colobus,
- engaging with local communities,
- conducting population surveys,
- raising awareness about their conservation value.
- Red colobus monkeys are one of two major simian groups globally.
- Colobines are primarily leaf-eaters, as compared to the cercopithecines, which are omnivores and thus include animals in their diet as well.
- Cercopithecine species, including the macaques of south and southeast Asia, and the mangabeys, mandrills, drills and baboons of Africa, on the other hand are socially more complex.
- There are 17 red colobus species (18 taxa) ranging from Senegal in the west to the Zanzibar Archipelago in the east.
- All 18 taxa of red colobus are threatened with extinction, with 14 of them listed as Endangered or Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.
- Red colobus are among the first mammal species to vanish from African forests due to their large body size, noisy group making them an easy target for hunters, and their curious behavior towards hunters instead of fleeing.
